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1. Working Hypothesis 1 – A reduction in anxiety, stress and depression among teenagers and students can be attributed to by listening to the tempo of music.

1a. Working Hypothesis 2 – By listening to the tempo, lyrics and genre of music, students and teenagers can reduce their stress, along with the anxiety and depression that may pair with it. 

2. Five Academic Sources

Nikola Tesla Stem High School – Lake Washington School; Utilizing Music Therapy to Help Teenagers with Depression and Anxiety, Victoria Alkin ;Pages 120-126 STEM_Journal_2017_2018.pdf (lwsd.org) 

•  In Utilizing Music Therapy to Help Teenagers with Depression and Anxiety,  Victoria Alkin discusses the statistics and research involved in teenagers with music therapy. Alkin starts by introducing the rationale, research question and hypothesis by introducing her topic and backing up her information with statistics. Then she goes into the human participant research experiment which involves teenagers grades 9-12 to fill out a questionnaire and listen to songs. Following the explanation of the experience the author shows the research, data and statistical analysis of the outcomes by providing graphs for each topic, such as what pitch affects your mood. Lastly the author wraps up the article by providing the conclusion and the real-world relationship between music pitch and tempo with teenagers. 

How Music Affects the Brain – Hearing Institute. Deane Alban How-Music-Affects-the-Brain.pdf (hearinginstitute.co.nz)

• In the article, How music affects the brain, written by Deane Alban, he discusses the many different benefits of music on a person. The point was made that those who listen to music and those who are musicians have high brain functionality and productivity. In which the author goes into specific detail about each subtopic and how the evidence backs up the subjects. Some of the subjects include how music can make you a better person, how it can make you more creative, can make you more productive and so on. The author finishes with wrapping up his ideas and how at any age music can improve your life drastically.

A Study of Sintered Copper Porous Surfaces Michael Dove- Proquest.com. The relationship of rhythmic and melodic perception with background music distraction in college level students – ProQuest 

In A Study of Sintered Copper Porous Surfaces by Michael Dove the topic of music’s impact arises, more specifically in the background. Within these 15 pages, Dove focuses on the different understandings and interpretations of music, but also how people can benefit from background music. Dove explains that background music may seem like nothing, but it can really cause improvement in many different categories. These can include mood improvement, anxiety reduction, mental arousal, positive mood enhancement and more. More specifically about the music itself, he also brings up the music tempo and major and minor influences from these background songs. Overall Dove explains the many different benefits from just simple background music.

***Lordier, Lara, et al. “Music Processing in Preterm and Full-Term Newborns: A Psychophysiological Interaction (PPI) Approach in Neonatal Fmri.” NeuroImage, Academic Press, 6 Apr. 2018, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S105381191830288X.   

Rather than a generalization of music improvements, in Music Processing in Preterm and Full-Term Newborns: A Psychophysiological Interaction (PPI) Approach in Neonatal Fmri the topic gets more specific down to music and MRIs. The author explains how tempo, pitch and rhythm all affects these patients. How certain music allows for patients to calm down due to specific patterns in music. 

History in Your Hand: A Case Study of … – Proquest.com.  AN EXAMINATION OF THE EFFECTS OF TEMPO AND METER UPON ANXIETY REDUCTION (MUSIC, RHYTHM) – ProQuest

In An Examination Of The Effects Of Tempo And Meter Upon Anxiety Reduction, the author, John Garmo aims to explain through information the relationship between tempo and meter with anxiety reduction. The information provided was an experiment that occurred at a University.  They took these students and over the course of a few weeks would take tests and the effects of specific music on students. Garmo and others analyzed the different genres, tempos and meters involved in different songs and how they affected these college students. 

3. Topics for Smaller Papers

1. (Definition) Music therapy is a specific branch of therapy aimed to focus on music to clinically relieve stress and accomplish goals therapeutically.  
2. (Causal)Listening to a specific tempo of music allows one to focus on their tasks.
3. (Rebuttal) Music can be very distracting to teenagers.

4. Current State of the Research Paper

• My current state is that I have all of these points down, and now I just have to start writing. I am a little weary of my abilities, but I am hoping that revision and feedback for my paper will come in handy by the end of the semester. I just think my opinions have solidified because this is a topic I personally relate to, which is why I chose it. It solidified because I was able to find these sources that allowed me to dive deeper into information surrounding my topic, which just allowed me to confirm more of my hypothesis. I anticipate that my topic will be able to be proven, and be able to use my sources efficiently.