Beat of the Music |1

Running Head: BEAT OF THE MUSIC

Effects of Beat of the Music to the Written Composition

of CAS Selected Students

Noreen D. Aguiron

Caryl Mitzi M. Balmes

Erich Kevin H. Reyes

Batangas State University

 Beat of the Music |2

ABSTRACT
 Beat of the Music |3

Introduction

Effects of Beat of the Music to the Written Composition of CAS Selected Students

Researches about the effects of music in different areas of human dimension

such as the cognitive process, emotion and feelings, personalities and such have been

made. Old and recent researches that study the effects of music in various dependent

variables will be reviewed and be used in identifying and explaining the results of the

present study.

Hui et. al (1995) studied the impact of music on consumers reaction to waiting

for services. An experimental study conducted to test three different constructs-

perceived wait duration, perceived services cape and emotional state during the wait-

as mediators between music and service evaluation. The result of the study showed

that music ameliorates perceived services cape and then service evaluation regardless

of its valence. Furthermore, positively valence music triggers a more positive emotional

state in consumers during the wait than negatively valenced music.

Hallam (2010) conducted a research that studies the impacts of music on the

intellectual, social and personal development of children and young people which

explains how musical skills may transfer to other activities if the process involved is

similar. She found out that the positive effects of engagement with the music in the

personal and social development only occur if it is an enjoyable and rewarding

experience.
 Beat of the Music |4

Ehlert, Mohiyeddini, Nater, Ryf and Thoma (2012), conducted a study to explore

the link between music and emotional perceptions. The volunteers were introduced into

16 hypothetical situations that involve highly positive and highly negative emotional

states. The individuals were instructed to visualize themselves in these situation as if

experiencing them firsthand. Afterwards, participants listened to 20 different styles of

songs and were instructed to choose one song they preferred to listen in one of the

hypothetical situations. Results indicated that there was a strong correlation between

the type of emotion and the preferred style of music. In general, style of songs mirrored

the type of emotion in the imagined environment.

Ferguson (2013) conducted a study to find out if listening to upbeat music can

improve their moods and happiness in just two weeks. In the study, participants were

instructed to try to improve their mood, but they only succeeded when they listened to

the upbeat music of Copland as opposed to the sadder tunes of Stravinsky.

Kwong (2016) compared the impact of rap and meditative yoga music on

emotion. The purpose of the study was to determine the degree of musics influence on

changes in emotion, specifically in the domains of aggression using two extremes of

audio categories, relaxing yoga music and aggressive rap music. The study used 75

college students as participants of the study. Kwong administered Buss-Perry Agression

Questionnaire to the participants and prior to the administration of the experiment, they

were asked to close their eyes and listen to the selected song for a minute. After a

minute of exposure to the song, the participants were then asked to complete the

questionnaire while the music is still playing in the background. Twenty-five participants

were each assigned to three levels of acoustic stimuli; the yoga music, control or no
 Beat of the Music |5

music at all and aggressive rap music. The results indicated that there was no

noticeable differences in reported aggression between the yoga and control group.

Though aggressive music significantly increased a domain of aggression for the

listeners in the rap group than the control group. This studys implications would be on

the possibility of regulating moods through music than resorting to drugs.

The experimenters hypothesized that the beat of music will affect the emotional
content of written life experiences of the participants. It was hypothesized that upbeat
music will result to the happy or joyful emotional affect of the written life experience as
the slow beat music will result to sad emotional affect of the written life experience of
the participants. Kwong (2016) hypothesized that music influences the emotion
especially the aggressive domain. The experimenter will use the study of Kwong in
supporting the hypothesis of the present experiment. Also the studies of Ferguson
(2013) and Ehlert, Mohiyeddini, Nater, Ryf and Thoma (2012) will be used to further
explain the result of the experiment

The purpose of this experiment is to determine the effects of beat of music in the
emotional affect of the written life experience of the subjects.

