Music and trauma: The relationship between music, personality and coping style

Abstract

In a world that is dominated by news of conflict, violence and natural disasters affecting millions of people around the globe, there is a need for effective strategies for coping with trauma. The effects of such trauma on both individuals and communities, are deep and long-lasting (Sutton, 2002). Cultural techniques play an important role in helping communities to recover from trauma. Sports and games, for example, have been used in numerous settings with individuals suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (Lawrence et al., 2010). Other arts-based therapies such as reading or creative writing are also proving to be effective means for dealing with the aftermath of traumatic events. Music can also play a role in helping individuals and communities to cope with trauma, whether it be through the intervention of music therapists, community music making programs or individual music listening. However, despite the abundance of positive examples of the value of the arts in trauma recovery, music, and the arts receives little recognition by leaders in global health issues (Clift et al., 2010). This paper will argue, therefore, that there is a need for a solid empirical evidence base that can illuminate the mechanisms by which music and arts therapies are effective, as well as consideration of how individual differences in personality and coping style can moderate participant responses to such therapies. Trauma and Its Effects While the word " trauma " can refer to both physical and psychological trauma, in this paper we focus on the latter. However, defining psychological trauma is in itself problematic. The current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V, APA 2013), in the context of defining post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), defines a traumatic event as " actual or threatened death, serious injury or sexual violence, " whether personally experienced or witnessed, or experienced vicariously. This definition can include a variety of stressors of varying magnitude, frequency and duration. In addition, individual appraisal of an event can lead to differing levels of impact upon each person experiencing the event (Weathers and Keane, 2007). As described by Sutton (2002), however, most scholars agree that three aspects are central to an understanding of trauma: " shock, wound and a lasting effect " (p. 22). Two categories of trauma related disorders are included in the DSM: acute stress disorder, which relates to the acute and immediate effects of a traumatic event, and PTSD, a more chronic and long-lasting condition. However, many people may suffer from the impact of a traumatic event at sub-threshold levels. Among the disturbing effects at both clinical and sub-clinical levels of trauma may be emotional numbing, re-experiencing the event, survivor guilt and feelings of responsibility, anger, and heightened arousal levels (Honig et al., 1999). Trauma

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OPINION
published: 10 July 2015
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00977
Frontiers in Psychology | www.frontiersin.org 1July 2015 | Volume 6 | Article 977
Edited by:
Franziska Degé,
Justus-Liebig-University, Germany
Reviewed by:
Gunter Kreutz,
Carl von Ossietzky Universität
Oldenburg, Germany
*Correspondence:
Sandra Garrido,
sandra.garrido@unimelb.edu.au
Specialty section:
This article was submitted to
Cognition,
a section of the journal
Frontiers in Psychology
Received: 02 June 2015
Accepted: 29 June 2015
Published: 10 July 2015
Citation:
Garrido S, Baker FA, Davidson JW,
Moore G and Wasserman S (2015)
Music and trauma: the relationship
between music, personality, and
coping style. Front. Psychol. 6:977.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00977
Music and trauma: the relationship
between music, personality, and
coping style
Sandra Garrido 1, 2*, Felicity A. Baker 2, Jane W. Davidson1, 2 , Grace Moore 1and
Steve Wasserman 3
1Australian Research Council’s Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC,
Australia, 2Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia, 3Independent
Psychotherapist, Harrow, UK
Keywords: trauma, music therapy, arts therapies, coping style, individual differences
In a world that is dominated by news of conflict, violence and natural disasters affecting millions
of people around the globe, there is a need for effective strategies for coping with trauma. The
effects of such trauma on both individuals and communities, are deep and long-lasting (Sutton,
2002). Cultural techniques play an important role in helping communities to recover from trauma.
Sports and games, for example, have been used in numerous settings with individuals suffering from
post-traumatic stress disorder (Lawrence et al., 2010). Other arts-based therapies such as reading or
creative writing are also proving to be effective means for dealing with the aftermath of traumatic
events. Music can also play a role in helping individuals and communities to cope with trauma,
whether it be through the intervention of music therapists, community music making programs or
individual music listening. However, despite the abundance of positive examples of the value of the
arts in trauma recovery, music, and the arts receives little recognition by leaders in global health
issues (Clift et al., 2010). This paper will argue, therefore, that there is a need for a solid empirical
evidence base that can illuminate the mechanisms by which music and arts therapies are effective,
as well as consideration of how individual differences in personality and coping style can moderate
participant responses to such therapies.
Trauma and Its Effects
While the word “trauma” can refer to both physical and psychological trauma, in this paper
we focus on the latter. However, defining psychological trauma is in itself problematic. The
current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V, APA 2013), in the
context of defining post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), defines a traumatic event as “actual or
threatened death, serious injury or sexual violence,” whether personally experienced or witnessed,
or experienced vicariously. This definition can include a variety of stressors of varying magnitude,
frequency and duration. In addition, individual appraisal of an event can lead to differing levels
of impact upon each person experiencing the event (Weathers and Keane, 2007). As described by
Sutton (2002), however, most scholars agree that three aspects are central to an understanding of
trauma: “shock, wound and a lasting effect” (p. 22).
Two categories of trauma related disorders are included in the DSM: acute stress disorder,
which relates to the acute and immediate effects of a traumatic event, and PTSD, a more
chronic and long-lasting condition. However, many people may suffer from the impact of a
traumatic event at sub-threshold levels. Among the disturbing effects at both clinical and sub-
clinical levels of trauma may be emotional numbing, re-experiencing the event, survivor guilt
and feelings of responsibility, anger, and heightened arousal levels (Honig et al., 1999). Trauma

