Research Memo #1

Research Memo #1

Hypothesis:

Explicit and violent music is something that most teenagers listen to on a regular basis. Society however, looks down on this type of music as "bad". Does this type of music affect a teenager's academic performance in the sense of school grades? My hypothesis is that violent and explicit music does not affect a teenager's grades, but it is possible for it to affect their mood.

 

Context:

According to the survey I have conducted, violent and explicit music is widely listened to, and strong opinions are found towards music and grades.

 

Results:

 

 

	Yes	No	Unsure
Do you believe you listen to violent music?	80%	20%	0%
Do you believe you listen to explicit music?	90%	10%	0%
Do you listen to any of the following artists? -Eminem, Jay-Z -Marilyn Manson, Nine Inch Nails -Bring Me the Horizon, Miss May I	100%	0%	0%
Do you find what you consider to be violent and explicit music mood-affecting?	40%	30%	30%
Do you believe violent and explicit music affects your academic achievement?	0%	100%	0%

Data Analysis:

The respondent's opinions of my survey agreed with my hypothesis. 100% said they listened to violent and explicit music and believed it did not affect their academic achievement. This can possibly be flawed because all of the respondents so far were Early College students; so therefore, they had higher grades than a regular high school on average. 50% of respondents found violent and explicit music not be mood affecting, while 20% found it mood affecting.

 

Follow Up:

According to my research so far, violent and explicit music does not affect teenager's grades in one specific high school and it can affect one's mood, but not one's actions.

 

Conclusion:

My hypothesis is correct from the research that's been done so far. However, there's a lot more to be accomplished. Violent and explicit music is listened to from the majority of teenagers, and they find it not to have the ability to affect their grades and moods. Music can be "good" for the brain; this is called the Mozart Effect, which is someone who listens Mozart and finds advancement in certain forms of intelligence.  However, this intelligence can be hard to track because there are so many forms of intelligence. At Wiley-Blackwell College, they found that 51% of surgeons who listened to music while they were performing surgery found it distracting. But the question is does a teenager find violent and explicit music so distracting that their grades lower, even while they are not listening to it in class? The American Psychological Association did a study with undergraduate students and music with sexual activity present in the lyrics. There was no change to the amount of sexual activity, peer sexual activity, or attitude towards a different gender, which supports my hypothesis that violent and explicit music does not affect one's behavior.