Method

Participants

Forty participants serve as the subjects of the experiments. Twenty (20) who will
receive treatment (A) which is a slow beat music and the other twenty (20) will receive
treatment (B) which is a upbeat music. Participants in the experiments are selected by
the use of convenience sampling and are chosen by their willingness to participate in
the experiment. The experimenters limit the subjects only to CAS Students. Gender of
the subjects is random and is not a controlled variable. Yet the age of the subjects are
limited only from 18-21 years old.
 Beat of the Music |6

Apparatus

The experimenters used a speaker for the background music played all
throughout the experiment. Its volume is fixed in an average level that is enough to
occupy the whole room and cannot hear from the outside. They used instrumental
music with two kinds of beats; slow beat and upbeat. The music mentioned, will serves
as the treatment condition of the experiment. Aside from this, the experimenters also
used a pen and paper as an instrument for the written life composition of the subjects.
The paper is a half-bond paper sized and is printed with a demographic profile to be
filled by the participants. This includes their name, age, sex and their program. Also,
they used a sized bond paper printed with two kinds of emoticons; a smiley and sad,
to validate the feeling they experience while writing the composition.

Procedure

The experiment is set on Room 202 located at the second floor of MSP Building,
CAS Department. It is an air-conditioned room to ensure the comfortable atmosphere of
the setting. The experimenters believed that an uncomfortable setting may be an
extraneous variable that can influence the result of the experiment. Chairs inside the
room are arranged in circular pattern like in the game Trip to Jerusalem. In this way,
all the subjects will face only the wall and can eliminate the distraction with their co
subjects while writing. The experiment takes place from 2:00pm to 5:00pm in the
afternoon. The music is playing inside the room even before the subjects enter the
room. The experimenters used a between-subject design in the experiment and used a
convenience sampling on selecting the subjects.

On the day of the experiment, the experimenters look for available subjects to
participate limited only to CAS students. After gathering the expected number of
subjects, they are then brief with instructions before allowing them to enter the room.
The first instruction is to refrain from talking to their co subjects once they enter the
 Beat of the Music |7

room. Next is to avoid using any gadgets. And last is to seat one seat apart. These are
the factors that may be an extraneous variable in a way that it may steal the focus of the
subject on writing the composition.

While experimenter (1) briefs the subjects outside the room, the experimenter (2)
and (3) inside the room prepare the materials to be used and the seats to be used.

After the briefing, the experimenter (1) guides the subjects to enter the room and
lead them to their respective seats with the treatment condition still playing. The
experimenters gave the subjects a few minutes to condition and adopt themselves on
the setting. After that, the experimenters first introduced themselves and partially brief
the subjects about the experiment.

The experimenters then distribute a half-bond paper that they will used on where
they will write the composition. The subjects are then instructed by experimenter (2) to
write a personal life event that they experienced or anything that comes to their mind.
They can write it in any language they are comfortable with. While the experiment is
ongoing, the experimenters were inside the circle and observing the subject and the
experimenters prepares a little token of appreciation for the subjects for participating.
No time limit is given to the subjects so rushing the composition can be avoided.

After writing their life experiences, the experimenters then collects the paper and
hands the subjects another piece of paper containing a happy and sad emoticon. The
subjects were then asked to check either of the emoticons that reflect their feelings
while writing the life event. After collecting the pieces of paper, the experimenters then
debrief the subjects about the experiment. This includes the real purpose of the
experiment and the objectives. Before leaving the room, the experimenters express
their gratitude to the subjects and each received the prepared tokens.

These procedures are repeated all throughout the experiment. It is set in four (4)
sessions. Four sessions are in ABAB pattern of the treatment wherein treatment A is
slow music while treatment B is fast music. Therefore, the first and third group listened
to a slow beat music while the second and last group listened to an upbeat music.
 Beat of the Music |8

Results

Slowbeat: It is expected that the number of subjects who feel sad while writing the composition is
higher than the number of subjects who feel the other way.