Garrido et al. Music and trauma
has also been found to have a detrimental effect on attention,
memory and processing speed in children, as well as skewing
their expectations of safety and security in the future (Pynoos
et al., 2007).
Music and the Arts in Coping with Trauma
Over the past decade, music therapy has emerged as a creative
art form that has been used to address stress and coping with
survivors of trauma. In a case study of 8–11 year old children
who had survived a tornado in the Southeastern United States,
for example, music was used to assist the children in expressing
feelings and to help them make the transition back to school
(Davis, 2010). The children created a musical composition
based on their feelings about the tornado, enabling them to
acknowledge and process their emotions in a healthy and healing
way.
McFerran and Teggelove (2011) similarly used music
interventions with young people after the “Black Saturday” fires
in Victoria, Australia in 2009. Improvisation, songwriting and the
sharing and discussing of songs was used within the program, and
participants indicated that playing music with others who had
been through similar experiences and who understood them, was
important. The musical experiences were reported to have helped
people to “hear one another,” bond with others also experiencing
loss, and regain confidence.
Survivors of violence have also benefited from participation in
music therapy programs. In one project working with survivors
of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in
New York City (American Music Therapy Association, 2011),
33 music therapists provided over 7000 programs to children,
adults and families. The programs were designed to reduce stress,
improve coping, and process the trauma associated with the
crisis by drawing on a range of techniques including musical
improvisation, songwriting, singing, sharing stories, and relaxing
with music.
Music has also been used as a healing agent in contexts
that do not involve a trained music therapist, such as with
survivors of the post-election violence in Kenya in 2007
(Akombo, 2009). In the study reported by Akombo, a community
musician used music to recall and experience the trauma,
incorporating humor into his work with survivors to help them
deal with the distress associated with the initial violence as
well as the resulting displacement. While little research has
been conducted specifically in relation to trauma survivors
outside of music therapy contexts, the literature indicates that
various self-determined musical activities including listening,
playing, singing, dancing and songwriting, are commonly used
for coping and mood regulation among both adolescents and
adults (Mayers, 1995; Shields, 2001; Miranda and Claes, 2009;
Davidson and Fedele, 2011; Monteiro and Wall, 2011; Saarikallio,
2011).
There is also evidence that people benefit from other creative
therapies such as reading and writing and it is important to
consider how these therapeutic activities may be used both
individually and alongside one another. The writer Arnold Zable
has reported that survivors of the “Black Saturday” bushfires
responded positively to creative writing workshops, with one
participant commenting, “I’m finding this more powerful than
counseling”1. Projects like “Get into Reading,” used in prison
communities, hostels for the homeless, and in mental health
care by the Mersey Care NHS Trust (Billington et al., 2013).
Encourage groups to read aloud together. They are distinct from
the “book group” model because of the performative nature of
the reading experience. More solitary forms of reading can also
offer comfort for many readers (Moore and Pyke, 2007).
Memorizing poetry, especially poems that are applicable in
some way to the individual’s situation (Petermann, 1996; Kelly,
2014), is also able to elicit non-linguistic biopsychosocial effects
in a similar way to music therapy: providing a sense of safety,
management of anxiety and emotional processing, which then
serves as a foundation to the therapeutic goal of finding one’s
voice—a more coherent narrative—through which to process
traumatic symptoms.
As noted in the studies cited above and others, music, and
music therapy researchers argue that the benefits of musical
activities include: mood improvement, self expression, catharsis,
facilitating grieving, relaxation, reflection, socialization,
community building, stress reduction, and more. As with
compositional forms of music therapy, those involved in writing
groups have reported that the process of writing about their
trauma allows them to regain their agency, to tell their own
stories. Reading and memorizing of texts can similarly allow one
to express oneself and to relive and reflect on memories and
experiences.
One might see expressive arts therapies as playing the
part of a “resource replacement,” based on a conservation
of resources model of stress (Freedy et al., 1992; Hobfoll,
2001). Here we recognize that the perception of a net loss of
resources accompanying a traumatic event (objects, personal
characteristics, conditions, or energies which have value to us)
engender the destabilizing and overwhelming “black hole of
trauma” (Bloom, 2010, p. 1). This sense of loss needs to be
offset by other resources. If this cannot be done through direct
replacement of the objects lost, then one might want to consider
“symbolic replacement or replacement through indirect means”
(Hobfoll, 1989, p. 518).
Individual Personality and Coping Style
While the benefits of the arts therapies discussed above are
multiple, there is some evidence that people do not always
respond in the same way to music or other creative arts in
dealing with trauma. Baikie and McIlwain (2008), for example,
found that expressive writing was more beneficial for individuals
with high scores in alexythmymia and splitting, but less useful
for people with a repressive coping style. Miranda and Claes
(2009) found that adolescent boys who used music listening
as an emotion-oriented coping strategy tended to have higher
levels of depression, whereas girls who used music listening
as a problem-oriented coping strategy tended to have lower
depression levels. Similarly, Garrido and Schubert (2013, 2015)
1http://www.culturaldiversity.com.au/news/94-news- and-events/214-the-
wonder-of-words
Frontiers in Psychology | www.frontiersin.org 2July 2015 | Volume 6 | Article 977

