MUSICIAN’S PERFECTIONISM AND SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR

JACKIE YONG KAI ZHI

RIA160017

RESEARCH PROPOSAL FOR RIX 2002

CULTURAL CENTRE

UNIVERSITY OF MALAYA

KUALA LUMPUR

17 MAY 2018
 CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Background

“A painter paints pictures on canvas, but musician paints their pictures on silence.”

(Leopold Stokowski) Musicians are artist who compose, arrange, interpret, perform

music and they are educator and pedagogue who continue the legacy from ancient time

and pass down to the future generation. Robert Schumann once said "to send light into

the darkness of men's hearts - such is the duty of the artist", music not only enlighten the

society as entertainment, but also sooth and heal the soul of human, fulfilled the

emotional thirst in every human’s heart. Musicians are like athletics, they are trained

professionally to become flawless in performance and perform their obligation to the

society through music. Most of the time, musicians invest dozen of time isolate in their

endless practices and to become better, stronger, and perfect. However, musicians are

often forgotten by others that they are also human beings who are no difference to us,

they also make a life with their profession in the society. According to Arnold van

Gennep (1909), there are six stages in the rites of passage in human’s life – birth,

become adult, married, have children, getting older, and death. But in 21st century, the

marriage rate is decreasing every year (while divorce rate is increasing every year

according to Euro-Statistics Explained, and it is noticeable that many musicians are

mostly singles and unmarried today. This trend has gradually becomes a norm in

Malaysia and problem arise: what are the factors that cause such consequences?
Statement of the Problem

In the previous research, people discover the direct proportional relationship between

individual’s perfectionism (either intrinsic or extrinsic factor) with their behavior

especially in social anxiety. A lot of research has been done to prove and generalize the

fact that perfectionism affects people achievement, emotional and health, but there are

not many research have been done on how individual’s perfectionism impact their social

life and interpersonal development. In the music-sociology research field, previous

research has been focus on music learning and its impact on beginners’ personal

development, most of the results are very positive. However, in reality, music learning

process and the outcome are not always pleasing and satisfied, there are cases shows

that advanced learner or professional musicians faced problems in their daily life, such

as psychological stress, depression, emotional unstable, sense emptiness and

nonetheless, their poor social interpersonal skill and behavior. Many mature musicians

who have been working in their performing field or educational field for many years are

found to be single and alone. There are many possible factors that lead to such scenario

and previous research shown that the “perfectionism” within them (molded through the

music learning environment) has force them to carry such unordinary characteristic

l i f e l o n g .
Purpose of the Study

The purposes of this study were:

1. To review and study current musicians’ social life and interpersonal relationship.

2. To provide a comprehensive review on the implication of musician’s perfectionism

on their social life.

3. To investigate relationship of musician’s perfectionism and their interpersonal

relationship.

Research Questions

Specific research questions that guided this study were as follows:

1. Does learning music in advanced stage affects professional leaner’s social life.

2. Does musician’s intrinsic perfectionism affect their interpersonal relationship?

3. What are the other factors affect musician’s interpersonal relationship?

Significance of the Study

While people are encouraged to work and perform their best in their career, it is also

essential and important to have a balance in everything especially a healthy social life

and family relationship. The low marriage rate statistic record among musician might

indirectly affect the social growth in a long run. This study is to identify the key factors

and issue that affect musician’s social interpersonal skills and ways to promote and

enhance musician’s social life.

Delimitations of Study

In this research, the participants are limited to professional and full-time musicians only

who are certified with by a university; amateurs and beginners learner are excluded. The

content covers the social behaviour of the musician participant but will only focus more

on the interpersonal relationship and marriage status of the participant. The challenges

in this research would be the openness of the participant as it will reveal many personal

secret and uncomfortable issues.

Definition of Terms

According to Oxford Dictionary, “Musician” is defined as a person who plays a musical

instrument, especially as a profession, or is musically talented. In the research context,

“musician” refers to artist who work full time either as performer or interpreter,

educator or pedagogue, arranger, conductor, and have taken professional training with

qualified certificate graduated from music school.

According to Oxford Dictionary, “Perfectionism” is defined as the refusal to accept any

standard short of perfection; Perfectionism has been described as a personality

disposition characterized by striving for flawlessness and setting excessively high

standards for performance accompanied by tendencies for overly critical evaluations of

one’s behavior. (Flett & Hewitt, 2002; Forst, Marten, Lahart, & Rosenblate, 1990) The

perfectionism grow within musician are molded through the learning process as they are

demanded to play every note flawlessly and no tolerate on any mistakes.

