Can Different Types of Music Lead to Different Physiological Responses?: Initial Draft of Discussion Section

The physiological effects of three genres of music, classical, rock, and jazz, have been studied in this study with attention to changes in heart rate, blood pressure, and conductance in the skin. The null hypothesis was that there should be no differences between the genres, while the core hypothesis was that each music type should have an independent pattern of physiological responses: Can Different Types of Music Lead to Different Physiological Responses?: Initial Draft of Discussion Section.

Repeated-measures ANOVA and related post-hoc tests employed in analyzing the results indicated classical music to have reduced arousal markers, increased sympathetic responses for rock music, and responses in between in jazz music. Additionally, preference for music was shown to be an influencing moderator over these physiological responses.

Hypothesis and Data Analysis Results

The primary hypothesis was that classical music listening should stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system to slow down heart rate, reduce blood pressure, and decrease skin conductance. The researcher hypothesized that rock music should stimulate the sympathetic nervous system to increase skin conductance, while rhythmic variation internal to music in jazz was predicted to have mixed results. The statistics confirmed these predictions. Repeated-measures ANOVA revealed differences in physiological response between musical conditions.

Post-hoc tests revealed classical music to have significantly decreased both skin conductance and heart rate compared to the other conditions, while rock music significantly increased skin conductance to reflect increased arousal. Jazz music generated responses neither dampened to the degree during classical music nor increased to the degree during rock music.

These findings validate the hypothesis that tempo, rhythm, and overall style of an original composition decide, to a greater degree, its physiological effect. The influential modulating role of individuals’ preference in music implies that emotional arousal is a necessary mediator in modulating body response to sounds (Malakoutikhah et al., 2022). As such, these findings not only support the point-by-point prediction about each effect in genres but also indicate that personalized music therapy is an essential consideration in clinical and performance contexts.

Comparison with Previous Literature

The findings agree with and validate previous work in physiological responses to music. Classical music has been revealed in previous work to correlate with slowed down heart rates and lowered skin conductance in accordance with known relaxing impacts (Nakai et al., 2020). A similar work by Kulinski et al. (2021) confirmed classical music to significantly lower cardiovascular stress markers, and this work adds to this area through experimental control and statistics.

In contrast, greater skin conductance during rock music presentation aligns with outcomes in earlier work that correlate dynamic musical attributes and tempo with arousal in the sympathetic nervous system (Kulinski et al., 2021; Lin et al., 2023). Implications for rock music suggest the energizing value of intense audio stimulation and corroborate that rock music can be employed in contexts where greater alertness is desirable.

The rhythmic patterns in jazz music and tempo changes have been explained to have mixed physiological effects. This research corroborates earlier arguments that jazz music has intermediate effects by causing arousal responses as well as relaxation responses (Tervaniemi et al., 2021). This ambivalence is particularly significant since it suggests that jazz is most appropriately used in situations where both stimulation and relaxation are required. Furthermore, the high inter-subjective consistency between musical preference and physiological response supports earlier arguments that subjective factors, such as emotional engagement and familiarity, mediate music’s impact on the autonomic nervous system (Malakoutikhah et al., 2022).

Strengths and Limitations

One strength of this research is the robust experimental design. Utilizing an experimental setting and random order presentation of musical samples, the researchers isolated potential sources of bias, such as order effects and background environmental factors. Using established equipment—heart rate monitors, blood pressure cuffs, and galvanic skin response units—verified that measurements in this work were reliable and accurate. Such methodological strengths yield internal validity in this work and permit definite physiological change attribution to the music genres employed.

Another strength is in the heterogeneous composition of the sample. Although the sample size was generally not large overall, individuals varied in gender, age, and musical preference, making the results externally valid and generalizable. Taking individual differences into consideration, in addition to investigating the role of musical preference in modulating this process in an overall sample, provides rich information regarding individual factors influencing the physiological impact of music. This has implications for designing personalized music interventions in clinical practice as in regular life.

