Running Head : MUSIC EFFECTS ON ANXIETY The Effects of Music Tempo and Genre on State Anxiety

Although the effects of and interactions among specific aspects of music are unclear, prior research found that music has the capacity to alter and physiological states, attitudes, and behaviors. The present study, a 2x2 mixed factorial design manipulating both tempo and genre, sought to assess the hypothesis that exposure to high-tempo music during a mild stressor task will result in higher levels of states anxiety than exposure to low-tempo music. It was also predicted that participants in the high-tempo electronic condition would demonstrate significantly higher levels of state anxiety than participants in the high-tempo classical condition. Forty college students were assigned to either a highor low-tempo condition. The study involved two sessions, exposing participants to both electronic and classical samples of music while working on two different word searches. After working a word search for one minute, the participant was administered a questionnaire including the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (shortform). High-tempo music elicited significantly higher levels of state anxiety than low-tempo music, F(1, 38) = 6.525, p = . 015, supporting the hypothesis. However, the hypothesis was not supported, as alterations of genre did not have a significant effect on state anxiety, F(1, 38) = 3.708, p = . 062, and there was not a significant interaction between tempo and genre, F(1, 38) = . 183, p = . 671. Nonetheless, the results further efforts to define the conditions under which music can alter or enhance experiences. MUSIC EFFECTS ON ANXIETY The Effects of Music Tempo and Genre on State Anxiety The existence of ‘pump-up’ playlists for workouts and relaxing soundtracks for waiting rooms and yoga studios speaks to the pervasive notion that music can influence individual states, attitudes, and behaviors. However, the interplay of contextual associations, cultural significance, psychological interpretation, and physiological response that determine the overall effect of a song complicate the methodology of studying music. Nevertheless, even if the precise psychological processes that dictate the impact of a song remain unclear, it is necessary to explore the influence of the various attributes of music, such as tone, mood, pitch, and tempo, in order to allow for its practical application. Previous literature has demonstrated that music can alter experiences by influencing levels of arousal. For example, in Stratton’s (1992) study of 90 undergraduate college students, individuals waited for the study to begin either in silence or while listening to soothing music. Based on visual cues of stress, Stratton asserted that those who waited in silence appeared more active and more anxious than those who waited while listening to music. Diverging from the subjective observations of Stratton’s study, Miluk-Kolasa and Matejek (1996) measured blood pressure, heart rate, cardiac output, skin temperature, and glucose levels to assess the physiological stress of participants both before and after they were informed of an imminent surgical procedure. Again comparing the presence of soothing music to silence, Miluk-Kolasa and Matejek (1996) found that participants exposed to soothing music returned to their original state of physiological arousal more quickly than those who waited in silence. Because high physiological arousal is an indicator of high levels of stress, the research demonstrates that music MUSIC EFFECTS ON ANXIETY can influence anxiety. However, the studies did not attempt to determine the specific attributes of soothing music that dictated the physiological response. Husain, Thompson, and Schellenberg (2002) assessed the mood and arousal of participants after exposure to samples that varied in tempo (fast and slow) and mode (major and minor). The researchers found that tempo affected arousal but not mood, while mode affected mood but not arousal. Since it has been theorized that psychological attribution of high states of arousal could result in stress (Reisenzein, 1983) and that knowledge of an individual’s valence (positive or negative) and arousal allow for predictions of a wide variety of dependent variables (Reisenzein, 1994), further exploration of the attributes of a song that temper or interact with tempo is necessary before music can be optimized for therapeutic use. In a study of the effects of high-tempo and low-tempo electronic music on the perceive stress of a task, Kuperman (2013) found that tempo alone did not significantly influence the perceived stress. The results suggest that manipulations of tempo alone do not significantly alter stress states. Trappe (2010) began to investigate participant reactions to manipulations of multiple aspects of music, comparing the physiological and cognitive responses to a classical song, a heavy metal song, and a techno song. Like the current study, Trappe (2010) relied on the StateTrait Anxiety Inventory to assess