Coping and music
Music as a coping strategy: a study of music's role in coping with cancer from the patients' perspective is the title of a research project aimed at examining the role music has played as a strategy for coping with cancer.
The following questions have been brought to light:
- How do cancer patients perceive the role of music in coping: as a tool for handling mental and emotional problems they come up against or as a healing therapy?
- What do the patients feel is the function of music in their well-being?
- What are the positive and negative effects of using music as a coping strategy? -The researchers divide coping strategies into two groups: "problem solving" strategies, which actively help the patient ease the stress of the situation he/she finds him/herself in, and "emotion-centred" strategies, which are used to control the emotional consequences of the patient's stressful situation. How do the patients feel that music functions as a "problem solving" strategy and as an "emotion-centred" strategy?
- How does music function as a passive and active coping strategy?
Semi-structured interviews are conducted with cancer patients aged 18 and up who have used music as a coping strategy. The study will hopefully contribute to the development of theoretical knowledge surrounding music's role in health and in medical care. In addition, the study may contribute to the development of a multi-faceted healthcare programme for people with cancer based on the patients' perceptions and experiences of music as a coping strategy.
Responsible researcher
Fereshteh Ahmadi