Musical interest, church attendance and personality : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology at Massey University

Abstract

WARDS, A.R., 1980, Musical Interest, Church Attendance and Personality. M.A. thesis, Massey University, New Zealand. This study set out to investigate whether any relationships might exist between an individual's personality, his/her secular status, and involvement in music performance. It was hypothesised that Groups differing in church and musical interests will vary in personality characteristics as measured by the PRF (for motivational variables) and the NSQ (for level of stability). Ten Groups were studied: Church Choir, male and female; Church non-Music, male and female; non-Church Instrumental, male and female; non-Church non-Music, male and female; Salvation Army Band, male; Pipe Band, male. Ten subjects, drawn from the City of Palmerston North, formed each group. Analysis of results took two forms: Profile analyses of all groups in the possible comparisons of groups; Q-type factor analysis of group and subject differences. It was concluded that such an approach to the study of groups and interests is practicable, but that the measuring instruments used in this study were too blunt, and that caution must be used in interpreting results.