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The Effects of Heavy Metal Music on Aggression

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The Effects of Heavy Metal Music on Aggression
THE EFFECTS OF HEAVY METAL MUSIC ON AGGRESSION IN COLLEGE STUDENTS
Author: SHALEEN L. COSS
Date: not stated
Participants: The participants were collected by means of convenience sampling. The participants in the study were 40 undergraduate psychology students, all involved in Psychology Learning Communities at Loyola University New Orleans. The participants were mostly Caucasian with some African Americans, Hispanics and Asians. There were 3 male and 29 female participants, with a greater proportion of females. The participants were offered course credit for participation, and were informed by the leaders of their psychology learning community classes of the experiment.
Materials: The materials used in the experiment were: standard IRB consent forms, a standard portable boombox in the psychology computer lab in Monroe Hall to listen to the music provided, pencils to mark their responses on the given aggression questionnaire, the 25 item researcher generated aggression questionnaire, a copy of which is contained in the appendix,(containing questions proposing situations such as, If a telemarketer calls in the middle of dinner would you be a. nonviolent b. somewhat violent c. moderately violent and d. very violent), and finally the song "Jerk Off" by the heavy metal group Tool. The song being approximately 4 minutes in length.
Design and Procedure: The design of the experiment was experimental. The independent variable in this experiment was bi-level, including a music and no music condition. The dependent variable of the experiment was the level of aggression reported on the questionnaire by the no music/control group and the effect of the song on the varying levels of aggression measured by the questionnaire. The dependent variable was measured by the increase in aggressive responses on the aggression questionnaire in those participants that listened to music while answering the questionnaire as compared with the participant that listened to no music while



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