Personality influences career choice: sensation seeking in professional musicians

Abstract

Despite the obvious importance of deciding which career to pursue, little is known about the influence of personality on career choice. Here we investigated the relation between sensation seeking, a supposedly innate personality trait, and career choice in classical and 'rhythmic' students at the academies of music in Denmark. We compared data from groups of 59 classical and 36 'rhythmic' students, who completed a psychological test battery comprising the Zuckerman Sensation Seeking Scale, the Spielberger StateÁTrait Anxiety Inventory, as well as information about demographics and musical background. 'Rhythmic' students had significantly higher sensation seeking scores than classical students, predominantly driven by higher boredom susceptibility. Classical students showed significantly higher levels of state anxiety, when imagining themselves just before entering the stage for an important concert. The higher level of anxiety related to stage performance in classical musicians was not attributed to group differences in trait anxiety, but is presumably a consequence of differences in musical rehearsing and performance practices of the two styles of music. The higher sensation seeking scores observed in 'rhythmic' students, however, suggests that personality is associated with musical career choice.

Practiced musical style shapes auditory skills

“…A recent study found personality differences between CMs and jazz/rock musicians, suggesting that musicians partly choose musical careers on the basis of personality traits. 39 Also, it may be that people with good ear-training skills are attracted to music that involves complex harmonies and places strong demands on exact ear-training skills, such as jazz music.…”

“…Even though the present data indicate that stylistic features and learning of a style/genre of music influences auditory brain processing, it is not possible to rule out the possibility of innate differences among musician groups. A recent study found personality differences between CMs and jazz/rock musicians, suggesting that musicians partly choose musical careers on the basis of personality traits 39 . Also, it may be that people with good ear‐training skills are attracted to music that involves complex harmonies and places strong demands on exact ear‐training skills, such as jazz music.…”

Scratching the surface: Practice, personality, approaches to learning, and the acquisition of high-level representational drawing ability.

“…These differences have been explored in relation to a range of domains, and therefore are also likely to impact upon development of expertise in the visual arts. Openness to experience and the closely related trait of sensation seeking (Aluja, Garcı́a, & Garcı́a, 2003) predict skill in sport (Anshel, 2012), chess (Bilalić, McLeod, & Gobet, 2007) and music (Corrigall, Schellenberg, & Misura, 2013;Vuust et al, 2010), suggesting that the ability to flexibly approach strategies for expertise development is an indicator of later success. In addition, individuals with high intrinsic motivation are more likely to develop expertise in sport (Singer & Orbach, 1999) and chess (Grabner, Stern, & Neubauer, 2007), suggesting that conscientiousness plays a role in the development of expertise.…”

Getting into the musical zone: trait emotional intelligence and amount of practice predict flow in pianists

“…Research on musicians' personalities has largely focused on differences between musicians of various instrument groups and musical styles (e.g., Buttsworth and Smith, 1995 ; Kemp, 1996 ; Cribb and Gregory, 1999 ; Langendörfer, 2008 ; Hernandez et al, 2009 ; Vuust et al, 2010 ), the relationship between personality and performance anxiety (e.g., Cooper and Wills, 1989 ; Marchant-Haycox and Wilson, 1992 ; Kenny et al, 2004 ), as well as the relationship between personality and creativity (e.g., Gibson et al, 2009 ; Charyton and Snelbecker, 2010 ). To our knowledge, studies focusing primarily on general aspects of personality (i.e., not music-specific traits such as performance anxiety) and their relation to flow experiences in musicians have not been conducted so far.…”