Oxford Dictionary defined “behaviour” as the way in which one acts or conducts

oneself, especially towards others; “social behaviour” will broaden the definition by

including interpersonal relationship, family or kinship, marriage, relation with associate,

work, club, neighbourhood, and place of worship. In the research context, the social

behaviour is the activities that involve interaction with other people in their daily life.

Conclusion

Chapter 1 has presented the statement of problem, research objectives, significance of

the study and delimitation of the study. At the end of the chapter, definition of terms

was presented.
 CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

Introduction

This chapter provides a discussion of the various relevant studies related to the purpose

of this study. The first article discuss proves that music learning brings multiple positive

impact and development among young learning in early stage, the second article discuss

about the life-span development of professional musician, from the music learning,

recital debut, teaching period and retire period. The third article discusses about the

perfectionism within human and could be categorized into intrinsic and extrinsic type of

perfectionism. The forth article discusses about the inter-relationship between

perfectionism, self-consciousness and how it affects anxiety, especially social anxiety.

The Power of Music: Its Impact on the Intellectual, Social and Personal

Development of Children and Young People

by Susan Hallam

According to Susan Hallam’s research studied on the power of music: its impact

on the intellectual, social and personal development of children and young people,

active engagement in music may influence other activities. The cerebral cortex self-

organizes as we engage with different musical activities, skills in these areas may then

transfer to other activities if the processes involved are similar. Some skills transfer

automatically without our conscious awareness; others require reflection on how they

might be utilized in a new situation. Among them are the skills of perceptual, language

and literacy skills, intellectual development, general attainment and creativity, personal

and social development, physical development, health and well-being.

 General attainment may be influenced by the impact that music has on personal

and social development. Playing an instrument can lead to a sense of achievement; an

increase in self-esteem; increased confidence; persistence in overcoming frustrations

when learning is difficult; self-discipline; and provide a means of self-expression. These

may increase motivation for learning in general thus supporting enhanced attainment.

Participating in musical groups promotes friendships with like-minded people;

elf-confidence; social skills; social networking; a sense of belonging; team work; self-

discipline; a sense of accomplishment; co-operation; responsibility; commitment;

mutual support; bonding to meet group goals; increased concentration and provides an

outlet for relaxation.

Research in the USA on the benefits of band participation found that 95%of

parents believed that participation in band provided educational benefits not found in

other classrooms.

Working in small musical groups requires the development of trust and respect

and skills of negotiation and compromise. In adolescence music makes a major

contribution to the development of self-identity and is seen as a source of support when

young people are feeling troubled or lonely. Music has been linked to the capacity to

increase emotional sensitivity. The recognition of emotions in music is related to

emotional intelligence. Increasing the amount of classroom music within the curriculum

can increase social cohesion within class, greater self-reliance, better social adjustment

and more positive attitudes, particularly in low ability, disaffected pupils.

The positive effects of engagement with music on personal and social

development will only occur if, overall, it is an enjoyable and rewarding experience.

The quality of the teaching the extent to which individuals perceive that they are
successful, and whether in the long term it is a positive experience will all contribute to

the nature of any personal or social benefits.

This overview provides a strong case for the benefits of active engagement with

music throughout the lifespan. In early childhood there seem to be benefits for the

development of perceptual skills which effect learning language subsequently impacting

on literacy which is also enhanced by opportunities to develop rhythmic co-ordination,

Fine motor co-ordination is improved through learning to play an instrument. Music

also seems to improve spatial reasoning, one aspect of general intelligence which is

related to some of the skills required in mathematics. While general attainment is clearly

affected by literacy and numeracy skills, motivation which depends on self-esteem, self-

efficacy and aspirations is also important in the amount of effort given to studying.

Engagement with music can enhance self-perceptions but only if it provides positive

learning experiences which are rewarding. This means that musical experiences need to

be enjoyable providing challenges which are also attainable. Teaching needs to generate

an environment which is supportive and sufficiently flexible to facilitate the

development of creativity and self-expression. Group music making is also beneficial to

the development of social skills and can contribute to health and well-being throughout

the lifespan and can therefore contribute to community cohesion providing benefits to

society as a whole.

