Music as a coping strategy involves using music (through listening or playing music) to reduce stress, as well as the many psychological and physical manifestations associated with it. The use of music to deal with stress is an example of a coping strategy that focuses on emotions and adaptive. Rather than focusing on the stressor itself, music therapy is usually directed at reducing or eliminating emerging emotions in response to stress. In essence, supporters of this therapy claim that the use of music helps lower stress levels in patients, as well as reducing the amount that can be measured biologically such as epinephrine and cortisol levels. In addition, music therapy programs have been repeatedly shown to reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety over the long term.
Video Music as a coping strategy
Teori utama
In the context of psychology, coping strategies are techniques or practices designed to reduce or manage the negative effects associated with stress. While stress is known to be a natural biological response, biologists and psychologists have repeatedly shown that excessive stress can cause negative effects on one's physical and psychological well-being. Increased stress levels can lead to conditions including mental illness, cardiovascular conditions, eating disorders, gastrointestinal complications, sexual dysfunction, and skin and hair problems. Variations and potential deaths from these conditions encourage the need for a coping mechanism to reduce stress-related manifestations.
Although there are hundreds of different coping strategies, the use of music is one specific example of coping strategies used to combat the negative effects of stress. Due to the large number of strategies to choose from, psychologists break the handling strategy into three types:
- Rating-based - Intended to modify individual thought processes Stress is usually eliminated through rationalization, change in value or thought patterns, or with humor.
- Problem based - Targeting the cause of stress. This process can involve eliminating or adapting to a stressor to overcome it. An example of a problem-based strategy is time management.
- Emotion-based - Geared to influence one's emotional reaction when stressed. Meditation, disorder, or emotional release are all forms of coping-based coping strategies. Mindfulness-based stress reduction is another example of this, as this is a more personal reflection aspect of coping.
Because music-based coping is designed to modify an individual's emotional reactions to a particular event, this is better classified as an emotion-based coping strategy. Instead of trying to directly influence or eliminate a certain stressor, music-based coping depends on influencing the individual's emotional and mental reactions to the stressor. Music assumes stress by reducing or changing the emotional response or mitigating some of the physiological effects of the stress response.
Maps Music as a coping strategy
Major empirical findings
Psychologists and medical practitioners have recently focused more time and attention on the concept of music as a coping strategy and the effects of its use on patients. In the literature that links music and stress, empirical findings are usually grouped together according to the method in which they are collected. For example, some methods may include studies such as survey questions or more invasive research methods such as invasive psychoacoustic observations. Despite the fact that different methods are used, most of these studies show the impact of different types of music on human emotions.
Patient-based response findings
One of the more popular methods used to collect data about coping strategies involves the use of non-invasive response-based methods. This method is more directed to the psychological realm, because the method used to collect the data is not very invasive, but rather to the "ask me how you feel" type of question/response system. Once the findings have been collected, statistical analysis is done in an attempt to find correlations between coping mechanisms and their effect on stress response. This non-invasive treatment is more popular among children and elderly patients, as they prevent the outcome of the change due to the nervousness of the patient. Proponents of this method claim that if children are asked with non-threatening public questions, they will be much more comfortable and willing to provide accurate reports of their stress levels. In some studies using non-invasive methods, music has been documented as effective in reducing the perceived stress level of the subject.
Music and effects on psychological trauma
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychological stress disorder involving a strong emotional reaction experience due to a traumatic event in a person's past. PTSD is almost always the result of a traumatic experience. Certain triggers, such as images, sounds, or other sensory details related to the experience can evoke extreme stress response, panic attacks, or severe anxiety. PTSD is commonly experienced by veterans of armed conflict, and can often be diagnosed with rape or other violent attacks.
If an individual is diagnosed with PTSD associating a particular song with traumatic memory, it usually triggers a stronger stress response/anxiety than the other person experienced when listening to the song. While one can not assume that music is the only factor that triggers PTSD-influenced stress and panic attacks, this can be very memorable because of the easy-to-remember rhythms of music, beat, and/or lyrics. However, associating music with a psychological response is not always guaranteed to bring bad memories, because music can often hold psychological connotations for very beautiful memories. For example, it has been shown that supplying nursing home residents with iPods featuring nostalgic music is a means of reducing the stress of the elderly.
