Improvement effect of music appreciation on mental health of audience: An analysis based on cognitive psychology

Abstract

Today's people are faced with increasingly fierce competition, and subjected to enormous mental pressure. It is difficult for them to keep a healthy mental state. To solve the problem, this paper explores the improvement effect of music appreciation on the mental health of audience. Based on the theories of cognitive psychology and mental health, the author designed a contrastive experiment for two groups of subjects. One of the groups received the intervention of soothing music. The mental health data of the subjects before and after the experiment were analysed through paired t-test, and the effects of gender and age on mental health were evaluated by independent sample t-test. The results show that male subjects are more anxious than their female counterparts, but similar in depression with the latter; anxiety and depression are not severely affected by age; music appreciation can significantly alleviate the anxiety and depression. The research findings shed new light on how to improve mental health and cure mental illnesses.