Nonetheless, the research has several limitations. First, the sample size was fairly limited, which can dampen the power of its statistics and generalizability to populations beyond this sample. Larger, diverse samples should be employed in future work to replicate and validate these results.

Second, while laboratory control was necessary to eliminate potential sources of variation in musical stimuli, this does not exactly reflect the diverse contexts in which individuals listen to music naturally. Everyday contexts in which individuals listen to music at home or in gatherings can introduce factors influencing physiological responses.

Third, some of these measurements, in particular preference rated by individuals and emotional effect rated by individuals, have subjective aspects to them and can be response-biased. While including physiological measurements that are not subjective minimizes this potential problem to some degree, future investigations can be improved upon by merging self-report measurements with other methods that are not subjective, such as neuroimaging or hormonal testing.

Lastly, every musical style was listened to briefly in this investigation with attention to acute physiological responses rather than adaptation over extended time frames. Although these results illuminate the short-term implications of music, future investigations should utilize longitudinal designs to establish whether repeated presentation to certain musical genres creates stable alterations in autonomic regulation or overall health.

Tests Less Appropriate for the Data Analysis

In designing the data analysis plan, several statistical methods were considered. Though non-parametric tests and multivariate statistics such as MANOVA could have been viable alternatives, repeated-measures ANOVA was employed because it is the most ideal for determining changes in subjects across different conditions. This was employed to correct differences in physiological measurements during baseline to allow direct comparison between each musical style in an individual.

Additional statistical tests, including regressions, were used to determine whether musical preference moderated physiological response. However, since the sample size was small and this was an experiment with manipulated independent variables, overfitting was an unfortunate byproduct of regressions and compromised overall transparency in comparison. Similarly, while simultaneous comparison among dependent variables through MANOVA was appropriate, differences between each measure in each condition were discernable and intuitive to grasp through repeated-measures ANOVA. Thus, the analytic method ensured that not only was the result robust in interpretation but also simply understood.

Future Research Directions

Based on these outcomes, several directions for future work are indicated. First, future studies should draw upon samples that are larger to obtain greater generalizability to heterogeneous populations. Larger sample sizes not only possess greater power to detect between-condition differences but can also afford to conduct more extensive subgroup analyses, including examining gender, age, and cultural background in modulating physiological responses to music. Such investigations can better illuminate the complex interplay between differences between individuals and autonomic responses to music (Lin et al., 2023).

Second, future research should utilize longitudinal designs to examine the long-term consequence of extended musical style exposure. Repeated musical style exposure can be investigated to determine whether this leads to adaptation in autonomic regulation, for instance, improved heart rate variability or reduced stress baselines. Such a finding would be particularly helpful in guiding music therapy interventions to support overall long-term health and well-being.

Third, through a mixed methods design that combines quantitative physiological measurements with qualitative assessment, greater understanding can be achieved regarding the underlying processes behind music impacts. As an illustration, future studies can employ in-depth interviewing or open-ended surveying to obtain subjective emotional responses in tandem with objective physiological measurements. This mixed methods design would provide greater insights regarding both body and mind impacts of music (Tervaniemi et al., 2021).

Consequently, future research should work toward expanding the number of physiological markers that are assessed. In addition to heart rate, blood pressure, and skin conductance, biomarkers such as cortisol concentration, heart rate variability, or neuroimaging outcomes can yield further evidence of the impact of music on the neuroendocrine system. Such multi-modal measurements would illuminate biological pathways by which diverse musical genres have an effect and can inform targeted therapy (Malakoutikhah et al., 2022).

In sum, subsequent work should strive to ecologically validate these outcomes by conducting investigations in naturally occurring contexts. Laboratory results should be extended to naturally occurring music-listening contexts through field tests in everyday contexts—that is, in individuals’ homes, workplaces, or gatherings. This is to translate laboratory outcomes to practice in contexts where laboratory outcomes have implications—music therapy and stress management.