Music has been used to treat dementia patients by using methods similar to those used in PTSD management. However, in the treatment of dementia, more emphasis is placed on providing patients with music that triggers pleasant memories or feelings, rather than avoiding music that triggers negative emotions. Once the music is heard, one sees a change in mood and attitude from being closed and away being happy, open and happy.
There is a great deal of anecdotal evidence that demonstrates the effectiveness of music that can be had as a response to mitigation in this regard. For example, if a patient with PTSD or dementia should have a loved one, he or she can associate a particular song with a person in mourning, and hearing that song can bring a feeling of deep happiness or sadness. In addition, if there is a certain relationship between them, as in marriage, and their wedding song appears, too strong an emotional reaction can occur. This over-emotional situation triggers memory and stress responses that make people who remember these painful memories sadly. Certain songs associated with that memory can trigger almost any emotion.
The effects of music on Dementia patients have been shown to take them out of their shells, and engage them in singing and being happy, opposing their usual closed and distant personalities. The patients have proven to sing and be happy, even crying out of the pure joy of the music they love in their youth. After the patients listen to their music, they are interviewed and really involved, because how happy music has made them. Patients talk about how much they love music and musical memories.
Stress and music in the medical field
The use of music as a coping strategy also has applications in the medical field. For example, patients who listen to music during surgery or post-operative recovery have been shown to have less stress than their peers who do not listen to music. Studies have shown that family members and parents of patients have reduced levels of stress while listening to music while waiting, and may even reduce their anxiety for surgical results. The use of music has also been shown to be effective in pediatric oncology. Music therapy is primarily used in these cases as transfer techniques, play therapy, designed to distract patients from the pain or stress experienced during this operation. The focus of the patient is directed to a more pleasurable activity and the mind shifts toward activities that create a "lethal" effect based on an "invisible, unthinkable" type approach. This can even surpass elderly patients in nursing homes and adult daycare centers. Music therapy in these places has shown a reduction in older aggression and restless moods. However, as some of these studies rely primarily on patient responses, some concerns have been suggested related to the correlation strength between music and stress reduction.
Music as a form of coping has been used many times in cancer patients, with promising results. A study of 113 patients undergoing stem cell transplants divided patients into two groups; one group made their own lyrics about their journey and then produced a music video, and another group listened to the audiobook. The results show that music video groups have better coping skills and better social interaction in comparison, taking their minds about the pain and stress that accompany the treatment, and giving them a way out to express their feelings.
Another study conducted at UNC showed a remarkable improvement in a young girl born without the ability to speak. A therapist will come and sing with him, because the only thing he can do is sing. Miraculously, the singing allows her to gain the ability to speak, because music and speech are similar in nature and help the brain establish new connections. At the same hospital, the therapist visits the children every day and plays music with them, singing and using instruments. Music fosters creativity and reduces stress-related care, and takes the minds of children from their current environment.
It also can not be ignored the importance of coping strategies in families and caregivers of those with serious illness and even terminal illness. These family members are often responsible for most of the care of their loved ones, above the pressure of seeing them struggling. The therapist has worked with these family members, singing and playing instruments, to help them release their minds from stress helping their loved ones undergoing treatment. Just like in the patients themselves, music therapy has been shown to help them cope with the emotions and situations they face every day.
Physiological findings
Another study, which uses a more invasive technique to measure an individual's response to stress, suggests that music use can reduce many of the physiological effects that are often associated with stress responses - such as decreased blood pressure or decreased heart rate.. Most of the research related to the use of music as a coping strategy uses empirical measurements through devices such as EKG or heart rate monitors to provide a stronger correlation between music and the effects proposed in stress response. In this study, subjects are usually exposed to stress and then given the music to be heard, while the parties are making a study size change in the physiological status of the subject.
Several studies, using more invasive physiological research methods, have demonstrated that the use of sedative music or favored tranquilizing music causes a decrease in state tension and anxiety levels in adult individuals. This decrease in tension or anxiety is more common and seen in attempts to return to homeostasis, and exhibit far less effectiveness during actual stressful events. Other studies expose their subjects to direct physical stressors, such as running on a treadmill, while asking them to listen to different genres of music. These studies have shown that the respiratory rate of the participants increases as they listen to faster and vibrant music while running compared to no music or sedative music. In addition to the increased frequency of breathing caused by early stress, "running" music still has a real physiological effect on the participants.
