RELATION BETWEEN MUSIC LISTENING AND STRESS
 Some studies have shown decrease in cortisol levels following positive mood induction or in correlation with trait positive effect.
 Several studies have shown that music reduces stress and cortisol levels before, during and after medical procedures.
 Fast-tempo music has been found to be just as effective in reducing stress as slow-tempo music.
 It has been found that fast-tempo music only can reduce stress when the music is the individual’s preferred musical taste.
 Listening to preferred music may have the strongest effects on relaxation and stress reduction (Krout, 2007) which points to the importance of considering musical preferences when studying emotional responses to music listening.
 Perceived control is important for stress reduction.
 Subject chosen music may be more effective in reducing stress compared to experimenter chosen music since it gives participants some control over the situation by letting them choose music that they find relaxing.

OBJECTIVE OF THE RESEARCH
This research is conducted in order to find out
• How music helps in stress management
APPROACH TO THE PROBLEM
Methods for studying responses to everyday music listening
1. SURVEY METHOD Survey studies are useful because they offer the opportunity to use large samples of participants which makes it more relevant to generalize the results to the population. Survey studies may be conducted in several ways. Postal surveys can be useful in terms of sample size, but it might be a time consuming process. Bringing the participants to the same place to complete the survey on a researcher’s watch, make it possible to gather a great deal of information at one time, although the presence of the researcher may affect the participants’ answers (i.e. Demand characteristics). Additionally, surveys usually involve retrospective accounts, which are biased because they reflect reconstructive memory.
2. FIELD STUDY Field study method refers to the observation and recording of what happens in a naturalistic setting. A major advantage with this method, if conducted correctly, is that one gets to explore participants’ ‘true’ behaviour. It is important to study emotions and behaviour in their natural setting. A disadvantage with field studies is, however, that they might jeopardize the validity of causal inferences.

3. EXPERIENCE SAMPLING METHOD One solution to the problem with retrospective accounts when using survey studies may be the Experience Sampling Method (ESM) (Conner Christensen, Barrett, BlissMoreau, Lebo & Kaschub, 2003). When frequency estimates of specific emotions are needed, the ESM can give more reliable data than the estimates obtained in survey studies. A great advantage of the ESM is that it permits one to study events as they unfold in their natural environment. But the ESM is an expensive method, it does not provide information about every single event in the participants’ lives and it places a high burden on the participants.
4. DAY RECONSTRUCTION METHOD
• A middle way between a survey study and an ESM study is the Day Reconstruction Method (DRM). DRM is a method developed by Kahneman et al. (2004). The aim with the DRM is that participants should be able to reproduce the information that normally would be collected by probing experiences as they happen. Kahneman provide ample evidence that psychological constructs such as emotion are equally well-captured with the DRM as with the ESM.
• The DRM consists of two parts. In the first section of the DRM participants are asked to recall what they did the previous day by writing down every activity in a diary, in terms of episodes (activities, time of day, and emotions felt). In the next section they are describing each episode by answering questions about the situation and the emotions (e.g. being alone or together with others, experienced emotions, level of stress and feelings of control).
• TThe DRM imposes less participant burden than ESM, and it does not disrupt the participants’ normal activities. The DRM makes it possible to gather information about a whole day in one single setting from large samples. Studies have indicated that methods like DRM gives patterns that are equivalent to those gathered by real-time experience sampling .
• It is easier to detect an extreme negative emotion episode when each episode is studied. By using the DRM when studying emotional responses to music will provide information about music listening as it occurs in daily life, as well as information about emotions and perceived feelings of stress as they unfold in daily life.
5. QUASI-EXPERIMENTAL FIELD STUDY One way to explore the emotional responses and health beneficial effects of music listening in people’s everyday lives is by quasi-experimental field studies. Quasi-experiments include treatments (e.g. music listening), but in contrast to a true experiment, the participants are not randomly assigned to the experiment group or the control group . By gathering information about responses to music in the participants’ home environment will provide data from a setting that is more close to their everyday lives than data assessed in a laboratory setting. Despite the increasing threat to the internal validity, a quasi-experimental field study of the impact of music listening on everyday emotional responses is a step in right direction in exploring the health beneficial effects of everyday music listening.

RESEARCH DESIGN
 We are adopting -Descriptive Research Design(By making use of personal survey)
 METHOD OF ADMINISTERING THE QUESTIONNAIRE:
 by distributing questionnaire to a in-home sample
 KIND OF INFORMATION TO BE OBTAINED:
 study about how everyday music listening affects emotions and stress and to what extent the participants used different emotion regulation strategies in their daily lives.
 SAMPLE SIZE: 40