Ingvild Stene: Music as a means to support emotion regulation

Field of Study: Music Therapy

Summary

Music affects us in numerous ways. We often come across stories of how music affects emotions in people’s everyday life. The main focus of the doctoral dissertation is an investigation of how music may serve as a means to support emotion regulation, when people are facing emotional challenges. The participants in the study are eight adult women (20-50 years) sharing a lived experience of eating disorder. Emotional challenges and difficulties expressing emotions verbally can both be a potential causative factor and a consequence of living with an eating disorder. The present study investigates how established eating disorder behaviours/strategies can be influenced and changed into more adaptive and health-promoting strategies/behaviours.

The study's clinical approach, Therapeutic Music Listening (TML), explores how music listening can influence different aspects of the individual's emotion regulation. The study explores how supportive emotional regulatory strategies together with physiological mechanisms and emotions can be influenced and further developed through music listening. An important aim has been to investigate how TML can serve as a therapeutic approach in facilitating emotional experience, recognition, tolerance, awareness, and expression, together with developing new strategies for emotional regulation.

The study was situated within a group therapy setting, where music listening was utilized in different ways to promote emotional awareness and stimulate affect awareness. The clinical approach (TML) contributes to an understanding of how music influences both body and mind, and how music can be utilized as regulatory support. Also, an important aspect in TML is to stimulate the participants to utilize music more strategically in their daily life. TML is a psychotherapeutic method and has historical roots in existential psychotherapy, developmental psychology, and the trauma field. The method is influenced by theories on music and identity, Guided Imagery and Music (GIM) and elements from psychodrama, concerning theory, and philosophy, as well as interventions/methods. The music experience is of central importance for the recognition and expression of interpersonal relationships. Together with this, emotional awareness and the ability to reflect on emotions is emphasized.

Stene has utilized principles from phenomenology throughout the research process. Pre-understanding and experience involve a hermeneutic interpretation of data. This, because the experience of music is part of a wider context and resonates with an ecological understanding of music.

Structure

The dissertation consists of 9 chapters. First, the aim of the study and the research questions are described. In the first chapter, the clinical approach is also presented. Chapter 2 presents the results of the literature search, and relevant research is outlined. Chapter 3 considers theories on eating disorders, perspectives on music, affects and the role and function of music in emotional regulation.

In chapter 4, the study’s research method is described. This qualitative study utilizes data collection methods consisting of qualitative interview, narratives, participatory observations, and exchanges via e-mail. The participants’ experiences and how they describe music as regulatory support is the main focus. Stene utilizes qualitative research strategies. The data set consists of semi-structured interviews, observations-in-action [participatory observation] and correspondences via e-mail. Throughout, the participants’ music experiences is the main focus together with how they describe the processes when music is used as regulatory support. Ending the chapter, I consider ethical aspects concerning the current research.

Chapter 5-8 presents the dissertations’ results which concerns musical resources, emotional regulation, affect awareness, and transfer to everyday life. Each result chapter discussed separately the empirical material and results within the context of the dissertation’s research question, theory and methods. Chapter 9 consists of a summary discussion and conclusion of results and limitations of the study. This chapter also includes reflections on possible further developments.

The results, based on the participants’ experiences, demonstrate that TML is feasible in working with affect awareness, and that the participants may experience enhanced tolerance for emotions while utilizing music as a tactic in forming new regulatory strategies. The study show how music listening can serve a relational and emotional regulatory purpose, contributing to new experiences and actions opportunities while facing emotional challenges in everyday life.

The dissertation

The dissertation is titled (translated from Norwegian) Music as a means to support emotion regulation. A study of Therapeutic Music Listening (TML) and eating disorder.

The dissertation is a monograph, and it is written in Norwegian.

The dissertation is available in NMH's digital archive.