Original scientific paper

Personality, Intelligence And Music Instrument

Zoran Mihajlovski ; Faculty of Pedagogy, “Ss Cyril and Methodius” University of Skopje

Abstract

An empirical study examining differences in personality traits and general intellectual ability of academic musicians was conducted on Macedonian sample of musicians, consisted of four different groups of instrumentalists, taken from four instrumental sections, respectively: a) piano (55); strings: violin, viola, cello, double bass (103); woodwind: flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon (72); brass: trumpet, trombone, French horn, saxophone (58). Sample includes three age-based groups of musicians: music high school learners, music academy (university) students and adult professional musicians with music university degrees. Individual differences were examined employing four test instruments in total, including three personality inventories: R. Cattell's 16PF, H. Eysenck's EPQ, and Costa & McCrae's NEO PI-R, plus figural IQ test (TRL) as a measure of general intellectual ability.
Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) based computings (performed using SPSS 16.0) revealed results generally in accordance with previously known facts from the field of personology of musicians, mainly from anglo-american scientific environment. In terms of second-order factors, piano players are characterised with Originality (to brass players), Anxiety (to both brass and woodwind players), Self-discipline, Emotional Unstability and Higher Intelligence. String players show Originality (to brass players), Anxiety and Emotional Unstability as well, plus Introversion. Woodwind players' attributes emerge pretty similar to string players: Originality (compared to brass players), Introversion and Anxiety. Finally, the brass players emerge as the most distinctive profil in comparison to other groups of instrumentalists, showing Extraversion, Conventionality, Emotional Stability, Adjustment and Lower Intelligence.

Keywords

intelligence; musician; music instrument; personality

Hrčak ID:

106516

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/106516

Publication date:

24.7.2013.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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