Psychology of Music Learning

1. Psychology of Music Learning Miksza ANXIETY

2. Kemp (1996) • Many constructs/phenomena have been studied in relation to musician anxiety • Personality, behavioral, cognitive, therapies, treatments • Most commonly cited personality variable in music research

3. Kemp (1996) • Trait vs. State • General disposition vs. response to particular situations • Are musicians pre-disposed to being anxious or are they more prone to fluctuations generated by the various situations in which they find themselves, and the demands made upon them • The two interact… • Spielberger STAI (1970) • Common measure in the field… • Cattell Second order factors • Generally considered trait, some interact more than others with state anxiety…

4. Kemp (1996) • Cattell factors… • Second order factors • Low ego strength (vs. high) • *Shyness (vs. adventurousness) • Suspiciousness (vs. trusting) • *Guilt proneness (vs. self-assured) • Low self-sentiment (vs. high self-sentiment) • *High ergic tension (vs. low tension) • See boxes on page 88,89, and 90

5. Kemp (1996) • Cattell ‘Anxiety’ factor nearly equivalent to Eysenck’s ‘Neuroticism’ factor • “...someone who is easily perturbed, worrying, emotional when frustrated, lax, uncontrolled, depressed, moody, hypochondriacal, shy, embitered, and of restricted interest.”

6. Kemp (1996) • Interesting results when studying British school children and musician populations • Those in a specialist music school showing a profile of anxiety factors…. (Kemp, 1981) • Not clear whether due to environment or not (e.g., the ‘hot house’ effect) • Those in conservatory training definitely exhibiting an anxiety profile (see Table 5.1)

7. Kemp (1996) • Convincing results with pro’s too… • Watson & Valentine (1987) • Higher on trait than in printed norms • Correlations between the two and music performance anxiety measure • Correlations with amount of professional experience • Natural tendency or dropout issues… ? • Steptoe (1989) • Professional elements beyond performance contributing to stress • Family separation, irregular hours, travel, rehearsal monotony • Quenk (1993) • Personality shifts in stressed situations • Those who are usually relatively introverted tend to begin to over-organize, over-analyze, behave obsessively, and perceive themselves as incompetent

8. Kemp (1996) • Facilitating vs. Debilitating • Yerkes-Dodson inverted-U, optimal arousal model • Hamann & Sobaje (1983) [see actual article on reserve) • Psyching up, optimal levels, heightened sensitivity and imagination • Also interacts with level of preparation and task mastery • Anger manifests as a defense mechanism - perhaps due to low ego strength

9. Kemp (1996) • Arousal • Many personality theories have roots in biological processes • Arousal in this case refers to the processing that the autonomic nervous system deals with • Gut feeling responses (e.g., fight or flight) that then signal higher cortical responses • Some suggest that introverts (e.g., musicians) reach higher levels of arousal quicker - more likely to suffer negative effects of over-stimulation • Symptoms - shaking, sweating, heart-rate, nausea

10. Kemp (1996) • Self-concept • Musicians’ personal identity and personal worth wrapped up heavily with performance ability • Two patterns of behavior likely • Prima Donna behavior and intense competition, perceived positive trajectory • Heightened apprehension, self-criticism, feelings of incompetence, progressively debilitating anxiety, loss of self-worth • Musicians induce their own stress by setting high standards for themselves • Search for perfection tied to first-born status?

11. Kemp (1996) • Catastrophizing • Fear of a ‘point of no return’ that leads to disintegration of performance • Steptoe & Fidler (1987) • Students, pros, and amateurs all imagine catastrophe scenarios • Seems mostly related to state anxiety • Related to compound effects of worrying and worrying about anxiety • Is off-task behavior, leads to lack of attention, a shift from actual concerns to self-conscious worry about physical and mental state

12. LeBlanc (1994) • A theoretical model of performance anxiety • Highlight variables that may be of impact • Moves from preparation to commitment to perform, to presentation, to feedback • In the context of solo performance • Hierarchically organized to reflect passage of time • Citations for variables included in the model

13. LeBlanc (1994) • General levels (4 broad rather than 11 detailed) • Background, preparation • Mood/affect, Environmental factors, Self-perception • Arousal, attention in the moment • Feedback • See model on page 61 for detailed breakdown… • See descriptions of each component on pages 60 - 66 for detailed implications…

14. Hamann & Sobaje (1983) • The effect of debilitating vs. facilitating anxiety conditions on music performance • Speilberger STAI and STPI • 60 UNC Greely students • Conditions (in order for all?) • Low-anxiety - alone with a tape recorder • High-anxiety - jury condition with faculty • Administered self-report measures in between • Subjects grouped by… • Anxiety scores, curiosity, anger, experience • High, medium low groupings

15. Hamann & Sobaje (1983) • Results • Differences by treatment on anxiety and anger - but not curiosity • More of each in high anxiety condition • Interaction of state/trait by condition (figure 1) • Those high in trait had higher anger scores in high anxiety condition • Interaction of yrs. formal study by condition (figure 2) • Those with a good deal of formal training had better performance scores in high anxiety condition, those with moderate formal training had better performance scores in low anxiety condition