Garrido et al. Music and trauma
have found across several studies that people with high scores in
rumination do not obtain the same psychological benefits from
listening to sad music as people with more reflective personalities.
While the effectiveness of music therapy and other arts
programs have been clearly demonstrated in the literature, and
individual therapists are themselves highly aware of the way
in which the programs affect participants as individuals, clear
experimental evidence that demonstrates the mechanisms at
work and the influence of differences in personality and coping
style, is currently lacking. There is little understanding of which
elements of these programs are crucial to their effectiveness.
Do creative activities such as songwriting, for example, confer
benefits superior to comparatively passive activities such as
reading? Do group activities confer greater benefits than solitary
activities? Are the lyrics of the music involved more important
than the acoustic features? Or is the effect of music a synergy
between these elements? Do the benefits of musical activities, in
fact, outweigh those of other art therapies? Or, do the benefits
of various types of engagement with the arts differ depending on
various factors in relation to the individual involved?
The answers to these questions are crucial, given the
increasing numbers of arts programs that are emerging in the
wake of traumatic events around the world. The establishment
of an experimental evidence base for understanding the factors
involved would be beneficial to both the design of effective
interventions and for influencing community health strategies
and public health policy for dealing with the aftermath of
trauma.
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Conflict of Interest Statement: The authors declare that the research was
conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could
be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Copyright © 2015 Garrido, Baker, Davidson, Moore and Wasserman. This is an
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Frontiers in Psychology | www.frontiersin.org 3July 2015 | Volume 6 | Article 977