The professional relevance of music psychology: An internet survey

Richard Parncutt,* Nicola Dibben,# Margit Painsi,* Manuela Marin*

* Department of Musicology, University of Graz, Austria# Department of Music, University of Sheffield, UK

Internet questionnaire: Stated aims

• to document the careers of ex-students of music psychology

• to inform current students of music psychology about career opportunities

• to develop career-oriented strategies for teaching music psychology

• to promote music psychology among potential employers

2a) Current work of

participants

2b) hours/week:

mean 35, sd 16 range 2-100

Wrong sample?

We wanted to survey non-mp professions!

But:

• not many people (young discipline…)

• hard to find and motivate

Revised, more modest aim

• Generate ideas for improving mp courses– content, presentation, professional relevance– better than your average course evaluation

• Generate ideas for future mp research– desired course content may not yet exist

Internet questionnaire: Welcome

If you have studied music psychology at any time (even if just one course), and you are currently working (or spending more time working than studying), we would be grateful for about half an hour of your valuable time.

Please participate regardless of whether or not your current occupation involves music or psychology in any way.

Internet questionnaire: Contents

1. Courses with a significant music psychology component that you attended

2. Your current professional activities

3. Usefulness of the described courses for your current professional activities

4. Your suggestions for making music psychology more professionally relevant

5. Your personal details for statistical purposes

Recruiting participants

• international email lists– music psychology– psychology– music therapy– music education

• past students of authors

Data: 158 datasets

• 77 include email addresses– the same address was repeated only once

approx. 150 participants

• 110 with answers to most/all questions

• 48 incomplete

Data selection

• no dataset was deleted (no “silly answers”)

• questionnaire asked for info on up to three courses (units or programs) but we analysed only the first

• we considered all answers to a given question regardless of answers to others

different no. of participants and responses for each question

Qualitative (thematic) analysis

• invent category labels

• assign responses to categories

• revise category names

• count entries in each category

• mark typical and interesting responses

Demographics

5a Gender 71 female 34 male

5b Age mean 39 range 20-66

5g years of post-secondary study

mean 7 range 0-12

5i Income (1-7) mean 3.9 “average”

range 1-7

Country1g) when studying

mp5c) currently living

USA 49 47

UK 46 35

Canada 7 6

Australia 4 4

Germany 12 4

France 2 2

Ireland 1 1

Benelux 2 2

Portugal 1 1

Cyprus 1 1

Scand. 1 2

total 126 105

Several participantsstudied in UK or Germanythen moved to another country

5h) All post-secondary programs of study (89 participants, 154 programs)

Music incl. performance, BA, MA, PhD

Psychology incl. BSc, MSc, PhD

Music psychology incl. systematic musicology, MA, PhD

Music therapy incl. MA, PG Dip, PhD

Music education incl. teacher training, MA, PhD

Physics incl. sound engineering, technology

1e) Institutions where mp studied

Sheffield University - Music Department 26

Keele University - Psychology Department 7

Chapman University - Music Department 4

Oxford University - Faculty of Music 4

Hannover Hochschule für Musik und Theater 3

State University of New York at Fredonia 3

other 75

The first described course

1b structure unit 71, program 47

1c level bachelor 52, masters 49, doctorate 22

1h duration in months mean 14, sd 14, range 2-70

1i % mp mean 80, sd 32, range 5-100

1j contact time hours/week

mean 4, sd 6, range 0.2-34

1m whether completed yes 116, no 3

1n when completed 2005 15, 2003 9, 2002/2004/2006 8, other 61, range 1966-2008

1o) How useful was mp coursework for your later professional work?

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10

20

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40

50

not at all somewhat quite a lot very much

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1q) How much did mp coursework influence later career choices?

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20

30

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not at all somewhat quite a lot very much

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3a) Most professionally useful aspects of mp courses

• a specific named topic (N=36)– see next slide

• academic thinking in general (17)– e.g. It created an awareness of music that I had not ever

been exposed to prior to college.

• academic content in general (16)– e.g. the specific academic content

• methodology (16)– e.g. empirical research methods/statistics

• contacts, social aspects, conferences (7)– e.g. contacts with cognitive & behavior psychologists

• other (6)

3a) Topics in mp courses considered to be professionally useful

These data depend on the professions of the sample!

3c) Why was mp professionally useful?

• general understanding, openness, background (N=22)e.g. helps me to understand how to make people feel a certain way through

music• general academic research skills (18)

– e.g. It showed me how to research and write a scientific paper• work as music educator (10)

– e.g. The course made me re-evaluate my teaching work.• work as music therapist (9)

– e.g. To skillfully determine appropriate interventions in response to client's expressions/needs

• other professional activities (11)– e.g. The applications for comp-aided composition have opened up new

possibilities in my music making• other 5

3e) Professional activities relevant to mp

These data depend on the professions of the sample!

