AN EXPLORATION OF DIFFERENCES IN RESPONSE TO MUSIC RELATED TO LEVELS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL HEALTH IN ADOLESCENTS by Susan Walker Kennedy A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology Graduate Department of Human Development and Applied Psychology University of Toronto © Copyright by Susan Walker Kennedy 2010 AN EXPLORATION OF DIFFERENCES IN RESPONSE TO MUSIC RELATED TO LEVELS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL HEALTH IN ADOLESCENTS Doctor of Philosophy June 2010 Susan Kathleen Walker Kennedy Department of Human Development and Applied Psychology University of Toronto Abstract Popular music plays a significant role in the lives of most adolescents. The central question explored is whether three groups of adolescents (psychiatrically ill, depressed, and non-clinical adolescents) differed on self-reported data on: (a) the role of popular music in their lives, and (b) in their emotional reactions to music. The next question is whether the developmental issues of gender and personality consolidation, age, and school commitment simultaneously influence how the three groups of adolescents use music in their lives and in their emotional reactions to music. The last question is whether the three groups have significantly different music preferences in the five genres of popular (rap, pop/dance, heavy metal/hard rock, classic rock, and alternative). There were 126 subjects employed in this research. I created the Walker Music Questionnaire (WMQ) to explore the role and importance that music plays in the lives of the adolescents. A factor analysis ii found five factors (Introspection, Identity-Music, Discerning Music Identity, Fantasy-Rebellion, and Identity-Self). The Adolescent Semantic Differential Scales (ASDS) measured the adolescents’ emotional responses to 10 pieces of popular music representing the five genres described above. These scales are well known measures of emotional response and I added eight adjectives that represented adolescent issues. This measure was also factor analyzed and the three factors of Evaluation, Romance, and Potency emerged. Preference for the five genres was determined from the Adolescent Semantic Differential Scales. MANOVAS were done with both sets of factors derived from the WMQ and ASDS simultaneously using the developmental variables of age group, gender, personality, and school commitment. Psychological health was found to be a significant variable. Specifically, the role of music for the depressed group was significantly different from the other two groups of adolescents. The developmental issues that remained significant were personality and school commitment. Furthermore, the psychiatrically ill group reacted more emotionally to the music than the other two groups and this remained significant even when the developmental variable of personality was considered. The three groups were not differentiated by their preference ratings on the ASDS. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS T.S. Eliot (1943) Music heard so deeply that it is not heard at all, but you are the music while the music lasts. My clinical work with adolescents has shown me that many individuals also fervently believe this as well and many of my therapeutic experiences with adolescent clients have been enriched by our discussions about popular music. I am very, very fortunate to have worked with three extraordinary individuals who advised me despite the length of time to completion and my being post program. I am grateful in more ways than I can express for your support. To Dr. Lee Bartel, my thesis adviser, thanks for your continuous input, support and expertise from the music perspective and arranging the very worthwhile practice session. To Dr. Faye Mishna for stepping up when I needed a committee member and all your assistance despite many commitments and responding in ways that were needed. To Dr. Jerry Brunner, for helping me with the statistics, even making it exciting and providing unique ways to think about how this research was done. Thanks also to Dr. Michel Ferrari and his unique suggestion about the audio part of the thesis. A huge thank you goes to Professor O’Neill as my external, her insightful report and warm-hearted kindness was appreciated. An enormous thanks to Susan Elgie for all the drafts and questions and remaining available for many years. To Maryann Vangel for allowing me to go into your classrooms so many years ago and for your continued interest in seeing this research get completed. Many people have brought music to my life. To my mother, Elsie Walker, for her joy of music, dancing and zest for life. To my father, Donald Walker, for his wicked sense of humour and unique rhythm. To my daughter, Bronwyn Sarah, for her vitality, style, compassion and