Biography study of life-span development of Professional Musicians

by Maria Manturzewska

In Maria Manturzewska’s biographical study of the life-span development of

professional musicians, a group of 165 Polish professional musicians ranging in age

from 21 to 89 was interviewed in 1976 – 80. The research was designed as a

longitudinal exploratory study of the life-span development of professional musicians

and musical talents. The purpose of the study was to collect empirical data about the life

course of the professional musicians and to learn about the structure of the musician’s

life (its stages and dimensions), as well as about the factors influencing the development

and achievement of professional musicians in different stages of life, and different fields

of music.

The subjects were 165 contemporary Polish musicians ranging in age from 21 to

89 (born between 1890 and 1960), representing seven different fields of musical activity:

composers, conductors, pianists, violinists, woodwind and brass instrumentalists,

singers. The group comprised to two sub-groups: the “basic” group – 35 outstanding

Polish musicians, the prizewinners of international music competitions and persons

mentioned in the World’s Who’s Who in Music and Who’s Who in Opera; and the

“control” group – 130 ordinary Polish musicians resembling the “basic” group in age,

region, and field of musical activity.

All musicians were individually interviewed by specially instructed researchers:

psychologists, sociologists and music educators. To ensure the most appropriate

collection of information, carefully structured questionnaires and biographical interview

schedules were used. Accumulated tape recorded interviewers were used to prepared

short typewritten biographies. The biographical and autobiographical materials were

analyzed in two interrelated ways: first quantitatively and statistically, and secondly,

through content analysis and interpretation of individual case studies.

The results suggest that the professional development of the musicians is

strongly influenced by both socio-cultural and biological factors. Content analysis of the

collected biographies suggests that the family environment and intrinsic motivation for

musical activity are the factors most influencing musical development. This analysis
also reveals the importance of teachers, colleagues and the socio-emotional support in

the development of talent over the life-span.

In the light of this content analysis the professional development of musicians

seems to be a life-long process (in some cases going through several generations in the

family) of enculturation and adjustment to changes in ages and environment. It seems to

consist of a sequence of development stage, different in the structure of musical

behavior and motivation, as well as in the structure of musical activity and achievement.

Each development stage seems to have a sinusoid structure. Its dominant tendency starts

at a definite time of life, then increases, declines and then gives rise to the next tendency

characterizing the next stage.

Each stage has different development tasks, and calls for a different combination

of stimulation and demands. Ach seems to be a critical period and a time of particular

sensitivity and openness for learning and acquiring skills, knowledge, attitudes, habits,

and experiences which are significant for the development of artistic personality and

achievement as well as for the professional career. Misuse of individual periods and

development stages, disregard for their sequence and demands, usually leads to serious

disorders in the development of musical talents. It often makes it impossible for the

individual to use his or her abilities and qualifications to the full, or to find satisfaction

in the career and achievement.

The transition from one stage to the next in the musician’s life is a time of

increasing threat of emotional crisis. This threat seems to be greater the richer

intellectually, emotionally, and culturally the musician is, and the more creative his or

her personality. If social and emotional conditions are favorable the emotional crisis

may pass unnoticed, at least by external observer, whereas in unfavorable circumstances

the musician may come up against a dramatic crisis, psychological breakdown, or even

death.

In the light of our analyses of biographical material, one of the development of

artistic activity and for the development of creative musical talent in all stages of life

seems to be the “musical dialogue” with someone who believes in the talented

individual’s potential, who understands his or he musical ideas and accepts them, who

supports him or her emotionally in these endeavors and helps to overcome the stresses

of life. The absence of such a person at any stage of the artist’s life appears to be

disadvantageous to his or her functioning and further development.

Studies of the careers of outstanding musicians indicated that many of them end

their artistic career too early, due to unfavorable socio-emotional conditions and lack of

proper guide, patron or friend. The majority of them do not make the most of their

abilities, wasting time, health and energy to overcome unnecessary internal and external

obstacles.

Self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism: Differential relationships with

intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and test anxiety

by Joachim Stoeber, Alexandra R. Feast and Jennifer A. Hayward

Hewitt and Flett’s (1991) model of perfectionism is one of the most prevalent

and widely researched models. This model differentiates between two main forms of

perfectionism: self-oriented perfectionism and socially prescribed perfectionism. Self-

oriented perfectionism comprises beliefs that striving for perfection and being perfect

are important and is characterized by setting excessively high standards and having a

“perfectionist motivation” for oneself. In contrast, socially prescribed perfectionism

comprises beliefs that others have high standards for oneself and that acceptance by
others is conditional on fulfilling these standards Enns & Cox, 2002; Hewitt & Flett,

1991, 2004) In short, self-oriented perfectionism is a mainly internally motivated form

of perfectionism whereas socially prescribed perfectionism is mainly an externally

motivated form.

