23.7. 1993 Vitoria-Gasteiz / Spain - World Federation of Music Therapy

handicapped. His subjects were 108 undergraduate
female students.
In a pilot study (Hooper and Lindsay 17 ) I investigated
the effect of music on the anxiety of four mentally
handicapped women with moderate and mild mental
handicap.
Recorded music (a specially choosen selection of
Baroque music) and 'live' music (quiet singing to guitar
accompaniment) were compared with a control
condition (tea drinking).
The subjects listened to relaxing music. Two of the
subjects listened to recorded music, the other two
subjects listened to 'live' music. They were introduced to
no relaxation techniques. Each subject was randomly
allocated to one of four different treatment schedules.
Subject A: 10 treatment sessions (recorded music)
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Subject B: 5 control sessions
5 treatment sessions (recorded music)
Subject C: 10 treatment sessions ('live' music)
Subject D: 5 control sessions
5 treatment sessions ('live' music)
Pulse rate was recorded at baseline and before and
after each session as a physiological measure of
anxiety.
There was a three minute resting period before the pretreatment
pulse rate was taken. A second measure of
anxiety, a behavioural rating scale, placed the
emphasis on observation of the subject rather than on
self-report. Due to the degree of mental handicap it was
impractical to use self-report measures - the subjects
would have encountered difficulty in comprehension
and in answering.