Showing papers by "Dianna T. Kenny published in 2006"

Music performance anxiety: new insights from young musicians

Abstract: Music performance anxiety (MPA) is a relatively neglected psychological phenomenon that rarely appears in mainstream psychological journals or textbooks. To date, this field of inquiry has focused primarily on professional and amateur adult musicians or college level music students. With the exception of a small number of recent additions to the literature, there have been few studies examining the experience of MPA in younger musicians. In this paper, we review our work on MPA in general, and summarize our recent work with young musicians. We argue that the experience of MPA may begin early in a musical career and that the characteristics of this experience are qualitatively similar to those experienced by adult musicians. There are therefore compelling reasons to address MPA early and to take a strong preventive focus on a condition that to date shows persistence over time and only modest response to available treatments.

Music Performance Anxiety: Origins, Phenomenology, Assessment and Treatment

Abstract: Performance anxiety is the general term for a group of disorders that affect individuals in a range of endeavours, from test-taking, mathematics performance, public speaking and sport, to the performing arts of dance, acting and music. Females are two to three times more likely to experience anxiety than males, and this relationship appears to hold for music performance anxiety (MPA) where studies demonstrate that females have significantly higher MPA than males, although this relationship is more complex in children. This article explores the origins of MPA, possible theoretical explanations for its development and the characteristics of those who might be vulnerable to experiencing high levels MPA. An examination of its occurrence in child, adolescent and adult musicians will follow to show that MPA is no respecter of age, experience or performance setting. The article concludes with an overview of assessment and treatment of this condition.

Can experts identify “open throat” technique as a perceptual phenomenon?:

Abstract: Singing pedagogues have identified “open throat” as a widely used pedagogical tool in the singing studio and a critical technique to achieve good classical vocal quality. This study is the first to assess the perceptual validity of open throat. Fifteen expert singing pedagogues assessed 48 messa di voce and 24 song samples with six repeats of six advanced singing students under two conditions: “optimal” (O), representing use of maximal open throat technique and “sub-optimal” (SO), representing reduced open throat. Correctly identified responses were counted by condition (O/SO), by judge and by singer. Data were analyzed using Cohen's Kappa. Hypotheses that correct identification would be greater than chance were confirmed for both messa di voce and the song samples, with thirteen of the fifteen judges correctly identifying 82.7% of song samples as O or SO. Singers' self-ratings attributed their best singing to maximal use of open throat technique. These results indicate that listeners are consiste...

Communicating pain: Do people share an understanding of the meaning of pain descriptors?

Abstract: When patients describe their pain to medical practitioners they typically use verbal descriptors. Therefore, it is important to know whether people assign similar meanings to the same descriptive terms. This study explored the extent to which people assign similar levels of numerical pain intensity to the verbal descriptors that they use to describe their worst pain experience. A nonclinical sample (N = 207) rated their worst pain experience in two ways. First, participants rated their pain using a self-ranked verbal rating scale (VRS) consisting of descriptors frequently used in pain measures. Second, participants used a visual analog scale (VAS) to rate their pain intensity on a 10-cm line. While the correlation between the two measures was significant (r = .71), there was considerable variability between individuals in terms of how they rated pain descriptors on the VAS. Respondents were idiosyncratic in their use of pain words. Consequently, we recommend that medical practitioners do not rely...

Opinion, policy and practice in child sexual abuse: implications for detection and reporting

Abstract: In this paper, three forms of paedophilia, ie incest and other forms of intergenerational sex, characterised by under-reaction and underreporting, and ritual child abuse, characterised by over-reaction and over-reporting, are juxtaposed to demonstrate the differing reactions and responses of professionals, governments, the media and the public to different forms of adult/child sex. Prevailing opinions, policies and practices related to adult/child sex will be explored. The implications of current sexual controversies on the identification, detection, and reporting and of adult/child sex will be discussed.