Psychology presentation on Dreams 30 slides
Kculver24
done_ppt.pptxMusic and its Impact on Development
Example PPT
1
Evolution
200,000 years ago
Mothers’ songs to babies
Cultural identification and group cohesion
language
40,000 years ago- bone flute in Germany
Present- concerts, MP3, music sharing websites
Music has been around for hundreds of thousands of years. It is so important in the development of not only individual humans, but for the human species as a whole. Music has been used to bring together people, allow them to communicate, and express themselves and their culture. Some ancient music and music techniques are still used today, such as holy scriptures, cultural songs, and singing to babies (mothers’ songs). Music was and still is a component of language development. It is believed that signing was the original way of communication and over the years built into modern day language (Särkämö, Tervaniemi, Huotilainen, 2013). People of various cultures use music as a way to define their own culture (native melodies) and listen to music to understand others’ cultures (Bonneville-Roussy, Rentfrow, Potter). Music has definitely changed over the course of human history. From the first instrument- a 40,000 year old bone flute, to present day music devices such as MP3 players, concerts, and music sharing websites, music has transformed over the years such as we as a species have transformed. As our culture, technology, and values change, it is reflected in the music that is made.
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Music and Brain Function
Innate musical ability- blank slate on culture
Language
Preference
Values
Music activates many different areas of the brain
Auditory
Cognitive
Sensory-motor
Emotional
More musical training, stronger synaptic connections
Studies have shown that there is an innate ability to understand music in newborns such as perceiving pitch. I will continue to talk about infants and music in later slides. Enculturation, however, shapes these innate music abilities in babies to form a preference of what type of music the children will like. Infants show preference for native melodies by twelve months of age. Before that they are open (blank slates) to other types of music. Environment and culture is what forms original music and rhythmic preferences for babies and continues to do so until five or more years of life. At that time, children are considered “encultured” in their music and like language, they can understand it and manipulate it better than they would be able to do of other culture’s music. Also like language, when infants hit twelve months and begin to form their basis of language, they also have their basis preference of music (Stalinski and Schellenberg, 2012).
Music activates many regions of the brain. It is an integral part of different areas of development. Just listening to music stimulates brain connections and improves functioning. Actively making music helps development even more. For example, with formal music training by age seven children can determine absolute pitch (being able to recognize the pitch of a note) (Stalinski and Schellenberg, 2012).
Music has shown to help with motor coordination development with dancing and moving in time with the beats (MATTAR, 2013).
It helps with emotional regulation providing stress relief and helps to relaxing the mind. It regulates emotion in different ways such as providing a distraction from real life problems, familiarity and comfort in strange situation. I will expand more on music and emotional regulation in later slides. Cognitively, it can help with memory because it stimulates areas such as the hippocampus (Särkämö, Tervaniemi, Huotilainen, 2013).
Just like anything else that the brain is trying to learn, more practice and more exposure strengthens synaptic connections building a stronger and more powerful brain. During synaptic pruning, if music is practiced, the brain will keep more connections.
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Music and Brain Function
This slide displays the many areas of the brain that is activated with listening and playing music. Most of musical perception takes place bilaterally with the exception of pitch and melody which takes place in the right hemisphere (Särkämö, Tervaniemi, Huotilainen, 2013). Each area in the brain works together to process music. There is not one area that, say for instance, perceives harmony. There is many different areas that when processing music, combine their abilities to successfully understand harmony.
With formal music training, synapses between the neurons in the brain grow in strength and number. That results in all around better mental functioning as information can process quicker.
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Music and Emotional Development
Emotional regulation
Mother‘s’ songs
Use different parts of music to discriminate emotion
Russel model: valence and arousal
Therapy
Music interventions
Health throughout life
Music is a helpful tool in emotional regulation. Starting prenatally, mothers’ songs sung are heard by the embryo and are recognized after birth. As an infant, songs that mothers sing help calm the baby and allows a way of communication that the baby will enjoy, better understand, and remember. Maternal singing helps with development physically. Studies have shown that music will motivate babies sucking, which in turn helps them gain weight and obtain necessary nutrients for growth (Stalinski and Schellenberg, 2012). Throughout life, people use music as a way to express themselves and as an emotional outing. People can find identity in music based on what genres they like. I will talk more about genres and social groups later. The Russel model states that valence, which is mode (major or minor) allows music to give off the its emotional intent. In they’re most basic explanation, minor is perceived as unhappy and major is perceived as happy. Arousal, which is tempo also gives music its emotional “vibe” with fast music more upbeat, so usually understood as happy while slow music is usually interpreted as unhappy. Using modes to illicit emotion from music is used in Western music more than other types of music. Modes from other cultures may illicit other emotions or may not correlate to emotion at all (Stalinski and Schellenberg, 2012).