The purpose of the study is to re-investigate the relationships in 105 university

students examining how the two forms of perfectionism are related to intrinsic-extrinsic

motivation and multidimensional test anxiety (worry, emotionality, interference, lack of

confidence, and total anxiety). Participants are second year psychology undergraduates

in a British school.

The multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (MPS; Hewitt & Flett, 1991, 2004) is

used to exam and measure self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism. Intrinsic

and extrinsic motivation are measure by writing down two personal goals that students

wanted to achieve with studying psychology, then rated each goal with respect to four

reasons (intrinsic reasons, identified reasons, introjected reasons, and external reasons).

English version of the German Text Anxiety Inventory is used to measure text anxiety.

After analysis, the findings confirm that socially prescribed perfectionism is a

maladaptive form of perfectionism associated with extrinsic motivation for studying and

higher anxiety in exams. Self-oriented perfectionism, however, is an ambivalent form

associated with intrinsic motivation for studying and with both higher and lower anxiety

in exams.
Perfectionism, Self-Consciousness and Anxiety

by Fredik Saboonchi and Lars-Gunnar Lundh

The relation between perfectionism, anxiety, and self-consciousness was studied

in a normal sample. The perfectionism dimensions of Concern over Mistakes, Doubts

about Action, and Socially Prescribed Perfectionism showed a pattern of correlations

not only with measures of social anxiety, but also with measures of agoraphobic fears,

and fears of bodily injury, death and illness. Public self-consciousness also correlated

with various measures of anxiety, but these correlations disappeared when the relevant

dimensions of perfectionism were controlled for. It is concluded that perfectionism is a

more relevant construct in the study of anxiety than is public self-consciousness. The

results are discussed in terms of possible casual relationships between perfectionism and

anxiety.
 CHAPTER THREE

METHODOLOGY

The purpose of this study was to review and study current musicians’ social life and

interpersonal relationship; provide a comprehensive review on the implication of

musician’s perfectionism on their social life; and to investigate relationship of

musician’s perfectionism and their interpersonal relationship.

This chapter aims to provide a brief description of the research methodology. The outline

of this chapter will be organised as follows: (1) participants; (2) independent variables (3)

dependent variables (4) research design; (5) materials; (6) measurement instrument; (7)

data collection procedure and (8) data analysis procedure.

The study will address the following research questions:

4. Does learning music in advanced stage affects professional leaner’s social life.

5. Does musician’s intrinsic perfectionism affect their interpersonal relationship?

6. What are the other factors affect musician’s interpersonal relationship?

Participants

Participants (N = 10) for the study were recruited from University of Malaya’s Cultural

Centre’s Music Department’s Lecturers and professional musicians in Klang Valley,

Malaysia. There were 5 male and 5 female participants with ages ranging from 30 to 65

years. All participants are professionals who graduated with Bachelor of Music, Master of

Music, Philosophy of Doctorate or Doctorate of Musical Arts, currently working full time

in either as performer, composer or educator.

A variable is a concept – a noun that stands for variation of any characteristic or quality

among the members of a particular group. An independent variable is presumed to affect

or influence other variables. Independent variables are sometimes called experimental

variables of manipulated variables. A dependent (or outcome) variables is presumed to be

affected by one or more independent variables. Independent variables maybe either

manipulated or selected.

Independent Variables

In this research, the independent variable is the perfectionism characteristic within

musician. According to Oxford Dictionary, “Perfectionism” is defined as the refusal to

accept any standard short of perfection; Perfectionism has been described as a

personality disposition characterized by striving for flawlessness and setting excessively

high standards for performance accompanied by tendencies for overly critica l

evaluations of one’s behavior (Flett & Hewitt, 2002; Forst, Marten, Lahart, &

Rosenblate, 1990). Musicians are always demanded to play every note correct and

accurately in every performance, which direct or indirectly cultivate the personality of

perfectionism within musicians, but the difference between one another are how deep

the root grows within their hearts.

