Emotional and Psychological Effect of Music on People

Many of us enjoy music. We listen to it while we study, practice, run, or just while relaxing. However, we may not realize the impact of the music on us, both physically and emotionally. I hypothesize that sedative music will calm and relax, exciting music will bring excitement, and neutral music will bring emotional equilibrium. I also hypothesize that the heart rates of subjects will match the tempo of the song they are listening to. A survey that asked questions about the subject’s emotional state and heart rate was conducted before and after the subjects listened to sedative, exciting, and neutral music. The types of music were chosen because of their predicted effects and because of their differences in tempo. Some of the results were surprising concerning heart rate, while the emotional states aligned better with the hypothesis. For heart rate when listening to sedative music, the heart rates were very similar between subjects. When listening to exciting and neutral music, the heart rates were closer to half of the tempo of the music. Understanding the impacts of music on human beings allows us to use music for the greater good. One example of this could be through the use of music therapy to help everyone but specifically those that are emotionally unstable.