Music therapy includes playing and listening to music as an intervention for patients trying to overcome some sort of illness. Music therapy is used for patients with ailments such as depression, anxiety, ADHD, dementia, pain from illnesses, and tinnitus. In one study involving children with ADHD, there was greater success in finishing an arithmetic task while listening to music more than doing the problem in silence or with background noise. For older adults suffering from dementia, music has been proven to help lift their spirits so they can still act socially, reduce negative thinking (anxiety and depression), and give them something to focus on. Music helps them calm down, which in turn helps them keep homeostasis (blood pressure, heart rate, etc.). This helps reduce the risk of other illnesses such as stroke and heart attack. Music can help rehabilitate motor coordination after medial emergencies because people can use the beat to help them keep pace of motor coordination (such as taking a step for each down beat in a song). Pain from surgeries, medical emergencies, injuries, or just bodily functions can be reduced with music. Doctors have even started using music as a replacement for pain medicine for infants that are too young for the drugs. Tinnitus (ringing in the ear) that can be caused by listening to music too loudly can actually be lessened by music. The process used for this is called tailor-made notched music training or TMNTMT. It is a twelve month process of tailoring music and volume around the patients tinnitus frequency until it effectively inhibits the neurons that have been causing the ringing in the ear (Särkämö, Tervaniemi, Huotilainen, 2013). Music therapy is used with children with intellectual disabilities to enhance their social skills (MATTAR, 2013).
All of these cures for illnesses is provided by music. Therapists use them with their patients sometimes independently or with other forms for rehabilitation such as medicine.
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Music and Social Groups
Culture
Group cohesion
Traditions
Information
Social bonding
Genres
stereotypes
Personality
Internal traits
Environment
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0fwYyZLHQE
As explained earlier, music has been used throughout history in for different cultures and civilizations. It is used to promote group cohesion, it gives a sense of unity when everyone knows and enjoys the same music. Take for example our national anthem. It is sung to demonstrate our unity and strength as a nation. It is sung in schools, at sporting events, and at other events like live shows or presidential debates. Click the link for an example as to how national music can promote a sense of pride and love for a nation. Music is also used in religious and traditional events. For example, at Bar or Bat Mitzvahs, it is traditional to dance the Horah. Music is also used as a systematic way to pass down stories or information. Examples of this are prayers and hymns.
Music is also a very prominent part of social bonding. People tend to chose to hang out with people who like the same things as them, like going to the same events as them, and understand them. Music can be the basis of friendships. It gives people an activity (listening and going to concerts), something to talk about (artists, new songs), and it is a great way to bond. Genres of music can separate different social groups. For example researchers have found that sophisticated people tend to listen to classical, blues, jazz, and opera music. They have found that rebellious people tend to listen to rap and reggae. Hardcore people tend to listen to rock and heavy metal (Rentfrow, Goldberg, Levitin, 2011). These different groups like doing different things, though they may overlap. For example, hardcore people probably don’t like reading and doing research such as sophisticated people may prefer. While music does not provide definite, insoluble boundaries for social groups, it can provide an outline for people to start identifying themselves with. There is the issue of stereotypes with different genres of music. For example, people who listen to scream or heavy metal music are perceived as dark, depressed, and angry. Many people who listen to it may be, a lot of musicians in this genre are so their listeners relate to them. However, just like other stereotypes in this world, living up to the music’s perception can be a self-fulfilling prophecy. People can conform to their music to feel more part of the crowd.
Along with listening to music people relate to because of their personal characteristics, environment plays another role in genre preference for people. Some areas that people live in may listen to one type of genre more than another. For example, in southern states it is more typical to find people listening to country music than it is in northern states.
