Does listening to music give you a pleasant feeling? It is maybe a catharsis for you after long, exhausting hours. Research shows that music psychology could benefit your mental health and be a delightful entertainment form.
Music serves psychological benefits and can relax your mind, rejuvenate, and ease the pain. Sometimes, a particular song could calm you, while some may raise your adrenaline.
Yes, you guessed it right! Feelings and psychological connections to music are broadly discussed in music psychology. Music psychology focuses on performance, feelings, and criticism, music as therapy, creativity, intelligence, and behavior, to put it in words. So let’s learn about the term ‘music psychology’ in detail.
Careers in Music psychology and salaries to expect
Major areas where you can see yourself working are:
- Music therapist
- Counselor
- Music cognition
- Psychologist
Some important areas of music psychology
- Music therapy
- Music analysis
- Musicology
- Performance science
- Psychoacoustic
- Ethnomusicology
- Music and social behavior
The benefits of music on psychology
There are huge benefits if you have skills in music psychology. Some of the core benefits are listed below:
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Music as therapy
We may have valuable insights if we look into a person’s taste in music. Finding a specific area of interest in music could help us better understand a person. Again,
Music is therapy; it boosts emotion, relieves stress, and enhances mental well-being.
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Enhancing cognitive performance
The research found that older adults improved their cognitive performance while music played in the background.
So, do not forget to turn a tune in the background when working on a task. It could help you boost your performance by making you feel pumped and upbeat.
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Reduce stress
This is something that many of us could agree with. No matter what, we will try to play a tune after a long exhausting day or amidst the workloads we are dealing with. The action makes us feel great, relieving our stress greatly.
A study in 2013 suggests a direct relationship between music and the release of stress on humans, focused mainly on the autonomic nervous system.
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You may be eating less.
Yes, it’s true! Music can help you control your urge to overeat, hence, losing weight. A study shows that people who enjoyed soothing music while eating at a restaurant consumed less food than usual. The researchers suggested that calm music with a dim light helped people feel relaxed and take less food.
So, if you are trying to lose that extra weight, you may want to turn on a calming or mellow tune while you eat.
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Enhance memory
Commonly, many students listen to their favorite tune while studying. It helps them concentrate, while some want to escape the stressed feeling. The researchers also agreed that it could assist students while looking; however, the music should be appropriate. For instance, high pitch rock music may not help to concentrate.
Again, different studies suggest a positive correlation between music and better academic performance. Music is a great catharsis when studying; however, you must be careful when playing one.
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Relieve pain
To soothe pain, music could be beneficial. For example, a study on fibromyalgia patients showed significant improvements in their pains/suffering when listening to music for one hour regularly. Another research suggests that listening to music before an operation helps patients deal with surgery better.
You may relate to that, too, if you remember healing your unstable health condition with calming tunes.
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Improve mood and sleep better
Yes, music is a way to boost moods and relax, which would help you sleep peacefully. Studies suggest insomniac people, especially elders, improve their sleeping cycle when listening to music daily.
Again, listening to cheerful tunes regularly could help you feel happier and more optimistic. Of course, the opposite could also happen when negative music may make you wrong or pessimistic.
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Improve motivation
It is a typical scenario when people work out with a fast pace tune. However, the fast track helps uplift their spirit and work harder to reach their health goals.
Like this phenomenon, other works and motivation could be enhanced by tuning the appropriate music for an activity.
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Work on reducing signs of depression.
It is an effective and safe way for psychologists to use music when treating depression cases. Several studies suggest the effectiveness of music therapy in reducing symptoms of disorders such as depression.
However, the right type of music must be used as different patients’ tastes or emotions are not the same.
Lists of books on music psychology
Universities to study music psychology
- The University of Sheffield:
- Goldsmiths, University of London
- Musicology in Graz
- Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh
- The Department of Psychology at Keele University
- Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester
- The Faculty of Music at the University of Cambridge
- The Music Psychology Training unit (University of Jyväskylä, Finland)
- The University of Leeds
- Bath Spa University
- Manchester Metropolitan
- St Andrews: Psychology of Music
- The University of Uppsala in Sweden
- Chichester University (UK)
- University of Kent (UK)
Final words
Music psychology plays a vital role in different essential aspects of life. For example, it can relieve stress, enhance performance, concentrate better, and even improve conditions such as depression. We will understand the real deal by exploring various areas of music and psychology.
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Last update on 2024-04-24 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API