Music and the Emotional Regulation of University Students: A Descriptive Experience Sampling Study

Abstract

The research study had a main research objective. The primary objective was to explore the lived experiences and perceptions of students studying at the University of the Witwatersrand while listening to music in relation to their perception of with particular emphasis on emotional regulation and the functions that music plays in their lives both related to emotional regulation and not. This was done to ascertain how these experiences were similar and contrasted each other. To do this, the participants were contacted on WhatsApp on three occasions whilst they were in their naturalistic environments. If they were listening to music when contacted, they reflected on that experience of listening to music. As it was not possible to control if the participants were listening to music or not, if they were not listening to music when contacted, they reflected on a recent experience of doing so. A qualitative and ideographic research design was used for the research study. Psychology course coordinators emailed a participant invitation with a link to a screening survey to postgraduate and undergraduate Psychology students at the University of the Witwatersrand; the first twelve suitable participants received a link to a demographic questionnaire. These twelve participants completed a reflective survey on three different occasions, reflecting on a recent experience(s) of listening to music when contacted. Finally, the reflections and their general experiences of listening to music were discussed in semi-structured interviews. The reflections and interview transcripts were analysed using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis, which generated two themes: Experiences of listening to music being meaningful when powerful and The meaningful functions of listening to music. The strength of the study is its explorative and unpresumptuous approach, but a limitation of it that could be addressed by future longitudinal research that could explore musical experiences at different times.