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Music and Social Groups (genres)
Upbeat and conventional
White, southern crowd
Rednecks
Heavy drinking
The structure of musical preferences
Country
The next few slides I will be providing examples of different musical genres and the different cultures and stereotypes that go with them. Keeping in mind that people develop and grow in their social groups and that the people they spend time with help shape their personalities, values, and beliefs.
Country music fans are categorized as upbeat and conventional, mainstream people (Rentfrow, Goldberg, Levitin, 2011). Country music fans are most assumed to be white and southern. Country music fans are also believed to be heavy alcohol consumers (Mack, 2015).
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Genres
Classical
Reflective and complex
Smart and scholarly
Relaxed
Wealthy
People who like classical music are perceived to be reflective and complex (Rentfrow, Goldberg, Levitin, 2011). They are believed to be wiser and dedicated to studies. The music draws a relaxed crowd. Some people see it as boring. A stereotype associated with this genre is that the listeners are wealthy (Lambson, 2012).
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Genres
Heavy Metal Rock
Intense and rebellious
Angry
Rowdy
Satanic/evil
People who listen to heavy metal rock are classified as intense and rebellious (Rentfrow, Goldberg, Levitin, 2011). The music is believed to be satanic with rumors that if it is played backwards it plays the devils song (7 ways, 2015). Rockers are hard core head-bangers, the music they listen to is angry and intense. It’s no wonder why people categorize them as such.
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Genres
Electric Dance Music
Energetic and rhythmic
heavy drug use
Open minded
“hippie” culture
People who listen to EDM are classified as energetic and rhythmic (Rentfrow, Goldberg, Levitin, 2011). The music is associated with drugs because of the rave scene where many people use illicit drugs to enhance the music, visuals, and surroundings of the festival or rave. The music is more of various noises and drops instead of lyrics making it open to individual interpretation. People who listen to EDM are seen as open minded and as modern day hippies because they value PLUR (peace, love, unity, respect) and freedom.
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Genres
Rap
energetic and rhythmic
Hoodlum
Black culture
Violence/crime
People who listen to rap music are believed to be energetic and rhythmic (Rentfrow, Goldberg, Levitin, 2011). It is believed to be the outstanding and popular genre for black people especially youth. Stereotypes of people that listen to this genre include the belief that they are hoodlums, violent and commit crimes. A lot of popular rap music is on topics such as drugs, sex, and money (Stereotypes in Rap Music). People who hear that believe that the whole genre revolves around that, leading them to believe that listeners values are based on that as well.
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Music & Development: Prenatal
13-24 weeks
Mother’s song
culture
Innate responsiveness
Listening and responding to music begins prenatally. In the second trimester the fetus gains the ability to hear sounds such as music the mother plays or her voice. Fetuses recognize and prefer their mothers voice while in the womb. After birth they are familiar with sounds that they heard in the womb. This is the beginning of musical appreciation as they also prefer the songs their mother sang while they were in the womb (Arnett 109). Though technically enculturation does not begin until later on in life, If babies are used to tunes or music their mother played and begin to prefer it, they may also have an inclination to the culture that goes along with the music. A lot of mother’s songs are traditional to a person’s culture so it is in fact the first cultural aspect that the fetus will encounter besides the food it receives from the mother. The fact that fetuses can pick up and remember music played while they were in the womb is a sign of human’s innate ability to recognize and respond to music (Andrusko, 2015). Follow the link for a good example of this. It is a link to a video of fetuses reacting (moving their mouth and body) to music being played. This is evidence that music acquisition in the womb can help with learning language and how to talk.
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Music & Development: Neonates
Mother’s songs
Calming, culture
Pitch awareness
Sequential/metrical awareness
For newborns, music is still mostly mother’s songs. Mother’s songs are familiar to them, they are used to help regulate their emotions and to transmit cultural values as explained on the last slide (Arnett 109).
However, now that the baby has been born they will be exposed to other forms of music heard in daily life. That can include music played off of speakers, in the car, on the television, or on video games.
Newborns are acutely aware of pitch changes. They respond to ascending and descending musical notes. They also respond to changes in sequential patterns in music. They can hear a difference when a pattern of instruments playing a tune changes the pattern. For example if two drummers are playing the same tune and one of them stops or starts to play something else they respond to the change (Stalinski and Schellenberg, 2012).