Upbeat: It is expected that the number of subjects who feel happy while writing the composition
is higher than the number of subjects who feel the other way

Figure 1.1 Group 1 Slowbeat Music

GROUP 1 (SLOWBEAT MUSIC)

16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
S. 1 S. 2 S. 3 S. 4 S. 5 S. 6 S. 7 S. 8 S. 9 S. 10

SAD SMILE

As shown from Figure 1.1, Group 1 consists of 10 selected CAS students who have experienced
Treatment Condition A which is an upbeat music have ten (10) subjects which consists of seven (7)
males and three (3 ) female shows that six (6) of the subjects have been affected by the treatment
condition, subject two (2) shows uncertainty because they are at the same level based on the numbers
of words on their written composition. Subject three (3), six (6), and ten (10) shows that they are not
that been affected by treatment condition because the result shows that their written composition does
not correlate to the music. As a conclusion since there have greater number of subjects who write a sad
composition, it means that the treatment condition does correlate to the written life composition of the
subject.
 Beat of the Music |9

GROUP 2 UPBEAT MUSIC

6
5
4
3
2
1
0
S. 1 S. 2 S. 3 S. 4 S. 5 S. 6 S. 7 S. 8 S. 9 S. 10

SAD SMILE

Based on the result shown which consists of ten (10) subjects five (5) females and five (5) males,
it shows that subject one (1) show a mixed emotion with a higher number of sad words in the
composition than the happy words, which means it does not totally have been affected by the music.
Subject two (2), five (5), and seven (7) also shows mixed emotion but the happy words are greater than
the opposite which means they more affected by the treatment condition. Subject three (3), four (4),
eight (8) and ten (10) shows that there written composition are correlated on the beat of the music
while subject nine (9) shows the opposite. Subject six (6) shows uncertainty because of the same level of
the both emotion. As a conclusion, the treatment condition does correlate to written life composition
based on the higher number of happy composition written by the subjects
 B e a t o f t h e M u s i c | 10

Group 3 (SLOWBEAT MUSIC)

12

10

0
S. 1 S. 2 S. 3 S. 4 S. 5 S. 6 S. 7 S. 8 S. 9 S.10

SAD SMILE

In the result shown which have ten (10) subjects consist of five (5) males and five (5) females.
Subject one (1), two (2), three (3), seven (7), nine (9), ten (10) and eight (8), shows that they are affected
by the music which correlates to their written composition, though subject seven and ten show a mixed
emotion there is still high number of sad words to their written life composition. The subject four (4),
five (5), and six (6) shows that their written composition does not correlate because the content of their
composition has a greater number of happy words. As a conclusion based on the result there written life
composition does correlate to the treatment condition they experienced based on the high number of
subject who wrote a sad composition
 B e a t o f t h e M u s i c | 11

GROUP 4 (UPBEAT MUSIC)

7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
S. 1 S. 2 S. 3 S. 4 S. 5 S. 6 S. 7 S. 8 S. 9 S. 10

SAD SMILE

The graph shows that the subjects written composition do correlate to the given treatment
condition based on its high number of happy composition, it illustrated in subject two (2), three (3), four
(4), five (5), six (6), seven (7), and eight (8) though subject two (2) and seven (7) has mixed emotion
there are greater number of happy words than its opposite. Subject one (1),and ten (10) shows that they
do not correspond to the treatment condition, though subject ten (10) contain a happy content the sad
words are higher to it. The subject nine (9) experience the same level of emotion which means it is
uncertain. A total of ten (10) subject consists of five (5) males and five (5) females.
 B e a t o f t h e M u s i c | 12

Insert ung overall

As an overall conclusion the Independent variable which is beat of the music does affect the
written life composition of the subject which means that we reject the hypothesis.

VALIDATION OF DATA
10

0
GROUP 1 (SLOW BEAT) GROUP 2 (UP BEAT) GROUP 3 (SLOW BEAT) GROUP 4 (UP BEAT)

SAD SMILE BOTH SAD AND SMILE

 B e a t o f t h e M u s i c | 13

Discussion

References

Tables

Appendices

Pictures
 B e a t o f t h e M u s i c | 14

Composition Form

Name (Optional): ________________________________ Sex: ________

Course: __________________________ Age: ________

 B e a t o f t h e M u s i c | 15

Validation Form

[] []
[] []
[] []
[] []