Date of Award

1995

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Music

First Advisor

Cornelia Yarbrough

Abstract

It was the purpose of this study to examine the role of same- and other-group identification in musical preference decision-making and the relationship between preference decisions and attitude-oriented responses to hypothetical social encounters with same- and other-group members. Subjects were African-American (n = 189) and white (n = 280) sixth, seventh and eighth grade music students. To measure musical preference, each subject responded along a 9-point Likert scale to 10 instrumental music excerpts, five performed by African-American jazz artists and five performed by white jazz artists. The examples were presented according to one of three conditions: (1) music only, (2) music accompanied by a photograph of the performer or (3) music accompanied by a photograph of a different performer. Using material adapted from McCrary (1992), attitude responses were also collected using a 9-point Likert scale by which subjects expressed either agreement or disagreement with 16 hypothetical situations in which they interacted with a member of their own or another ethnic group. Preference results indicated that white subjects preferred examples by white performers regardless of the presentation condition. African-American students preferred examples by white performers when presented with the music alone, but preferred examples believed to be by African-American performers under the two musical/visual conditions. Attitude results demonstrated a preference for same-group encounters by both groups of subjects. However, none of the mean scores indicated a negative response toward the other ethnic group. No statistical relationship was found between preference and attitude scores.

Pages

160

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_disstheses.6038

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