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Music and Development: Infants
Can determine changes in
Pitch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-ZCklgK218
Tempo
Enculturation
Sped up by formal music exposure and training
Emotion
Learning
Infantry is the stage where understanding and remembering music begins. Their ability to realize changes in pitch becomes more acute. They can even hear changes as small as a third of a semitone (Stalinski and Schellenberg, 2012). A semitone is moving up a half step in pitch, for instance a C to a C# (C sharp). It’s a very small pitch change in music. Click the link for a better understanding of semitones and also to hear what a half step sounds like.
Infants can also detect a change in tempo and meter. For example, they can sense a change when the meter has changed from a duple (emphasis on every other beat) to a triple (emphasis every three beats). This is seen by a change in heart rate as the tempo changes and their body movement (dancing, bouncing) to the beat. If infants enjoy the music they are listening to, they are more coordinated with the beat They can remember tempo and pitch after hearing a rhythm (Stalinski and Schellenberg, 2012). Throughout infancy, their ability to distinguish tempos and pitch tones only improves.
Enculturation of music truly begins with infancy. Like language, with age it is harder to “perceive and remember nonnative structures” as in, it is easier to understand and build knowledge on the music they are raised with, just as it is easier for people to learn the language that is spoken to them as a child rather than a new language as people get older. Infants are better than adults at being able to analyze music that is not native to their culture because their mind is still flexible with acquiring new music. For example, they can detect mistuning to melodies in nonnative as well as native melodies that older people, with out formal music training, may not be able to pick up (Stalinski and Schellenberg, 2012).
Infants begin to pick up emotional cues from music from the tempo and the mode (major/minor) (Stalinski and Schellenberg, 2012). Understanding of emotional concepts of music continues throughout development as people begin to understand lyrics and a song as a whole (lyrics, tempo, mode, etc.) Music is also used to help regulate infant emotion. This is seen (or should I say heard?) with lullabies and play songs (ex, “clean up, clean up, everybody do your share”) (Särkämö, Tervaniemi, Huotilainen, 2013).
Music aids learning, especially language. Anatomically, the brain region that processes music is the same as the region that processes speech. Music catches the attention and interest of infants which is why parents use Infant Directed Speech. That is talking to babies in sing-song voices. Using different tones and pitches helps parents communicate emotions, ideas, and meanings to infants (Särkämö, Tervaniemi, Huotilainen, 2013). Since infants can remember music, singing to them can help them remember concepts or the message that they are trying to learn.
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Time Line: Infant
2 months
Consonance interval preference
5 months
Notice a pause in a series of tones, begine to discriminate happy/sad music
6 months
Process and remember consonant intervals, remember a temporal pattern, open to all types of music (musical blank slate), babble and dance
7 months
Categorization of consonant intervals, distinguish rhythm in different tempos and pitches, meter discrimination
9 months
Notice temporal disruption to a rhythm
12 months (end of infancy)
Solidification of meter preference begins to form, but can still be changed if exposure to other types is presented
This slide shows important “musical mile markers” for infants. Keep in mind that these milestones are not set in stone (see what I did there?). For example, infants may begin to distinguish rhythms in different pitches or tempos anywhere from 7 months to 9 months. Another example is their ability to determine if music is happy or sad; they may be able to do that as early as 5 months or as late as 7 months (Stalinski, 2012). It has to do with individual characteristics and also exposure. (Information for the graph obtained from: [Stalinski and Schellenberg, 2012] and [Särkämö, Tervaniemi, Huotilainen, 2013]).
Vocabulary:
Consonance: the combination of notes that are in harmony with each other due to the relationship between their frequencies.
Meter: subdivision of beats. The number of beats per measure determine the term to name the meter
Rhythm: strong, regular, repeated pattern of movement or sound
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Music and Development: Toddlers
Brain development
Critical period
Intelligence
Maria Montessori & Jean Piaget
Howard Gardner
Preschool
Music is essential for development in toddlerhood. By two years old, toddlers have developed “preference for music of their own culture,” (MATTAR, 2013). This is the start of identity development.
