Masters Theses

Date of Award

5-1997

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Major

Recreation and Leisure Studies

Major Professor

Mary Dale Blanton

Committee Members

Patricia A. Beitel, Keith McClelland

Abstract

The primary problem of this study was to investigate the emotional and cogni-tive relationship between music and the perceptions of chemically dependent adoles-cent females. The purpose was to determine whether listening to memory-provoking music would trigger adolescent females to desire or crave mood altering substances. The hypothesis was that listening to memory provoking music would evoke strong reactions in chemically dependent adolescent females. This project attempted to ex-plore emotional and cognitive reactions to memory-provoking music that might impair a young person's recovery from chemical dependency. The adolescent females from the reconstructive program of Peninsula Village Psychiatric Facility were selected as the population for this study. This group con-sisted of a total of seven females in treatment during the winter and spring of 1997. The participants were given a questionnaire regarding the music they listened to while using mood altering substances. Musical selections were made for each individual participant from the responses on the questionnaire and an interview session was de-signed. One song was selected for the interview that was not a part of the partici-pants drug history as a control song. The interview consisted of listening to a specific song followed by a series of open ended questions. This process was repeated for a total of four songs per adolescent. The perceptions of the participants experience of the music are discussed through a thematic presentation utilizing the participants' own words to build the framework of the study. Inductive analysis of the interview transcripts produced eight central themes that described how the participants react to the music to which they used drugs and alcohol. They were:

  1. A significant amount of the memories that emerged from listening to the music were about using mood altering substances.
  2. There was a strong current of intense emotion throughout the interview sessions.
  3. The participants had memories of death, suicide, and self harm.
  4. Memories emerged about the participants sexual experiences or encounters from listening to the music.
  5. A significant number of participants used the music as a means of escape or with-draw from reality, family, problems, or feelings.
  6. The participants wanted to act on violent impulses after listening to specific songs from their own drug history.
  7. The participants wanted to use mood altering substances after hearing music asso-ciated with their alcohol and drug use.
  8. During the song which was not a part of their own drug history several conclu-sions were drawn: (a there was a decrease in the intensity of emotional reaction, (b there was a decrease in the stimulation of memory, and (c there was a decrease in the severity of physical reactions.
The following conclusions were drawn as a result of this study.
  1. Chemically dependent adolescent females react emotionally and cognitively to the music they listened to while using drugs and alcohol.
  2. Listening to the same music does create a desire to behave in ways common to that person while under the influence of active chemical dependency. The participants wanted to use mood altering substances, act on violent impulses, and escape or
  3. Listening to memory provoking music will evoke strong reactions from chemically dependent adolescent females. There was a strong current of intense emotion and feelings emerged of guilt, remorse, power, depression, and euphoria.
  4. Listening to music to which this population used mood altering substances brought back memories of actual drug use. It also stimulated memories of death, suicide, self harm, and sexual experiences or encounters.
  5. When the participants listened to music that was not a part of their own drug his tory there was a decrease in; the intensity of the emotional reaction, the intensity of the physical reaction, and the stimulation of using memories.

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