Linnemann Alexandra, Strahler Jana, Nater Urs M
Department of Psychology, Division of Clinical Biopsychology, University of Marburg.
Department of Psychology, Division of Clinical Biopsychology, University of Marburg;
J Vis Exp. 2017 Feb 2(120):54920. doi: 10.3791/54920.
Music listening is associated with stress-reducing effects. However, most of the results on music listening and stress were gathered in experimental settings. As music listening is a popular activity of daily life, it is of utmost importance to study the effects of music listening on psychobiological stress in an everyday, daily-life setting. Here, a study protocol is presented that allows the assessment of associations between music listening and psychobiological stress in daily life by noninvasively measuring salivary cortisol (as a marker of the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis) and salivary alpha-amylase (as a marker of the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS)). The protocol includes advice on the study design (e.g., sampling protocol), the materials and methods (e.g., the assessment of psychobiological stress in daily life, the assessment of music listening, and the manual), the selection of participants (e.g., the approval of the institutional review board and inclusion criteria), and the statistical analyses (e.g., the multilevel approach). The representative results provide evidence for a stress-reducing effect of music listening in daily life. Particularly, specific reasons for listening to music (especially relaxation), as well as the presence of others while doing so, increase this stress-reducing effect. At the same time, music listening in daily life differentially affects the HPA axis and ANS functioning, thus emphasizing the need for a multi-dimensional assessment of stress in daily life.
听音乐与减轻压力的效果相关。然而，大多数关于听音乐与压力的研究结果是在实验环境中获得的。由于听音乐是日常生活中的一项常见活动，在日常的生活环境中研究听音乐对心理生理压力的影响至关重要。在此，我们提出一项研究方案，该方案通过无创测量唾液皮质醇（作为下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺（HPA）轴的标志物）和唾液α-淀粉酶（作为自主神经系统（ANS）的标志物）来评估日常生活中听音乐与心理生理压力之间的关联。该方案包括有关研究设计（例如采样方案）、材料和方法（例如日常生活中心理生理压力的评估、听音乐的评估以及手册）、参与者的选择（例如机构审查委员会的批准和纳入标准）以及统计分析（例如多层次方法）的建议。代表性结果为日常生活中听音乐具有减轻压力的效果提供了证据。特别是，听音乐的特定原因（尤其是放松）以及听音乐时他人的在场会增强这种减轻压力的效果。同时，日常生活中的听音乐对HPA轴和ANS功能有不同影响，因此强调了对日常生活中的压力进行多维评估的必要性。
