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Date of Graduation

5-2025

Description

Problem. Experiencing a sexual assault often results in lasting psychological trauma that inhibits the person’s ability to function (CDC, 2022), so coping strategies are needed to reduce those symptoms. For instance, after listening to traumatic stories, people experience significant increases in subjective distress (Bynion et al., 2023). And laboratory studies demonstrate that calming music reduces subjective distress (Judd, 2020; Ophir & Jacoby, 2020). On the other hand, calming music appears to interfere with memory and processing (Rickard et al., 2012). While music has been shown to be a helpful coping mechanism to decrease anxiety and may relate to memory and learning, no study to date has examined these simultaneously as they relate to trauma. This study examines the effect of listening to calming music (vs silence) on both anxiety levels and memory recall following the description of a sexual assault. We hypothesize that: (H1) Participants who listen to calming music after hearing the trauma script will report lower anxiety levels than those who did not listen to music, controlling for baseline anxiety levels; (H2) Participants who listen to calming music after hearing the trauma script will demonstrate less memory retention than those who didn’t listen to music; (H3) Participants’ anxiety levels will be significantly positively related to their memory retention; and (H4) The association between listening to calming music and memory for a traumatic script will be partially mediated by anxiety levels. Methods. Participants (N = 84; 73% female; aged 18-24; 7% Asian, 5% Black, 11% Latine, 4% Native American, 1% Pacific Islander, 86% White; 89% heterosexual) with no PTSD or uncorrected hearing impairments were recruited from undergraduate psychology courses. Participants came into the lab, took a baseline anxiety measure (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory; STAI; Spielberger et al., 1970), listened to a script detailing a sexual assault, then completed the anxiety measure again. Participants were then randomly assigned to listen to either calming music (“Gymnopedie No. 1"" by Erik Satie) or sit in silence for five minutes before taking the anxiety measure for a third time. Then, participants took a researcher-developed multiple-choice memory test based on the traumatic narrative they listened to. Results. Data analyses are currently being conducted. To test the hypothesis, a mediation model will be estimated in R using path analysis. The independent variable will be post-story STAI scores. The mediators will be experimental condition and final STAI scores. The dependent variable will be total story recall score. Conclusions. This research has implications for factors impacting the processing potentially traumatic information and may have extensions to the treatment of clinical populations.

Publication Date

2025

Document Type

Book

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts in Psychology

Degree Level

Undergraduate

Department

Psychological Science

Advisor/Mentor

Bridges, Ana

Disciplines

Social and Behavioral Sciences

Keywords

Social Science

Calming Music as an Emotion Regulation Technique in Response to a Traumatic Sexual Assault Narrative

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