What do adults think of music across the lifespan?

Abstract

Using the Theory of Social Representations as theoretical and methodological framework, the purpose of this study was to analyze adults’ mental images (social representations) of music and musical selves across the lifespan. Participants ( N = 74) were chosen using purposive sampling in various sociocultural contexts in a large city in the Southeastern United States. As previous studies documented, projective techniques (drawings and linguist associations) can access the most latent dimensions of thinking. Accordingly, drawings and linguistic associations to the textual stimuli “me,” “music,” and “music and me” were used to gain insights into adults’ mental images of music and musical selves. Participants were also asked to provide socio-demographic data that might affect or correlate with their responses. The Correspondences Analysis technique was used to reconstruct representational fields associated with the stimuli. For each stimulus, a five-factor extraction identified hidden dimensions in adult musical thinking and summarized the links between socio-demographic variables and adults’ responses. From a developmental perspective, the comparison of drawings and linguistic associations revealed stable and changing elements in adults’ representations of music and musical selves across the lifespan. From a sociocultural perspective, this study documented the influence of the variable ethnicity on adults’ responses.