At this age, toddlers are at the critical period for brain development, meaning that the brain is most able to learn skills at this time. Early exposure to music will help them learn and develop. For example there was a study of a group of three year old kids who were taken to singing lessons twice a week for three years. They showed great improvement in “abstract conceptual thinking, play improvisation, originality, verbal abilities, and physical coordination” (MATTAR, 2013). Introduction of formal music training at this age leads to positive development.
Maria Montessori and Jean Piaget said that music is “innate intelligence” and begins to “unfold” at ages three and four (MATTAR, 2013). As I’ve stated before, musical concepts and abilities are seen throughout the lifespan, starting prenatally. That is evidence that backs up their theory.
Howard Gardner listed music and the ability to compose and perform it as one of eight intelligences in his theory of multiple intelligences. Music is not just entertainment, it is an important part of making a well rounded, intelligent person.
Children start preschool in toddlerhood. Music is incorporated into the classroom in many ways. For example, there is the days of the week song that is used to help children remember the names of the days, there is music activities such as dancing, singing, and instruments like drums (Särkämö, Tervaniemi, Huotilainen, 2013). Children improve their cognitive and physical functioning this way. Music played in the classroom sets the atmosphere. It promotes openness and calmness (MATTAR, 2013). Music promotes cohesiveness and friendliness because of the positive environment it creates . This helps children grow socially and form a better bond with their teacher.
If it is noticed that a child has delayed development, music has shown to improve their development and help catch them up to their peers (MATTAR, 2013).
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Music and Development: Early Childhood
Elementary school (Stalinski & Schellenberg, 2012)
Classroom
Skills
Pitch (Mattar, 2013)
Tonality & Harmony (Stalinski & Schellenberg, 2012)
Enculturation (Stalinski, 2012)
Emotion (Arnett, 2016)
The critical period for development continues into early childhood. The benefits of learning music continues into this stage as well. That is why incorporation of music in school does not end after preschool. It goes right on into elementary school, starting at Kindergarten. Elementary schools may offer music classes a few times a week, music curriculums in the classroom, or maybe even extracurricular bands. Skills that are gained at this age with music include psychomotor skills (gross/fine muscle movement), perceptual skills (recognition and interpretation of music and language), and affective development (emotion) (Stalinski and Schellenberg, 2012).
Pitch development continues to improve. Children are now able to identify the direction of a pitch meaning if the tone got higher or lower. This is due to the fact that they have “a heightened sensitivity to sound and pitch,” (Mattar, 2013).
Children’s acute hearing allows them to be able to rate the correct tone of a note and predict the next note in a sequence. However, unlike infants, they have a hard time being able to notice when a tone is changed in a melody, especially if the melody stays at same tempo and order (Stalinski and Schellenberg, 2012).
Enculturation does not end until after at least five years of age, it usually continues until teenage years. At this stage, children are still able to recognize redundant patterns in music like infants can. However at this age since enculturation has already taken root, they are able to do this better if they can recognize the scales of notes that is being used, as in they are better at doing this if the music is using native scales (Stalinksi, 2012).
It is at this stage that children use aspects of music such as mode to recognize the emotion of music (Arnett, 2016).
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Time Line: Early Childhood
3 years
Distinguish happy and sad music
4 years
Heightened sensitivity to sound and pitch
5 years
Full enculturation may be reached, identify direction of a pitch change, difficulty noticing when a tone in a melody is changed, preference for harmonious music
6 years
Acute hearing,
This slide has a timeline for “musical mile markers” for young children. Again, any of these skills can be developed in these ages depending on the individual and exposure to music including formal music training. Information for the time line comes from: (Stalinski and Schellenberg, 2012) and (MATTAR, 2013) and (Arnett 383).
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Ronit Ben-Joseph (RB) -
Music and Development: Middle Childhood
Hearing abilities
Pitch
Formal music training
The social group and self
Identity
Friends
In middle childhood, children’s hearing abilities are beginning to change. They now have difficulty noticing when a tone has changed in a melody and they also are not as readily able to detect mistunings in nonnative scales unlike younger children and infants. With formal music training i.e. singing classes, band practice, etc., children at this age are able to recognize absolute pitch. That means that they are able to identify the pitch of a stand alone note without reference to other notes that otherwise would be played around it. That is very difficult to do, especially as people age, if they do not have formal music training (Stalinski and Schellenberg, 2012).
