This experiment will study the effects of music with lyrics verses music with non lyrics on students who suffer with generalized anxiety during test taking. It his hypothesized that students listing to instrumental music will have lest test anxiety than the group listen to the music with lyrics. Participants will be randomly assigned into two groups; music with lyrics and music with non lyrics. The song will be the same for each group apart from one having lyrics. They will first take the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) to assess their starting anxiety level. They will also rate their anxiety on a scale of one to seven. After that the students will listen to their assigned song until it ends before taking a mathematical test. After five
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Test anxiety, which is a form of academic stress, is defined as a feeling of nervousness before or during an exam. It has been studied that listening to music in high stress areas such as waiting rooms in hospitals, emergency rooms, and even operating rooms reduces anxiety related to pain in both children and adults (Rastogi & Silver, 2014). Gutierrez & Camarena (2015) did a cross-cultural study in 14 countries and found that about 24% of all patients in primary care settings suffer with a mental illness. On top of that, anxiety is one of the three most common diagnoses (Gutierrez & Camarena, 2015). Many studies have found that listing to music as opposed to sitting in silence is beneficial for both anxiety and academic stress (Rastogi & Silver, 2014; Lai, Chen, Chen, et al., 2008; Labbé,Schmidt, Babin, et al., …show more content…
They will all take the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory prior to coming to the lab. They must have a moderate or severe case of test anxiety in order to participate.
Materials
Music player with headphones. There will be an MP3 player and headphones provided for participants to use. Loaded onto the MP3 player will be two versions of the song How To Save A Life by The Fray. The first version will be the regular song with lyrics. The second version will be just instrumental. Anxiety Scoring Tests. There will be a printed out copy of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) along with a copy of an anxiety scoring scale with ratings one to seven. The STAI was chosen based on previous studies which used or recommended that testing scale (Lai, Chen, Chen, et al., 2008; Labbé, Schmidt, Babin, et al.,2007; Julian, 2011). Mathematical Exam. There will be a printed copy of a high school level mathematical test along with two pencils with erasers and a calculator.
Test anxiety, which is a form of academic stress, is defined as a feeling of nervousness before or during an exam. It has been studied that listening to music in high stress areas such as waiting rooms in hospitals, emergency rooms, and even operating rooms reduces anxiety related to pain in both children and adults (Rastogi & Silver, 2014). Gutierrez & Camarena (2015) did a cross-cultural study in 14 countries and found that about 24% of all patients in primary care settings suffer with a mental illness. On top of that, anxiety is one of the three most common diagnoses (Gutierrez & Camarena, 2015). Many studies have found that listing to music as opposed to sitting in silence is beneficial for both anxiety and academic stress (Rastogi & Silver, 2014; Lai, Chen, Chen, et al., 2008; Labbé,Schmidt, Babin, et al., …show more content…
They will all take the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory prior to coming to the lab. They must have a moderate or severe case of test anxiety in order to participate.
Materials
Music player with headphones. There will be an MP3 player and headphones provided for participants to use. Loaded onto the MP3 player will be two versions of the song How To Save A Life by The Fray. The first version will be the regular song with lyrics. The second version will be just instrumental. Anxiety Scoring Tests. There will be a printed out copy of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) along with a copy of an anxiety scoring scale with ratings one to seven. The STAI was chosen based on previous studies which used or recommended that testing scale (Lai, Chen, Chen, et al., 2008; Labbé, Schmidt, Babin, et al.,2007; Julian, 2011). Mathematical Exam. There will be a printed copy of a high school level mathematical test along with two pencils with erasers and a calculator.