All posts by Kai

Research Exercise #5

Wheeler, Barbara L,PhD., M.T.-B.C. (2007). Receptive methods in music therapy: Techniques bbbbbiand clinical applications for music therapy clinicians, educators and students. Music bbbbbiTherapy Perspectives, 25(2), 127-129.

 

This source covers the methods and descriptions of techniques a Music Therapist Clinician would use whilst performing their job and other aspects of what a Music Therapist Clinician does. Working with multiple techniques and showing tables outlining multiple ways to apply each methods. (Abstract) “This practical book describes the specific use of receptive (listening) methods and techniques in music therapy clinical practice and research, including relaxation with music for children and adults, the use of visualisation and imagery, music and collage, song-lyric discussion, vibroacoustic applications, music and movement techniques”. Wheeler’s book was not exactly a research project based book, but rather than just on the topic of music therapy clinician practices. I liked this book because it gave me background on more factors that may playa role in getting my results, and what I need to take account of rather than just me shooting from the hip and hoping for the best. This research was interesting and useful for me because rather on explicitly explaining the exact results, it showed what was important leading up to the procedures and the actual procedures. Something I did not know before that I now do is that in order to obtain desirable results, you have to create an environment that resembles what you are trying to replicate. This helped me a lot because now instead of just sitting people down say in the library, maybe I would be able to go outside in an open grass area, or a more run down space in order to inflate my results. I think people will find this book interesting because it shows the process of music therapy rather than just the results we see in articles or on twitter.

Research Example 4

Caldwell, C., & Hibbert, S. (2002). The influence of music tempo and musical preference on bbbbbirestaurant patrons’ behavior. Psychology and Marketing, 19(11), 895–917. bbbbbihttps://doi.org/10.1002/mar.10043

The article reports research into the effect of music tempo and musical preference on consumer behavior in a restaurant. The research investigates the extent to which these two variables influence actual and perceived time spent dining, the amount of money spent, and outcomes in terms of enjoyment of the experience and future behavioral intentions”(Abstract Caldwell). Caldwell and Hibbert’s article is on restaurant patron behavior when it comes to music tempo and musical preference. The research question used is how does the music tempo and musical preference influence patrons time spent, money spent, and enjoyed time dining? This source used acts, behavior, and events as data, detached observation to collect the data and they analyzed this data by comparing the patterns between the variables and the behaviors regarding the variables since the data collected was qualitative data. At the end of this research, the researchers stated that in fact the tempo had little to no effect on the restaurant patron’s behavior but more so their music preference. This is significant to me because my research question was how does tempo affect people’s behavior in their writing. With this new information I now am changing the factor of tempo in my research question to minor and major chords. Since minor and major chords in music are more connected to behavior, emotion, and people’s preference in music (major producing a happier lighter tone and minor producing a darker sad tone) I believe that using those rather than simply tempo and how fast the music is will produce a better range of results in behavior. I think the readers will be interested in the same way I was, that the tempo of music did not have the direct effect on the behavior of people as anticipated.

Research Exercise #3

Raglio, Alfredo, Giuseppe Bellelli, Daniela Traficante, Marta Gianotti, Maria Chiara Ubezio, bbbbbiDaniele Villani, and Marco Trabucchi. “Efficacy of music therapy in the treatment of and psychiatric symptoms of dementia.” Alzheimer Disease & Associated bbbbbiDisorders 22, no. 2 (2008): 158-162.

 

This source reports how music therapy affects the behavioral and psychiatric symptoms of dementia and detached observation. *Abstract, “Music therapy (MT) has been proposed as valid approach for behavioral and psychologic symptoms (BPSD) of dementia. However, studies demonstrating the effectiveness of this approach are lacking” (Raglio). Raglio uses music therapy in his research by using subjects with dementia to see if the music input affects the subjects symptoms of dementia. This research asks the question of can musical therapy reduce BPSD in subjects with dementia. Raglio used an experiment and observed acts, behaviors, and events to get the data accounts of if the music therapy reduced BPSD. Musical therapy in this research opened my eyes to really how much it affects the behavior of people. I Dementia is extremely powerful and if music can reduce BPSD in dementia subjects, then I know that if I choose my music properly that there is a good possibility that the results could be astounding. Then with that there is also the possibility of my music choice doing the opposite. Reviewing this research gave me the idea of instead of using tempo, using major and minor chords because those may affect mood and behavior more than tempo. What I think that others will find interesting with this source is the same thing that I found interesting as well. That music has the power to reach deep parts of your brain without you even knowing it, and we have that whole strength of music at the tips of our fingers.

Research Ex #2

Pugh, Kelley, “The Effect of Music on Creative Writing” (2014). Student Publications. 4.