This age is also a time of personality formation. Children start forming their identity as they gain a sense of self. They start thinking about their likes and their dislikes, their preferences and hobbies, and the people they spend time with, They may start gaining preferences to types and genres of music they enjoy, whether they are exposed to it from family or friends. They may start to spend time with people who listen to the same music as them. At these ages music doesn’t play as big of a factor in social development as other stages because children are still learning how to regulate their emotions and learning about themselves more than they are trying to fit into social groups.
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Time Line: Middle Childhood
6 years
Difficulty noticing when a tone in a melody has changed, heightened sensitivity to sound
7 years
With formal music training, ability to determine absolute pitch
10 years
Difficulty detecting mistunings in nonnative scales
This slide is the time line of “Musical Mile Markers” for middle childhood. The information for this slide comes from (Stalinski and Schellenberg, 2012).
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Music and Development: Adolescence
Identity
Emotions
Sense of self
Media
Social
Groups
values
Education
Classroom
Skills
Music is extremely important in the development of adolescents. It is somewhere in this age range where enculturation is completed and musical preference and recognition of native sounds and melodies is solidified (Stalinski and Schellenberg, 2012).
Music plays a major role in the formation of identity. Music is used as something that people can relate to, something to escape to in times of stress or for enjoyment. Music is a way for people to express and regulate their emotions, whether they are playing music or just listening to it. Their own personal preference of genre reflects their values and their way of thinking (Särkämö, Tervaniemi, Huotilainen, 2013). Researchers Rentfrow, Goldberg, and Levitin
came up with “five robust preference dimensions” that categorize people based off their underlying musical preference and their psychological musical preferences. They list that people may be mellow, unpretentious, sophisticated, intense, or contemporary based on their musical taste (Bonneville-Roussy, Rentfrow). As people begin to find a better sense of self with the help of music, they begin to form an identity. In this stage Erik Erikson determined that the “crisis” is identity v identity confusion (Jensen 24).. If people do not form a solid identity at this age, it may negatively impact the rest of their life because progression of development may be halted until that sense of self is complete.
Media use is a big part of adolescence. In fact according to Jeffery Jensen in Human Development a Cultural Approach “…adolescents use media for about eight hours a day,” (396). Media use includes listening to music whether it be streaming music online, listening to downloaded music, or sharing music via social media. On the next slide I will show you Jane Brown’s Media Practice Model that better explains how music media can effect identity development.
As people continue to develop their own personal identity, they also work on their social identity. Who they spend time with, who they can relate to, and what cultural values they hold. As I’ve talked about earlier, each genre has a group of people that uphold traditions and values of that music. People may fall into a social group of a genre because that is what their friends listen to, or they may find themselves in a genre’s social group because that’s the kind of music they like (Rentfrow, Goldberg, Levitin). Music also promotes group formation and adherence because it is enjoyable. People who like the same music dance and sing together (Särkämö, Tervaniemi, Huotilainen, 2013). That makes a very open and easygoing friendship. For example, my friends all like EDM. We are friends because of the music. We go to concerts and mix our own music. We always have something to talk about and do.
Stereotypes of other music social groups may lead to prejudice against people. Now while this prejudice may not be harsh or violent, it does lead to segregation between the groups.
Music’s benefits in the classroom are still evident throughout middle and high school as it was in earlier grades. Though music may not be used to teach lessons (such as the days of the week in preschool), it is still seen in music classes and also used as a way for students to release stress and have their mind on while doing school work (or trying to not think about school work). Listening and practicing music allows for higher levels of thinking as it stimulates creative thinking and different reasoning skills such as math concepts (keeping beats and time) (MATTAR, 2013).
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This is the Media Practice Model by Jane Brown. It shows how media is used to form parts of people’s identity. It begins with motivation to use media. So for instance, let’s say someone wants to start listening to music while doing errands. They will have to motivation to look into buying some sort of a portable music player. For this example let’s say that the person wants to buy MP3 player. That would be their selection. Whether or not they end up getting the MP3 player or trying to use one is the attention and interaction they have with the media. If they like it they will evaluate it and start using it more often until it becomes a normal habit for them and they incorporate it as part of their values and identity (Arnett 397).
