The objective of the present study is to compare the effects of free improvisation and projective listening on university students’ stress. For this purpose, we compared life stress and stress level between a group of university students to which fr...
The objective of the present study is to compare the effects of free improvisation and projective listening on university students’ stress. For this purpose, we compared life stress and stress level between a group of university students to which free improvisation was applied and another group to which projective listening was applied.
The subjects of this study were 32 ordinary university students. They were assigned to the free improvisation group (n=16) or the projective listening group (n=16) at random and their homogeneity was tested using Abell’s stress scale. This research was designed to have pretest before the treatment and to have posttest after 8 sessions of free improvisation and projective listening, respectively, for the two groups. The pretest and the posttest were conducted using the scales of university students’ life stress and stress level.
The research period was four weeks from March 19 to April 13, 2007, 2 sessions each week so a total of 8 session, and 60 minutes per session. Collected data were analyzed using SPSS Win15.0, and significance was determined based on significance level p<.05. First, independent sample t test was made to test homogeneity of the groups in terms of stress, and paired sample t test was made after the experiment in order to see if there are differences in the scores of life stress and stress level among the students in each group. In addition, independent sample t test was made to see if there are differences between the free improvisation group and the projective listening group in their change in the mean scores of life stress and stress level from the pretest and the posttest.
The results of this study are as follows.
First, significant difference was observed in university students’ life stress within each group according to music therapy method (free improvisation, projective listening) (P<0.01). Both free improvisation and projective listening were found effective in decreasing university students’ life stress.
Second, no statistically significant difference was observed in university students’ life stress between the free improvisation and the projective listening. However, when the mean score of life stress was compared between before and after the interventions, the score decreased more in the projective listening group than in the free improvisation group.
Third, significant difference was observed in stress level within each group according to music therapy method (free improvisation, projective listening). Both free improvisation and projective listening were found effective in decreasing the stress level.
Fourth, no statistically significant difference was observed in life level between the free improvisation and the projective listening.
However, when the mean score of stress level was compared between before and after the interventions, the score decreased more in the projective listening group than in the free improvisation group.
Free improvisation and projective listening helped university students understand their stress and express it through instruments and songs, and resultantly decreased their stress. In particular, projective listening won the subjects’ sympathy as the songs were selected based on a preliminary survey on musical preference. In addition, projective listening is considered more effective in decreasing stress because the structure provided by the elements of the songs helped the students discuss their problems intensively.
In conclusion, both free improvisation and projective listening were found to have a positive effect on decreasing university students’ stress.
There should be continuous research for improving the music therapy programs in this study by adopting small group or longterm application so that they have more positive effects on decreasing university students’ stress.