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A survey of music therapists' attitudes and beliefs about the relationship of popular music to adolescent development
Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
http://hdl.handle.net/1860/1110
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| Title: | A survey of music therapists' attitudes and beliefs about the relationship of popular music to adolescent development |
| Authors: | Walters, Jessica Lynne |
| Keywords: | Music Therapy |
| Issue Date: | May-2000 |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this thesis was to survey music therapists regarding their current
beliefs and attitudes of popular music and its relation to normal, healthy adolescent
development. Music therapists use popular music quite often with clients, especially
adolescents, but the researcher questioned whether therapists had similar or conflicting
attitudes concerning music's effect on adolescent development. Therefore, this research
was conducted in order to understand better what sort of therapeutic value is brought
about through the use of popular music for adolescents.
The researcher constructed a survey, which was sent out to 132 music therapists
selected from the AMTA (American Music Therapy Association) member source book
under the clinical population heading Child/Adolescent Treatment Centers.
The researcher received 70 surveys, but only 63 were used, because the remaining
subjects worked mainly with children and had little or no experience with adolescents.
The results produced a great deal of information pertaining to music therapists' beliefs
about popular music's influence on adolescent development. The responses were
categorized into subject headings focusing on gender issues, adult socialization,
developmental influences, lyric interpretation, and academic influence. The survey
contained two open-ended questions, which asked the music therapists to state what their
main concerns were with using popular music in the therapy session and what benefits
they thought resulted from using popular music. The responses contained many similar
themes, which were categorized and analyzed by the researcher in order to detect trends
in music therapists' attitudes, and beliefs. The literature was used as a source of referral,
allowing the researcher to compare and contrast previous findings with current findings.
This study examined the relationship of popular music to adolescent development
through the eyes of music therapists. Overall, it seemed that respondents shared many
similar views in terms of the resulting benefits of using popular music with adolescents.
However, certain areas of interest, such as song lyric interpretation, gender-specific
issues in popular music, and music's influence on behavior and personality development
seem to require further attention. This research not only provided a means for gathering
and exploring a great deal of information about popular music and adolescent
development, but it provided the framework for future areas of research. |
| URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/1860/1110 |
| Appears in Collections: | Health Sciences Theses and Dissertations
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