4a) How can mp courses be made more professionally relevant? 1. General content

• real-world relevance– integrate theory and practice, link psychology to education– music in everyday life, social effects of music– emphasis on usefulness of theory, why a question is important

• balanced, diverse content– balance established knowledge and current work– interdisciplinary collaboration (e.g. psychologists, music theorists)

• critical thinking– formulating, supporting, questioning arguments in group discussion– What we know is based on what we ask and how we ask it.

4a) How can mp courses be made more professionally relevant? 2. Specific content

• real-world relevance– non-western music: don’t neglect it

• cultural, international perspectives: combine with ethno?– specific applications of mp

• in auditory display, medicine, music marketing– info on career options

• what other music psychologists are doing professionally• connections to market research, radio stations, music therapy,

music industry, music technology, music consulting, orchestras

• scientific background for non-scientists– relevant psychology, if not previously studied

• e.g. before musical content: emotion, physiology…– research methods, for understanding & independence

• balance quantitative and qualitative • practical issues (implementation; approval for medical studies)

4a) How can mp courses be made more professionally relevant? 3. Presentation

• demonstrations and empirical projects• experiential learning• incorporate original stimuli, questionnaires etc.

from research

4a) How can mp courses be made more professionally relevant? 4. Structure

• early support in choice of research topics

• tailoring of content to student background, needs, goals:– for performers, teachers: psychology of performance (e.g. anxiety)– for therapists: physiology, emotion, self healing, qual. methods– for educators: developmental psychology, learning theories– for publishing & cultural management: marketing– for researchers: neurophysiology– OR just ask students what they want

• institutional context– music psychology should be a required part of the undergraduate

curriculum for all music students– It needs to become an integral subject of most Music and Music- related

Degrees and Diplomas in universities

4a) How can mp courses be made more professionally relevant? 5. Communication

• links to local relevant courses and research– contact with local teachers and researchers

• student presentations at conferences– contact with international research community

• communication with other disciplines, professions– learn to speak their “language”

4b) How can mp courses be made more professionally relevant? Aspects to de-emphasize

• “don’t omit anything” or no response (83)• specific content (14)

– quantitative approaches, acoustics, pitch perception, physiology (separate course?):

• old-school tendency to treat the physical/acoustical as objective and the rest as subjective

– music therapy– western classical music

• anything irrelevant to vocational interests (2)• universalising, ignoring historical and cultural

contingency of all knowledge (1)• other (4)

4a, b) How can mp courses be made more professionally relevant? Sidestepping

For me, it was very refreshing to study a course which didn't have to be professionally relevant but was interesting and engaging in its own right. Its professional relevance was a pleasant side-effect.

The benefit of an open and varied course is that people find interest they perhaps were unaware of. Relevance can be limiting or empowering.

there aren't enough jobs in the area of music psychology to warrant specialized programs or degrees. It is more appropriate to teach music psychology in the context of other fields

Conclusion: Main suggestions

• real-world relevance– world music (don’t universalise)– demonstrations and critical thinking– applications of theory e.g. in research – communication with other teachers and researchers– relevance for careers

• interdisciplinary balance– scientific background for non-scientists– less seemlingly irrelevant science– balance with humanities and musical practice– content tailored to individual student needs

Conclusion: Research implications

mp is directly relevant for musical practice– performance

– theory, analysis, composition

with interesting implications for musical humanities– history

– ethnomusicology

Great potential but little contact!

Plug ;-)

• Conference on Interdisciplinary Musicology

• Journal of Interdisciplinary Music Research

Future research

• Participants– non-English speakers– musical humanities, musical practice

• Content– transferable skills

• methodological• interpersonal

PS Idea from the discussion

• Contact ex-mp-students through alumni lists. Unis often keep them up-to-date and may support sending an invitation to participate in a survey. This would work best if one had a personal contact in the administration.

Not presented

• There was no time for the following slides

1p) Reasons for answer “very much”

• general usefulness of course content (N=15)e.g. to know how children develop, which

preferences adults will have

• applicability to specific current job (14)e.g. I work as a music therapist

• motivation to continue in the field (5)e.g. led to my current profession in research

1p) Careers mentioned under reasons

for answer “very much”• university teaching and research (N=16)

e.g. I am a lecturer in this topic so it is all directly relevant

• therapy, clinical (6) e.g. I am a music therapist, and constantly explaining the

scientific backing to my work

• student incl. PhD (5) e.g. I am doing my PhD now in a similar field

• music performance/teaching (2)

• career not clear from answer (7)

1r) Reasons for influence of mp course on career choice

• specific role in current job/careere.g. introduced me to the possibilities of using music in a

therapeutic way

• specific insights or knowledge e.g. extended knowledge and understanding of children's

musical development

• personal development e.g. sparked my interest in the area and led me to pursue

graduate studies

1s) Further comments on courses

• Courses should be more interdisciplinary– The class would have been better if it were conducted jointly by

psychology and music faculty

• Courses should appeal to anyone interested in music– If you are obsessed with music, you will find some aspect

fascinating & interesting in this subject

• Social relevance of mp may be underestimated– Music has the ability to transform lives. Being able to studying the

psychology of music helps us