The Effects of Different Styles of Music on Adolescent Males - Research Paper Example

Music’s effect on the athlete is evident to anyone who has ever felt the surge of adrenaline that accompanies their favorite drum solo on their favorite rock album, but surprisingly little scientific evidence has been contributed to this subject in current literature. A 1997 review of the psychophysical effects of music conducted by Karageorghis and colleagues showed that the impact of stimulating music on the athlete is not certain and further research is required (Karageorghis 1997). Despite this gap in literature, some promising research has been conducted.

A 2005 study conducted by Seath and colleagues showed that music versus no music can have a significant effect on athletes’ perceptions of effort and feeling of exercise (Sheath 2005), showing that music potentially can effect how athletes perform in the gym. Despite these promising results, research in the area of music’s effect on the athlete in the gym is surprisingly sparse. The main focus of the present study is to address if music type has an effect on the number of bench press repetitions performed in the gym by four athletes.

The research hypothesis is: Ho: Music type will have no effect on the number of bench press repetitions performed. Ha: Music type will significantly affect the number of bench press repetitions performed. To maintain objectivity during the course of this study, athletes were not aware they were being observed. This study incorporates two independent variables (music type and person), which are both grouping variables. The dependent variable for this study is the number of bench press repetitions, which is a continuous variable’.

To test the research hypothesis, a mean number of repetitions will be determined for each person for each type of music. These means will then be compared between music types to determine if music genre playing in the gym affects the number of repetitions performed. Because certain athletes may be able to do more repetitions than others despite whatever music is playing, mean repetitions will be compared on a person-by-person basis. To conduct this analysis, Microsoft Excel was used. Results of the analysis revealed that music type did affect the number of bench press repetitions performed, meaning that we have rejected our null hypothesis in favor of our alternate hypothesis.

The music type that appeared to have the largest affect on the number of repetitions performed appeared to be classical. A graph was created to show the increase in repetitions every athlete except for one demonstrated while listening to classical music (see Appendix). One limitation of this study is not controlling for the cofounding variable of fatigue. As athletes progressed through the study, they may have experienced fatigue contributing to a diminished ability to perform the same amount of work.

Future studies should attempt to capture fatigue as a variable in order to control for it. Despite these promising results, there is still a great deal of work to be done in this area and future researchers can be encouraged by these results. Appendix References 1. Karageorghis, C. I., & Terry, P. C. (1997). The psychophysical effects of music in sport and exercise: a review. Journal of Sport Behavior, 20(1), 54-68. 2. Seath, L., & Thow, M. (1995). The Effect of Music on the Perception of Effort and Mood During Aerobic Type Exercise.

Physiotherapy, 81(10), 592- 596. doi: