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Updated: Oct 19, 2026

Assessing the Effects of Music Listening on Psychobiological Stress in Daily Life
Published on: February 2, 2017
Music as a tool for personal and social resilience: a three-level conceptual model
1Baruch Ivcher School of Psychology, Reichman University, Herzliya, Israel.
Background:
Music is widely recognized as a resource in times of adversity, yet the mechanisms by which it supports resilience are frequently discussed in fragmented ways. Existing scholarship has highlighted music's roles in emotion regulation, autobiographical memory, and social connection, but these dimensions are rarely integrated within a single conceptual framework.
Objectives:
This article develops an integrative conceptual model explaining how music may support personal and social resilience across structural, intrapsychic, and interpersonal dimensions.
Conceptual Approach:
Drawing on research in emotion regulation, resilience theory, music psychology, music-evoked autobiographical memory, and prior integrative frameworks in the field, the article advances a three-level conceptual analysis. The model is situated alongside related frameworks in order to clarify its distinctive contribution.
Models:
The article develops a three-level conceptual model through which music may contribute to resilience: (1) musical structure, where tension, containment, ambiguity, continuity, and release may function as experiential analogues of adaptive coping; (2) personal meaning, where music becomes linked to autobiographical memory, identity, continuity, and narrative integration, with songs constituting a particularly important case because lyrics may help consolidate and articulate meaning; and (3) dialogical-social sharing, where the exchange of personally meaningful music and the stories associated with it may foster recognition, belonging, prosocial agency, and mutual support.
Conclusion:
Music may be understood not merely as an emotional medium, but as a structured experiential space in which individuals and groups can engage capacities central to resilience. The article's main contribution is a three-level integrative model that explicitly connects temporal musical structure, autobiographical meaning, and dialogical-social sharing within one unified framework of personal and social resilience, while also specifying possible transitions and interactions among these levels.
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