Music Sent Master's Student on New Path | Psychology - CSUSM NewsCenter

Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist at California State University San Marcos reports, "Music feeds the soul, as the saying goes."
 

Photo: CSUSM NewsCenter

Sean Griser believes that now more than ever, especially since a music-based project he took on more than three years ago has transformed the course of his academic career at Cal State San Marcos. 

Griser was a junior majoring in psychology in the spring of 2015 when, as part of a field experience class, he began working on a service learning project in which he tested the notion that listening to customized music playlists improves the mood of dementia patients. 

Now he’s in his third year of a master’s psychology program at CSUSM and, for his thesis, he’s taking that initial research a step further – does so-called music intervention also better the quality of life of the family members responsible for the care of those dementia patients? 

“We know that family caregivers are often the most stressed-out people you could ever imagine, which is why I chose them,” Sean said. “This intervention is a good one because I have experience with it and because it has shown to be really effective and simple to implement as well.” 

Sean says his family has no history of dementia that caused him to be interested in the condition and its treatment. Rather, he first was exposed to the concept of music intervention when he saw, in a psychology class, “Alive Inside: A Story of Music and Memory,” a 2014 documentary that showcases the restorative effects of music therapy on elderly people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease...

Sean’s work at Sunshine Care earned him an award as CSUSM’s service learning student of the year in 2015, and it also planted a seed for future research. Last month, he successfully proposed his thesis, under the direction of his faculty adviser, Sharon Hamill, focusing more on the caregiver side of the equation than the patient.

“Having been a caregiver, and that’s my area of research, there’s a recognition that caregivers only do as well as the patient,” said Hamill, a psychology professor and the faculty director of the CSU Institute for Palliative Care at CSUSM. “If the patient is having a good day, everybody’s having a good day, and if they’re not, nobody is. So if we can do things that help patients have a good day, there should be clear benefits.”
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Source:  CSUSM NewsCenter