Measuring emotion in general psychology

Get Complete Project Material File(s) Now! »

Chapter 3 Methodology

Introduction

This chapter presents information on the research paradigm and method used for this empirical study. I briefly argue for my choice of methodology and particular preference for Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. The methods of sampling, data collection and data analysis are presented in detail. The pilot project, which informed the research project, is discussed briefly. Factors regarding the research’s ethical procedures are explained, followed by a brief discussion concerning the validity and reliability of the study. A summary concludes the chapter.

Research design

The research project aimed to explore the subjective experience of emotion in pianists during a solo recital performance. As Willig (2008) asserts, peoples’ perceptions and understandings of the same experiences can differ radically. It seemed appropriate therefore to use a qualitative research paradigm based on a phenomenological approach. A phenomenological research paradigm prioritizes individuals’ unique perceptions of their experiences, and explores an experience in its own terms (Smith et al., 2009) from the insider’s perspective. This method elicited intimate reflections – rather than measurements or comparisons – on emotional experiences during performance from the performers.
Phenomenological research in psychology has two categories: descriptive and interpretative. Descriptive phenomenology focuses on the description of a phenomenon, viewing interpretation as an additional rather than integral part of the research process. Interpretative phenomenology argues rather that description and interpretation of a phenomenon are inseparable (Willig, 2008: 56). It seemed likely that the performers’ descriptions and interpretations of their emotional engagement would be strongly interwoven, therefore interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA), one of several kinds of interpretative phenomenological methodologies, was selected for the study.
Interpretative phenomenological analysis is concerned with the detailed examination of human-lived experience (Smith et al., 2009: 32). It attempts to discover exactly how it feels to experience a phenomenon through qualitative, experiential and psychological research. A philosophical approach to the psychological study of experience, IPA has theoretical underpinnings from three key areas of the philosophy of knowledge: phenomenology, hermeneutics, and idiography (Smith et al., 2009: 11).
Phenomenology is a philosophical approach to the study of experience. The founding principle of phenomenological research is to examine an experience in the way that it occurs, and in its own terms (Smith et al., 2009: 12). Phenomenologists typically focus on what the experience of being human is like, with particular emphasis on the individual’s own comprehension and sense-making of a lived experience. The phenomenological philosopher Husserl argued that in order to identify the essential qualities of an experience, it was necessary to step outside of one’s everyday attitude towards an experience and to adopt a disengaged phenomenological approach to the experience (Smith et al., 2009: 14). The phenomenological method thereby offers the researcher a means of viewing an experience through a series of reductionist lenses, each of which offers a different way of thinking or reasoning about the experience. This prevents personal assumptions and preconceptions from distracting the inquirers from focusing on the essence of an experience. In line with the IPA research paradigm, this study prioritizes the process of individual reflection (from both researcher and participants) as its primary method of inquiry. It systematically examines the participants’ conscious awareness of the performance experience (Smith et al., 2009: 16), as a means of capturing the essence of the experience.
Hermeneutics is the theory of interpretation concerned with methods and purposes of interpretation, author intentions or meanings, and contextual relationships (Smith et al., 2009). IPA engages a particular aspect of hermeneutics, the hermeneutic circle, which illustrates the dynamic relationship between the part and the whole at any given level. Understanding the whole is dependent on understanding the part, and vice versa (Smith et al., 2009).
Idiography is concerned with the particular, unlike most “nomothetic” psychology which makes claims at a group level. IPA has two levels of commitment to the particular: a sense of detail, acquired through thorough and systemic analysis, and a commitment to understanding how particular people, in a particular context, perceive particular phenomena (Smith et al., 2009: 29). With the aid of in-depth, semi-structured interview questions, this study explored participants’ subjective perceptions of their experiences in a flexible yet structured way. The performers were encouraged to elaborate at length on their perceptions of their performance.
This provided a strongly idiographic aspect to the data, which took precedence over general, more objective accounts of their performances. Consequently, the analyses which ensued reflected highly individual and nuanced insights from the performers on the research topic.

Participants

A small sample of eight performers took part in the research project. There were two groups of participants, one consisting of four student performers and one consisting of four professional performers. The purposeful selection of the performers was directed by the following four main criteria which allowed all the participants to experience the central phenomenon of emotional engagement in performance.
First, the research participants were required to perform a solo piano recital. This would ensure that the participants engaged exclusively with the music they were performing, and would not be distracted by musical engagement with other musicians on stage. The performer’s experience in an ensemble performance encompasses a number of additional variables which are not part of a solo performance, such as balancing parts, accompanying, or responding to another musician’s spontaneity. An ensemble performance therefore could not be considered as presenting the same kind of data that a solo performance would.
Second, the duration of the recital should be 60–70 minutes. This should allow performers enough time to settle into their performances, overcome performance anxiety, and begin engaging meaningfully with the music.
Third, the performer’s individual performance experiences should be explored within the context of a live performance i.e. their responses should relate directly to the specific performance recently completed. All the interviews therefore had to be conducted immediately after completion of the solo recital, with the memories of emotional engagement still fresh in their minds.
Fourth, the performers could be either professional performers or student performers. However, the students needed to be committed to establishing solo careers for themselves, and be as involved with the performance as the professional pianists were. The reason for this was a) to ensure that the research question would have similar meaning to all the participants, and b) to discover whether performance experience (or maturity) played a role in participants’ emotional engagement during performance.