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Music and Development: Young Adulthood
Emotion (Bonneville, Rentfrow, & Potter, 2013; Stalinski & Schellenberg, 2012)
Self
Identification of emotion in music
Identity (Bonneville, Rentfrow, & Potter, 2013)
Self
Relationships
In young adulthood, music is still used for emotional regulation. However, young adults rate music as less important now than it was during adolescence (Bonneville, Rentfrow, Potter, 2013). Perhaps this is because at this age people are very busy with work life and trying to make it as an independent adult (especially in Western countries).
Though music may not be used as much for emotional regulation, the ability of young adults to figure out the emotion of a song improves with age. Again tempo cues are used as the biggest factor in determining a song’s emotion (Stalinski & Schellenberg, 2012).
At this age identity is still forming so the use of genres as finding social groups still prevails to an extent. However, life experiences and relationships may alter personalities and thus lead to a change in music preference. At this age in Erikson’s lifespan model people are at the crisis of intimacy v isolation (Bonneville, Rentfrow, & Potter, 2013). Music may be used to help find a partner because it acts as common ground for the two people. A similar taste in music possibly means similar values, similar ways of thinking, and similar life experiences.
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Music and Development: Middle and Late Adulthood
Memory
Emotion
Aging
Identity
Music preference
In middle and late adulthood, music increases in importance from early adulthood. By age 65 people claim that music is more important than at any other age (Rentfrow, Goldberg, Levitin, 2011). This is because of its effects on memory and emotion. By middle adulthood music is used for arousal and emotional stability as people begin to grow weary as aging begins (Rentfrow, Goldberg, Levitin, 2011). Especially in late adulthood as medical and physical ailments begin to prevail, music definitely helps people from feeling blue. It brings back memories of their younger years and gives them something to enjoy. As stated before, music is very important in cognitive functioning and that is no exception in middle and late adulthood. Take for example people suffering from dementia. Music, whether its is listening to it or playing it, has been found to “have a positive effect on the recovery of verbal memory and focused attention…” (Särkämö, Tervaniemi, Huotilainen, 2013).
Music’s ability to help control emotional regulation does not simply disappear with aging. Listening to music still evokes different emotions that people may use to help stabilize the way they think.
By this age, people have found their identity. They are usually with their significant other and is just enjoying life for what it is. At this point, their preference in music “crystalized.” Researchers Holbrook and Schindler, North and Hargreaves hypothesized that “music preferences crystalizes in early adulthood and do not change from that point onward,” (Bonneville-Roussy, Rentfrow, Potter). I think they are correct about music crystalizing and not changing, but I do not think they are correct with the age in which that happens. I believe it is in middle and late adulthood that this phenomenon takes place. My reasoning includes the solidified identity reached at these ages so there is no need to search and be part of a new genre’s culture and the fact that people tend to listen to their days popular music. Have your parents ever told you to “turn off that garbage” or “what is that noise?” when you listen to your music? People are “stuck” in their age’s music because it’s what they enjoyed throughout their life. It’s what they grew up with, it’s what helped formed who they are. At these stages Erikson described their crisis at generativity v stagnation and ego integrity v despair (Arnett 24). People at these stages are doing what they can to make themselves happy and preserve their culture. Listening to their music keeps their spirits up and their culture alive.
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AND IN CONCLUSION
Development
Music as a social cohesion agent
Evolution
Present day
Brain function
Emotion
In this slide show I have shown how music effects people throughout their life.
In each stage of life, music plays a different role in physical, mental, social, and emotional functioning that helps people develop fully.
Over thousands of years of humans living on Earth, music has been used as communication between different peoples. It is a bonding agent for different cultures that provides tradition and values (ex, tribal songs). It has been used for the bonding of people (mother and child, genres and cultural groups that go along with them).
Music enhances brain function and promotes higher levels of thinking. The brain uses many different regions to process music. Music helps shape the brain especially with formal music training.
Emotional regulation is a very important aspect of music. Throughout life it gives people a sense of stability and expression that they may fall back on.
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References
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Mack, (2015 ) Nine country music stereotypes everyone thinks are true. "Wide Open Country.
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