Research has shown that music plays an immense role in our lives, but very little is known about the relationship between music and wellbeing. In this two-part study, twenty Wesleyan University college students were interviewed for a qualitative analysis of the role music plays in the lives of college students, according to them. Fifty additional students participated in a study that manipulated music involvement by depriving participants of music listening for one week. The Psychological Wellbeing Scale was then used to measure whether there was any correlation between music listening and wellbeing, and thus the role of music in wellbeing. Only 12 participants fully deprived themselves of music for seven days straight, with an additional 15 who partially deprived themselves. The greatest reported decline in wellbeing scores was for the group who partially deprived themselves, revealing the possibility that music listening is normative and deprivation is against human nature, and only those who were able to deprive themselves of music reported the smallest decline because deprivation was easier for them to do. The feasibility of a study like this should be re-examined in hopes of determining a clearer link between music involvement and wellbeing with fewer possible external factors influencing the results.
"},{"label":"Degree","value":["Bachelor of Arts with Departmental Honors"]},{"label":"Author-supplied Keywords","value":["Music","Wellbeing"]},{"label":"Administrative Note","value":"Drupal Node ID: 24159