way of being in the world. To my son, Alec Emerson, for his kind and loving nature and his passion for music and dancing. To Adam, for his amazing creativity, musical abilities and assistance with the music part of my presentation. To Russell Westkirk for his wonderful kindness and love of music. To my very dear friend Andrea Porter for holding the dream of the clinic alive and encouraging me to finish no matter how long it took. Last but not least, my husband Ian A.M. Kennedy for not giving up on me and being the “best thing that ever happened to me” - Style Council (1987). iv Table of Contents Abstract ii Acknowledgements iv List of Tables and Figures vii Chapter 1 Introduction Background and Context 1 Why Do Adolescents Listen to Popular Music? 4 Developmental Issues Unique to Adolescence in Music Research 5 This Study 9 Central Question 9 Further Research Questions 10 Significance – Gaps in the Research 10 Personal Motivation for this Investigation 11 Audience and Knowledge Advancement 12 Structural Outline of Thesis Document 13 Chapter 2 Music and Adolescence Role of Music in Adolescence 16 Uses of Popular Music 17 Music Genres 21 Popular Music Genres Used in this Research 22 Themes in Music Genres 32 Music and Semantic Differential Scales 33 Chapter 3 Developmental Issues and Music Experience Gender and Music Experience 46 Psychological Health and Music Experience 53 Music and Depression 79 Personality and Music Experience 88 Ego Development – Personality Measure 104 School Commitment and Music Experience 135 Age and Music Experience 148 Age Differences in Music Preference 149 Chapter 4 Methodology Subject Selection 154 Instrument Selection 159 Music Selections 167 Relationship Among Domains 168 Factor Analyses 168 v Chapter 5 Results Introduction 177 Psychological Health and the WMQ Factors 179 Psychological Health and the ASDS Factors 185 Music Preference by Psychological Health 189 Relationships among Domains 192 Summary 194 Chapter 6 Discussion Introduction 195 Background of Study 197 Overview of the Music Measures 201 Results of the Factor Analyses for the WMQ 201 Results of the Factor Analyses for the ASDS 204 Results of the WMQ MANOVA 205 Results of the ASDS MANOVA 212 Music Preference 213 Summary 215 Clinical Relevance 219 Limitations of the Research 226 Future Research 227 References 229 Appendix “A” Consent Form for Adolescent Psychiatric Inpatients at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre 281 Appendix “B” Consent Form for Community Participants 282 Appendix “C” Washington University Sentence Completion Test 283 Appendix “D” Walker Music Questionnaire 285 Appendix “E” School Commitment Scale 291 Appendix “F” Adolescent Semantic Differential Scale Adjectives 292 Appendix “G” Ten Songs used in ASDS with Lyrics 293 vi List of Tables Table 1 Loevinger’s Framework for Ego Development, Some Characteristics of Ego Development Level 115 Table 2 WUSCT Responses at Different Ego Levels Relevant to Adolescence 117 Table 3 Factors from the Walker Music Questionnaire 178 Table 4 Factors from the Adolescent Semantic Differential Scales 183 Table 5 MANOVA by Psychological Health on the Walker Music Questionnaire Factors 188 Table 6 Multivariate Regression on the Walker Music Questionnaire Factors, with Each Predictor Corrected for the Other Variables 189 Table 7 Univariate Regression Tests and Post hoc Tests for the Relationship between Psychological Health and Walker Music Questionnaire Factors, Corrected for the Other Variables 190 Table 8 Univariate Tests for the Relationship between School Commitment and the Walker Music Questionnaire Factors, Corrected for the Other Variables 191 Table 9 Univariate Regression Tests and Post hoc Tests for the Relationship between Age Group and the Walker Music Questionnaire Factors, Corrected for the Other Variables 192 Table 10 Univariate Tests and Post hoc Tests for the Relationship between Personality and Walker Music Questionnaire Factors, Corrected for Other Variables 193 Table 11 Univariate Tests and Post hoc Tests for the Relationship between Psychological Health and the Adolescent Semantic Differential Scales Factors 194 Table 12 Multivariate Regression on the Adolescent Semantic Differential Scales Factors, with Each Predictor Corrected for the Other Variables 195 vii Table 13 Univariate Tests and Post hoc Tests for the Relationship between Psychological Health and the Adolescent Semantic Differential Scales Factors, Corrected for the Other Variables 196 Table 14 Univariate Tests for the Relationship between Personality and the Adolescent Semantic Differential Scales Factors, Corrected for the Other Variables 197 Table 15 Multivariate Regression on Music Preference Ratings, with Each Predictor Corrected for all the Others 198 Table 16 Univariate Tests and Post hoc Tests for the Relationship