Student performers

The 2011 UNISA National Piano Competition took place in Pretoria during the data collection period. This greatly assisted the recruitment of participants, and the data collection process, for a number of reasons. First, the semi-finalists in the competition were required to perform a 60–70 minute solo recital, which fulfilled two of the research’s selection criteria. Second, through the selection process of the competition, the students had a similar level of expertise, and shared the intention of establishing a career for themselves. This met the fourth selection criteria. The competition jury selected six semi-finalists, all of a comparable level of performance expertise, four of whom had agreed prior to the competition to participate in the research project should they reach the semi-final round. In addition, a fifth semi-finalist agreed to participate in the interviews on the night the results were announced. Of these five interviews, however, one interview was not analyzed as the participant was too distressed after her performance to provide a focused interview. Third, the competition ensured that the performance conditions, and thereby the research setting, was consistent for all the performers. Fourth, as all the participants performed on one day, in the same venue, the time and cost factors involved in collecting data were reduced significantly.

Professional performers

The recruitment of professional pianists was more complicated than anticipated. The original plan was to interview South African pianists who had established concert careers in South Africa. This meant that the research would focus on South African performers. But after hand-picking and emailing a small sample of South African pianists, it appeared that only two were scheduled to perform in South Africa during the data collection period. The participant sample was therefore expanded to include international performers.
Several organisers of music societies (randomly selected), the National Arts Festival Committee, and the Stellenbosch International Piano Symposium were approached with regard to solo piano recitals scheduled in 2012. Five internationally acclaimed pianists (including two South African pianists) were scheduled to perform solo recitals in South Africa during the data collection period. Two pianists performed at the 2012 Stellenbosch International Piano Symposium (27-31 March 2012) held at Stellenbosch University, one pianist performed for the Rhodes University Concert Series 2012, one pianist performed for the Grahamstown Music Society in 2012, and one pianist, who participated in the pilot study, performed at the 2011 National Arts Festival in Grahamstown.
The sample of participants was fairly homogenous with the exception of two significant variables. First, the participants were at different stages of their careers as they were either students or professionals. The decision to include two different kinds of participants (student and professional) was based on the idea that the data may reveal significant insight into how the experiences of emotional engagement develops with maturity and experience. Second, the competition setting applied to the student performers and not to the professional performers. As young performers are expected to perform in competitions before a concert career is established, it is assumed that they are accustomed to the pressure of a competition, and would not be negatively affected by the competitive environment. In addition to acquiring young performers of a similar ilk, an advantage of recruiting competition semi-finalists was that the data might reveal whether a competition setting affects young performers in a significant way (positively or negatively).

Construction of the questionnaire and interview schedule

The research data was collected in two phases: a brief questionnaire, which was completed by the participants prior to their performances, and an in-depth, semi-structured interview conducted directly after the performance.

Phase 1: The questionnaire

The questionnaire consisted of ten general questions (Addendum A) which were specifically formulated to address a number of criteria:

1. 1. Introduce the participants to key concepts such as musical and non-musical emotions which would be explored in the interviews following the performances.
   2. Provide insight into the individual performer’s general understanding of the concepts prior to the interview, rather than present the participants with concrete definitions during the interview.
   3. Create potential interest in the topic before the interview, preventing potential dropout.
   4. Stimulate some initial general reflections which could be related to the subsequent performances.

Chapter 1: Introduction 
1.1 Background and rationale
1.2 Aims of research
1.3 Research questions
1.4 Methodology
1.5 Definitions of key concepts
1.6 Chapter outline
Chapter 2: Literature Review 
2.1 Introduction
2.2 A brief overview of research of emotion in general psychology
2.3 A brief overview of research of emotion in music psychology
2.4 Theoretical assumptions of musical emotion
2.4.1 Perceived versus induced emotions
2.4.2 Aesthetic Trinity Theory (ATT)
2.5 Measuring emotion in general psychology
2.6 Measuring musical emotions: listeners and performers
2.7 Psychological explanations of emotions and approaches to research
2.8 How are musical emotions evoked?
2.9 Current theories of emotion in performance
2.9.1 Performance context
2.9.2 Performers’ views on emotion in performance
2.10 Performance expression
2.11 Performance specific research
2.11.1 Summary of limitations of current studies
2.12 Optimal performance: peak experience, peak performance, Flow
2.12.1 Peak experience
2.12.1.1 Peak experience in music listening
2.12.2 Peak performance
2.12.3 Flow .
2.12.3.1 Dimensions of Flow
2.12.3.2 Flow in Music Performance
2.13 Summary
Chapter 3: Methodology
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Research design
3.3 Participants
3.4 Construction of the questionnaire and interview schedule
3.5 Procedures and data collection strategy
3.6 Pilot study
3.7 Data analysis
3.8 Ethical considerations
3.9 Validity and reliability
3.10 Summary
Chapter 4: Analysis
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Identifying superordinate and subordinate themes
4.3 Summary
Chapter 5: Discussion 
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Superordinate theme 1: Performers’ experienced emotions
5.3 Superordinate theme 2: Performance as a cognitive, emotive, and embodied experience
5.4 Superordinate theme 3: Optimal performance experience
5.5 Summary
Chapter 6: Summary and conclusions 
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Addressing the research questions
6.3 Answering the main research question: to what extent do pianists emotionally engage with the music they are performing during a solo recital?
6.4 Limitations of the study
6.5 Recommendations for future research
6.6 Conclusions
References
GET THE COMPLETE PROJECT