the participants’ opinions on their levels of stress. Trappe (2010) found that the classical song reduced anxiety, depressive symptoms, cardiovascular disturbances, and sleep disturbances, while the heavy metal and techno songs encouraged rage and increased aggressive attitudes, blood pressure, and heart rate. Krumhansl (1997) also found that exposure to different types of music result in different physiological responses, with music described as sad decreasing heart rate and increasing blood pressure, frightening music MUSIC EFFECTS ON ANXIETY increasing pulse transmission time and decreasing pulse amplitude (physiological indicators of anxiety), and happy music decreasing depth of respiration. Although these studies provide evidence that the response to music may depend on the genre, the study does not isolate genre as the sole manipulation. As such, it is unclear whether it is the genre manipulation that causes the varying cognitive and physiological states or variations in other aspects of the stimuli, such as tempo or pitch. Further elucidating the contributions of different aspects of music to a piece’s overall effect, Pelletier (2004) conducted a meta-analysis of 22 experiments, concluding that relaxing music does significantly decrease physiological arousal. However, the extent to which the music decreases arousal was difficult to predict and depended on age, the stressor used in the study, musical preference, and previous experience. In an investigation of the influence of musical preference on effects of the song, Burns, Labbe, Williams, and McCall (1999) compared the states of relaxation (determined by both self-report and physiological response) elicited by a predetermined classical sample, a predetermined rock sample, a “relaxing” sample chosen by each participant, and silence. While self-reported relaxation was lowest for those exposed to the rock sample and highest for those in the control and those who self-selected music, the manipulations did not result in any significant physiological differences. The inconclusive results regarding the effects of musical genre necessitate additional research into possible interactions among genre and other attributes a song. Although prior research reliably reports that music has the capacity to influence physiological and psychological states (Stratton, 1992; Miluk-Kolasa & Matejek, 1996; Trappe, 2010; Krumhansl, 1997) few studies have attempted to isolate the individual factors of a song MUSIC EFFECTS ON ANXIETY that determine its effect. Furthermore, studies that have investigated participant response to certain aspects of music, such as have not adequately explored the interactions that may occur among the elements (Burns et al., 1999; Pelletier, 2004). Thus, a mixed factorial experimental study was designed in which participants listened to either high-tempo or low-tempo samples of a variety of musical genres while executing a mild stressor task. Unlike Kuperman (2013), in which poor operationalization of low-tempo music may have resulted in inaccurate analysis of stress, the current study used high-tempo and low-tempo samples based on tempos that elicited significantly different levels of arousal in previous research (Husain et al., 2002; Balch & Lewis, 1999). Directly following exposure to each sample, the participants completed a brief questionnaire involving the short-form State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) to assess their levels of anxiety. The anxiety scores were then analyzed to determine if statistically significant differences in mean anxiety score existed between the participants in each condition. It has been demonstrated that exposure to music can alter levels of anxiety (Stratton, 1992; Miluk-Kolasa and Matejek, 1996). Reisenzein (1983, 1994) reported that perceived levels of anxiety can result from a combination of high arousal and negative mood, which suggests that the aspects of music that influence each of these dimensions could be manipulated to alter states of anxiety. Husain et al. (2002) isolated tempo as an aspect of music that can influence arousal, with higher tempos resulting in increased arousal and lower tempos resulting in decreased arousal, but did not investigate how these alterations in arousal may affect psychological states. Pelletier (2004) named genre, among other factors, as an aspect of music that could temper the effects of tempo. Further defining the effects of genre, Trappe (2010) found that the physiologically arousing nature of techno and heavy metal songs (often associated with higher MUSIC EFFECTS ON ANXIETY tempos) elicited higher levels of anxiety than relaxing, classical music (often associated with lower tempos). As such, it is not only predicted that participants in the high-tempo condition will demonstrate significantly higher levels of state anxiety than participants in the low-tempo condition, but also that participants in the high-tempo electronic condition will demonstrate significantly higher levels of state anxiety than participants in the