Dependent Variables

Oxford Dictionary defined “behaviour” as the way in which one acts or conducts

oneself, especially towards others; “social behaviour” will broaden the definition by

including interpersonal relationship, family or kinship, marriage, relation with associate,

work, club, neighbourhood, and place of worship. In this research, the dependent

variable is the social behaviour as it is affected by the perfectionism characteristic

within musician. When external factor implanted perfectionism within musician and

anchored, it gradually becomes intrinsic perfectionism which in turn affect’s musician’s

social behaviour and interpersonal relationship.

Research design

Research design is the overall strategy to integrate the different components of the study

in a coherent and logical way, thereby, ensuring effectively address the research problem;

it constitutes the blueprint for the collection, measurement, and analysis of data.

This research involves the use of both quantitative and qualitative methods, which is

called mixed-method study. The use of both methods provides a more complete

understanding of research problem than does the use of either approach alone. It can help

to clarify and explain relationships found to exist between variables. It also allows

exploring relationships between variables in depth. It can help to confirm or cross-validate

relationships discovered between variables, as when quantitative and qualitative methods

are compared to see if they coverage on a single interpretation of a phenomenon.

This research is mainly a case-study research, and most of the portion of this research is

under quantitative method. The quantitative data includes close-ended information and

analysis of this type of data consists of statistically analyzing scores collected on

instruments (e.g. questionnaires) or checklists to answer research questions or to test

hypothesis. Qualitative data consists of open-ended information that usually gathers

through interviews, focus groups and observations. The analysis of the qualitative data

typically follows the path of aggregating it into categories of information and presenting

the diversity of ideas gathered during data collection.

Interview is an important for a researcher to check the accuracy of – to verify or refute –

the impressions he or she has gained through observation or questionnaires. Fetterman

(1989) describes interviewing as the most important data collection technique a

qualitative researcher possesses. There are several types of interview which includes:

structured or semi-structured, informal and retrospective interview. In this research, the

interview covers six types of questions; they are background (demographic), knowledge,

experience or behavior, opinion, feelings and sensory questions. Instead of leading

questions, interviewers ask open-ended questions which indicate an area to be explored

without suggesting to the participant how it should be explored. Dichotomous questions

are neglected as they do not encourage the respondent to talk.

Materials

All musicians were individually interviewed by specially instructed researchers: music

educators, psychologists and sociologists. To ensure the most appropriate collection of

information, carefully structured questionnaires were used and biographical interview

were conducted, taking into considerations the results or earlier studies.

In the questionnaires and interviews:

1. The participants first answer self-assessment questionnaires-Swedish translations

Frost et al. (1990) Perfectionism test (MPS-I) which contain six dimensions of

perfectionism: Personal Standards, Concern over Mistakes, Doubts about Action,

Organization, Parental Expectations, and Parental Criticism. The testare in the

form of statement with a Likert type five-point response format from “strongly

disagree” to “strongly agree”.

2. Interview regarding topic such as interpersonal relationship, family or kinship,

marriage, socio-economic status, relation with associate, work, club,

neighbourhood, and place of worship were asked. Participants are free to

elaborate on how they spend their leisure time and their interaction with others

3. Self-evaluation and professional satisfaction were asked and reflected during the

interview.
 4. Extra information on the intrinsic and extrinsic obstacles in the development of

musical career and achievement at different stages of life were interviewed as

well.

Data collection

Data collection for the study was conducted from January to March 2018. All of the 10

musicians were scheduled with an interview conducted at their respective accommodation

or a coffee shop (Starbucks and Coffee Bean). The questionnaire are filled by participants

first within 30 minutes and followed by interview session roughly one hour or more. The

interview session was recorded using tape recorder throughout and the conversation was

written down in detailed for analysis.

Data analysis procedure

Self-assessment questionnaires: As measures of perfectionism, Swedish translations of the

data collection results of Frost et al. (1990) Perfectionism test are tabulated by using

Microsoft Excels and analysed to justify the index of perfectionism within the musician

participant. The statistics are submitted to Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) to

further analysis for descriptive statistics, bivariate statistics, prediction of numerical

outcomes, prediction for identifying groups etc. After the justification, the interview

responses are analysed and summarised. The results obtained are elaborated through

support form articles, compare and contrast the difference between answers by different

participants, and concluded. The results then submitted to ATLAS.ti to uncover and

systematically analyse complex phenomena hidden in unstructured data. ATLAS.ti

provides analytical and visualization tools designed to open new interpretative views on

the material.
Conclusion

This chapter has presented the methodology of this study. It included: participants,

independent variables, dependent variables, research design, materials, measurement

instrument, data collection procedure and data analysis procedure.