Mental well-being conditions of the individuals who are performing in an amateur polyphonic choir which is a social community

Socializing is a need which can be observed in every phase of human, a social being, life. Music is a value gathers people together and from this point it provides positive contributions to socialization. Mental well-being, which is a term in the scope of positive psychology, is an individual's condition of feeling good, to get adapted and to be self assertive in a social environment. Amateur polyphonic choir, which is a common factor in the field of music education, creates the environment for individuals in order to be able to express themselves with the way of music and to have the sense of belonging in a community. Choirs are important communities in relation with music and socializing in consequence of bringing the people together who carry different traits. Contributions of the polyphonic choirs to socializing have been actualizing like increasing confidence, self-expression, improving communication skills, bonding, sharing, transferring information, getting to know different people, gathering for same purpose. The aim of this research is to be evaluated of the mental well-being of the individuals who perform in amateur polyphonic choirs as a social community. This research is seen important because of the fact that individuals who perform in an amateur polyphonic choir to be exposed of the inputs which will be gained by the point of mental well-being, not only socializing with the way of music but also finding the ways of psychological relaxing with the help of choir. The expectation of being reached the findings which will be utilized by the researchers who will be preparing a study on a similar subject is the another factor which gives the importance to this research. As a method on this research, descriptive scanning model has been used. Mental Well-Being Scale, improved by Warwick - Edinburg in 2007, has been used in order to obtain data from the research. 14 psychological condition sentences have been found in this scale and the reactions of the participants have been scaled on 5 point Likert Scale. The study phase of the research by amateur polyphonic choirs, its sample has been constituted by the members of Bosphorus Jazz Choir, Bosphorus Youth Choir. As a result of this research, there wasn't a statistical difference among the participants according to their ages in their mental well-being level. The conclusion has been reached that there is a difference between average score of mental well-being of the participants who listen jazz and the average score of mental well-being of the participants who listen Turkish Folk music, rock music and foreign pop. Keywords: Music, Socializing, Mental Well-Being, Amateur Polyphonic Choirs, Socialization and Polyphonic Choirs, Mental-Well Being and Polyphonic Choirs