Psychology of Music Learning

1
Psychology of Music Learning

• Miksza - Spring 09
• WEEK SEVEN
• Motivation

2
Asmus (1994)

• Motivation provides energy for seeking out and
  being involved in tasks
• Arouse interest
• Influence choice, direction, goals
• Starting, sustaining, and/or stopping behavior
• 11 to 17 of variance in achievement explained
  by motivation
• Important because it can be manipulated by the
  teacher

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Asmus (1994)

• Extrinsic sources (tends to be behavioral)
• Reinforcement
• Environment
• Social sources
• Approval, disapproval, tokens, rewards, etc.
• Disadvantages
• Unlikely to choose similar activities without
  extrinsic rewards
• Dont pursue activities outside of class
• Inhibit the development of intrinsic orientation
• May lead to negative performance outcomes in the
  long-term

4
Asmus (1994)

• Intrinsic Sources (tends to be cognitive)
• Internal decisions and energy
• Engaged in for their own sake
• Advantageous
• Persist even when external sources arent
  available
• Higher self-concept
• See Weiner (1986) quote - anti-behaviorist
  approach
• Contrast Weiner with Deci Ryan (1985) - using
  extrinsic to stoke intrinsic

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Asmus (1994)

• Maximizing extrinsic motivation
• Only use rewards when necessary
• Dont reward a learner for an inherently
  interesting task
• Limit use of rewards for behavioral control and
  participation
• Avoid rewards with divergent tasks
• Use rewards for acknowledging competence
• Use rewards for memorization and convergent tasks

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Contemporary intrinsic/extrinsic approaches

• Elliot - Achievement goal orientations
• Performance goals (aka - ego)
• Norm-referenced achievement orientations
• Mastery goals (aka - task)
• Self-referential achievement orientations
• Approach and Avoid valence
• Highest achievers tend to have strong mastery-
  AND performance-approach orientations
• Learner traits
• Approach - help-seeking, organized
• Avoid - disorganized, anxiety, avoidance, avoid
  help-seeking

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Asmus (1994)

• Self-concept/self-esteem
• Achievement and success enhance self-concept
• Failure may also have constructive effects on
  self-concept if
• The goals, conditions, assessment, and
  attributions are appropriate
• Especially if the learner is intrinsically
  motivated to pursue the task in the first place
• More control over the task the learner has the
  stronger effect on self-concept
• See Vispoel (1994)

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Vispoel (1994)

• Self-concept has been poorly defined over time -
  especially in music
• Self-concept is
• Organized, multi-faceted, hierarchical, stable,
  complexity changes with age, descriptive and
  evaluative, distinct from other constructs like
  achievement and intelligence
• Music self-concept correlated with general
  artistic self-concept and verbal-academic
  self-concept
• Music self-concept is also hierarchically
  structured
• Music self-concept may differentiate by
  instrumental vs. non-instrumental

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Self-concept in music

• Positive self-concept related to achievement in
  music
• Music participation related to positive general
  self-concept
• Results mixed for minority and disadvantaged
  students
• Pre-service practice teaching experiences lead to
  enhanced teacher self-concept
• Self-concept increased as result of participation
  in contest
• Consistent correlation between music self-concept
  and magnitude of motivation

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Asmus (1994)

• Maslow - Drive Theory
• Meet needs see hierarchy from last week
• Atkinson - Achievement Theory
• Approach success
• Interaction of previous successes, motive to
  achieve, expectancy of success, and perceived
  value of success
• Optimal level perceived difficulty and
  expectancy of success is intermediate
• Avoid failure
• Ring toss experiment
• Protect self-perception - choose task thats too
  easy or too difficult to explain away failures

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Asmus (1994)

• Rotter - Locus of Control
• Internal and external reasons for future
  successes and failures
• Internal ability, effort
• External luck, powerful others
• Weiner - Attribution Theory
• Perceived causes of past successes and failures
• Internal/External, Stable/Unstable,
  Controllable/Uncontrollable

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Attribution theory in music

• Effort and ability most commonly cited by younger
  students
• Attributions tend to become more stable with age
• Task difficulty more commonly cited by older
  students
• Attributions somewhat distinct from magnitude of
  motivation
• Those with high magnitude tend to cite effort
  more often
• Asmus motivational factors
• Effort
• Background
• Classroom environment
• Musical ability
• Affect for music

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Asmus (1994)

• Bandura - Self-efficacy
• a persons beliefs in ability to produce
  intended outcomes on a specific task
• Effect choice of activity, effort, persistence
• Deci Ryan - Self-determination
• Sense of control enhances intrinsic motivation
• Satisfying an inherent need to be competent and
  self-determining

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Asmus (1994)

• Common motivational topics in music education
  literature
• Nature of musical materials
• Music as a reinforcer
• Classroom environment
• Competition
• Teaching strategies
• Teacher characteristics

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McPherson Zimmerman (2002)

• Self-regulation
• From a social-cognitive perspective
• Interaction of individual, environment, and
  behavior (reciprocal casuation/determinism)
• Dimensions
• Motive - why
• Strategies - how
• Time management - when
• Performance behavior - what
• Social elements, help - with whom

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McPherson Zimmerman (2002)

• Motivation
• Parental support, self-motivation
• Strategies
• Task-oriented, alone vs. with help of a teacher,
  mental strategies
• Time management
• Efficiency, avoidance, use of time
• Behavior
• Metacognition, problem solving, self-evaluation,
  adaptive mastery-oriented or maladaptive
  performance-oriented, physical environment
• Social elements
• Parents, teachers, siblings and peers

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McPherson Zimmerman (2002)

• Stages of self-regulation
• Observation
• Learning from a model
• Emulation
• Imitation of a model, imitation with social
  assistance
• Self-control
• Independent display of models skills under
  structured conditions
• Self-regulation
• Adaptive use of skill across changing personal
  and environmental conditions