 

https://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/student_publications/4

 

This source covers the discoveries of listening to music has an effect on writing. “In this paper, Kelley asks several research questions about the effects of music on creative writing, and then uses empirical research methods to answer those questions. The paper is organized like a social science research article, with a literature review, methods section, results, and discussion. The data that Kelley collected is fascinating and really shows the power of her research design and method. Her data yielded interesting results and conclusions that have implications for people interested in creative writing. She was also able to give some evidence for the, previously under- investigated, “Mozart effect,””(Cedarville). This source covers the discoveries of listening to music while writing. This article has two research questions: 1) How much of an impact does music have on our emotions? 2) To what extent can those emotions can be transferred to our writing? The types of data used was a survey, a case study, and textual analysis from the case study to evaluate the written works of the people in the survey. This research was well written to the point that after reading I wasn’t left wondering, it was straightforward and did not cut any corners from the research question to the analysis. Others might find interesting like I did, was pretty simple. That there is actual research and evidence done proving the fact that music does have an effect on emotion and writing and that it is not just a floating accepted concept.

Research Ex #1

Milliman, R. (1982). Using Background Music to Affect the Behavior of Supermarket lkdvnlkiShoppers. Journal of Marketing, 46(3), 86-91. doi:10.2307/1251706

 

This article about music and the effects it has on shopper behavior at the supermarket was written by Ronal Milliman and published to the Journal of Marketing. This article attempts to review the current literature on the subject and disclose the results of their own study on how music affects shopping behavior in the store. Using the research question of How does background music affect in-store shopping behavior, the type of data needed to answer this research question would be Acts/Behaviors/Events, Reports of Acts/Behaviors/Events, Personal/Psychological Traits, and organizational data. Milliman used detached observation to use gather the data, and a type of latin square experimental design with controls was used to examine the effects of 3 treatment variations (no music, slow tempo music, and fast tempo music) on supermarket customers’ behavior (Milliman). Usually things like behavior relating to music are generally accepted assumptions that background music does have an affect on behavior, but now having this article as actual evidence from real research helps me move forward with my own research project. That I am not just shooting in the dark hoping that changing the music tempos would make a difference. This research being published in a marketing journal rather than a behavioral studies journal was really interesting to me, but now after reviewing it I see why. This information now becomes quite resourceful to businesses trying to increase sales with in-store consumers. Now with this knowledge of music tempo having a causal effect on in-store traffic flow and sales volume, businesses can use this information to increase their sales and to take this variable into account if their sales are low.

Blog Post #2

Różycka-Tran, J. (2017). Love thy neighbor? The effects of religious in/out-group  nbjbjbjjidentity on social behavior. Personality and Individual Differences, 115, 7–12.   nbjbjbbbbbijhttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.11.009

When studying behavior you must take into account the current social structure and how much society has an affect on the behaviors we carry out. When we are in different social settings or have different social norms planted in our day to day lives, there is a good chance that our behaviors adapt as well. Różycka-Tran researches the effects of religious social behavior when it comes to in/out-groups. When Christian people were put in the scenario of being about to help out another fellow christian and non-believers, the Christians only helped the “in group” Christians; thus the title “Love thy neighbor”. “Love thy neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39), being the second greatest commandment given by Jesus, I would think that Christian’s would be practicing this the most, but from this study and to many of our experiences in life, this clearly does not get practiced as it should. Being that a good part of my study is based on prior and current religious experience and practice, Tran’s research allows me to be conscious during the data analysis and gathering phase of my project. Tran shedding light on the fact that Christians do not follow one of the most important commandments, but love to appear as such in conversation, forewarns me of a pattern of “religious fluff” that may come up in conversation despite the tempo of music. After having this knowledge, I will not have to put that much emphasis in the ares of conversation where “religious fluff”had taken place when describing results. Without this factual prior knowledge, the religious fluff would have thrown my research in a consistent flatline trend in the religious conversation, and maybe the political.

 

Music and Behavior

Journal for the theory of social behaviour
Oxford : Blackwell Publishers; Print began with vol. 1, no. 1 (Apr. 1971).1971
My research topic is based upon the influence music has on conversational behavior. More specifically on how music above and below 65 beats per minute affect conversations on politics and religion. This topic is heavily based on social behavior, and the music impacts how the social behavior and interaction unfolds. Sociologist George Herbert Mead believed that people develop self-images through interactions with other people. Applying this belief to my research project, I would have to strategically select people with different “self-images”, to get the most out of the conversations about politics and religion. If I gather a group of people who have the same beliefs and want to be seen in the same image, then the conversations will be bland and with little to no effect with the change in music. With a mixture of beliefs, social statuses, and values, conversation will thus shift in different directions. Now my question is will the different tempos in music change whether or not people in the group will concede to other beliefs despite their desired self-image? Or will the tempo in the music cause people to argue more strongly about their beliefs even more pushing their self image? With this theory from the journal, I would include a person who does not have a set of beliefs in the subjects of politics and religion, thus having so self-image to push in this scenario. Will the change in music influence what side this person takes in each discussion? Developing a self image is important in today’s society, so with this research project involving two topics with controversial abilities, people may dive in or get out of the pool in the conversation, in hopes to push or save their own self image because of their true beliefs.