Adherence to APA Standards

Throughout this work, every attempt was made to maintain American Psychological Association (APA) standards in designing the research process, collecting data, and making reports. The experimental design was carried out in accordance with APA standards to guarantee that only informed participation was received by volunteers and confidentiality was guaranteed in handling their data. Additionally, descriptions used in statistics were clear, and every repeated-measures ANOVA assumption was verified and openly reported. Maintaining APA standards rigidly contributes to credibility and the results produced by this work being reproducible, making overall work solid.

The systematic detailing of methodological steps, including administration of known measurement instruments and handling of extraneous variables, is in alignment with APA standards regarding internal validity and replicability. Furthermore, the detailed presentation of effect sizes, confidence intervals, and full range of statistics employed in this work is an indicator of attention to optimum practice in presentation. Future work can only benefit by providing greater methodological appendices, and this current work provides an appropriate foundation upon which future work can be developed in this topic area.

Conclusion

In conclusion, this study provides solid support that diverse forms of music yield diverse physiological responses. Classical music yielded relaxing responses in the form of decreased heart rates and skin conductance, while rock music raised physiological arousal, with responses in between by jazz music. This not only justifies the exact prediction in the hypothesis but also emphasizes the importance of personalized musical preference in modulating these responses. Strong experimental design in this work, in addition to proper statistical testing, offers support to both generalizability as well as to the validity of these results in the presence of sample-size limitations and limitations in ecological validity.

Additionally, previous research supports and confirms established knowledge about music-evoked physiological responses. Future research based upon larger samples, longitudinal methods, and mixed methods design will be invaluable in helping to further illuminate music’s complex relationship to physiological processes. Ultimately, these findings lay the groundwork for personalized music interventions that have the potential to support stress management, performance enhancement, and overall well-being.

References

Kulinski, J., Ofori, E. K., Visotcky, A., Smith, A., Sparapani, R., & Fleg, J. L. (2021). Effects of music on the cardiovascular system. Trends in Cardiovascular Medicine, 32(6). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tcm.2021.06.004

Lin, H.-M., Kuo, S.-H., & Mai, T. P. (2023). Does a slower tempo make a worse performance? The effect of musical tempo on cognitive processing speed. Frontiers in Psychology, 14(14). https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.998460

Malakoutikhah, A., Dehghan, M., Ghonchehpour, A., Afshar, P. P., & Zakeri, M. A. (2022). A randomized controlled trial on the effects of different music genres on physiologic parameters and emotion. Irish Journal of Medical Science. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11845-022-03245-x

Tervaniemi, M., Makkonen, T., & Nie, P. (2021). Psychological and physiological signatures of music listening in different listening environments—An exploratory study. Brain Sciences, 11(5), 593. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11050593

Nakai, T., Koide-Majima, N., & Nishimoto, S. (2020). Correspondence of categorical and feature-based representations of music in the human brain. Brain and Behavior, 11(1). https://doi.org/10.1002/brb3.1936

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Final Project Milestone Five: Initial Draft of Discussion Section: Can Different Types of Music Lead to Different Physiological Responses

You will submit an initial draft of your final project Discussion section for this assignment. This section should discuss:

• Your findings, including how your findings relate to your hypothesis
• How your findings compare and contrast to previous research (summarize and cite research from your PSY 510 literature review)
• Strengths and limitations of your research
• How your study meets study standards
• Areas for future research based on your data analysis results
  

  Can Different Types of Music Lead to Different Physiological Responses?: Initial Draft of Discussion Section

Be sure to follow APA style when writing this section.

Submit your assignment here. Make sure you’ve included all the required elements by reviewing the guidelines and rubric.

Readings: 

• Discovering Statistics Using IBM SPSS Statistics, 
• Beginning Behavioral Research: A Conceptual Primer, 
• Video: SPSS Tutorial Video 4: Chi-Square Tests
  
• Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Chapters 3, 5, and 7