In general, the collective review of this study shows that music can be effective in reducing the physiological effects caused by stress on the human body. This can be anywhere from altering the pulse, the rate of breathing, even reducing the occurrence of fatigue. This can even be seen in different tempos and tones, such as low tones creating a relatively soothing effect on the body, while high notes tend to produce stressors for the body. In addition, it has been suggested that if a patient can control the music he or she is listening to in the recovery process, returning to a normal state occurs at a much faster rate, more efficiently than if the subject is given a musical genre that he or she does not feel interested in. Using EKG monitors and other empirical methods of study, the researchers were able to eliminate the superficial qualities associated with patient-based response findings and provide a more substantial correlation between music use and its impact on human stress response.
Specific techniques
One particular technique that uses music as a coping strategy is choosing and listening to music genres that have been shown to correlate with lower stress levels. For example, it has been suggested that listening to classical music or self-selected music can lower stress levels in adult individuals. Rapid music, heavy or even dark in nature can produce the same level of stress increase, but many people also find the catharsis effect of music to be intensified by listening to intense music that way. Ambient music is a music genre that is often associated with calm or introspective feelings. When listening to a selected genre of his own, an individual is given a sense of control after choosing the type of music he wants to hear. In certain situations, this choice can be one of the few moments in which individuals who are stressed and depressed feel the locus of control over their respective lives. Introducing a feeling of control can be a valuable asset as an individual effort to cope with stress.
With that in mind, there are some special techniques that specifically involve the use of music that has been suggested to help reduce stress and effects related to stress.
- Listen to softer genres like classical music.
- Listen to one's chosen music and introduce control elements to one's life.
- Listen to music that reminds one of your great memories.
- Avoiding music that reminds one of sad or miserable memories.
- Listening to music as a way of tying up with social groups.
Another specific technique that can be used is the use of music as a "memory time machine". In this case, music can allow a person to escape to pleasant or unpleasant memories and trigger a response to the countermeasures. He has argued that music can be closely related to re-experiencing the psychological aspects of past memories, so choosing music with positive connotations is one way that allows music to reduce stress.
The technique that begins to be used more frequently is vibroacoustic therapy. During therapy the patient lies on his back on the mat with the speakers inside which sends out low-frequency sound waves, basically sitting on the subwoofer. This therapy has been found to help with Parkinson's disease, fibromyalgia, and depression. Studies are also being conducted on patients with mild Alzheimer's disease in hopes of identifying the possible benefits of vibroacoustic therapy. Vibroacoustic therapy can also be used as an alternative music therapy for the hearing impaired.
Controversy
Several empirical studies conducted to show the correlation between listening to music and the reduction of human stress response have been criticized for being overly dependent on small sample sizes. Another criticism of the study is that they have been done in response to no stressor in particular. These critics claim that since no specific stressors are identified in many of these studies, it is rather difficult to identify whether the stress response is reduced by music or by other means.
The more theoretical criticism of this coping strategy is that the use of music in dealing with stress is largely a short-term countermeasure response and therefore has no long-term sustainability. These critics argue that while music may be effective in lowering the level of stress felt by the patient, it does not necessarily make a difference to the actual cause of the stress response. Since the root cause of stress is unaffected, it may be that the stress response may return as soon as therapy is over. Those who hold this position instead support a problem-solving strategy that focuses more on issues that are directly related to the stressors that affect the patient.
Conclusion
The use of music as a coping strategy has an effect on the human response to stress. The use of music has been shown to lower the level of perceived stress in the patient, while greatly reducing the physical manifestations of stress as well - such as heart rate, blood pressure, or stress hormone levels. It seems as though different types of music have different effects on stress levels, with the classic genre and the chosen ones themselves being the most effective. However, while showing effectiveness in empirical studies, many still question the effectiveness of this coping strategy. However, this is still an attractive option for some patients who want an easy and cheap way to respond to stress.
See also
- Music therapy
- Overcome (psychology)
- Awareness-based stress reduction
- Coping strategy
- Stress management
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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