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Written by Dr. Marcie Zinn
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Sunday, 11 May 2008 15:07 |
Private Lesson Issues 1:
Simple Reinforcement
Reinforcement is simply knowledge of results. For example, if you ever record your playing when you practice to play it back for self-evaluation, then that procedure is reinforcing. If you are not doing well, the recording may impel you to stop practicing, or if you are doing well, you make changes and keep going. Regardless of the outcome, the recording delivers information over and above your own, moment-to-moment self-evaluation while you are playing. Of course, you are an adult, and the various nuances of what you are doing are part of the process, but the result is that you have more information about your own playing than if you had not recorded yourself.
Our current instructional model for instrumental and voice lessons is to deliver one lesson per week to the student, then the student is called upon to go home and rehearse, or practice, the components of the lesson all week. The few students who actually complete the near-daily practice are often called talented, ambitious or otherwise seen as children who know they want to succeed. Most students--even adults--fall way short of the 'daily practice' ideal in that they either practice a limited part of the assignment, and do so fairly ineffectively, or do not practice at all. These students comprise the bulk of music students even though they enter lessons with much enthusiasm and really do want to play their instrument. Many of the students who fail to practice well end up dropping prematurely--before they have learned enough to play on their own--and they often blame themselves. A number of the students who drop prematurely believe they are lazy and untalented. I rarely speak with someone who really understands that the problem was lack of practice, not some sort of genetic defect. |
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Last Updated on Wednesday, 13 August 2008 14:19 |
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SPPA is a multidisciplinary organization of research and clinical scientists, practicing clinicians, psychologists, performing artists, students and others. The mission of SPPA is to advance research, education, treatment and professional practice related to the following:
- Facilitate the direct application of psychological research findings to the performing arts (our tag line!)
- Integrate that research into practice (use of psychological and psychophysiological techniques into all aspects of the performing arts)
- Disseminate the products of this research to the larger community of psychologists and performing artists so as to be useful in common, everyday practice.
What this means is that we stay focused on what is known in the scientific community as applied research. What is applied research, and what other types of research are there? |
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Written by Dr. Marcie Zinn
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 Welcome to the Society for Psychology in the Performing Arts (SPPA). We've made quite a few big changes in the past few months, starting our name change (formerly Society for Applied Psychological Research in the Performing Arts). Starting a new organization has its challenges and naming that new organization has proved to be a tremendous task. Originally, we felt it was important for the name to include "applied psychological research." The word "applied" refers to direct application of research findings for use in the real world and we wanted to emphasize the need for real-world application of research findings in psychology. However, as you might imagine, the original name proved to be all too cumbersome. To compromise, we settled on a shorter, less descriptive name and inserted the rest into a "tag" line: "A North American society for direct application of psychological research findings to the performing arts." This is highly important in that SPPA is taking on the enormous challenge of addressing the needs and issues that are unique to high-level performers (whether it be in the field of music, theater, or dance) using applicable findings from psychology. Performing arts psychology is considered a separate branch of performance psychology and a new specialty. The mission of the society is to seek to make measureable improvements in the lives of performing artists and to make important contributuions to the performing arts community as a whole.
In addition to the name change, you may notice that we now have a brand new website design and website domain name (artspsych.org). The new website has improved accessibility to the broad range of resources and content we now offer. SPPA represents a diverse population of performers, teachers, psychologists, researchers and students. We recognize that each group has its own "language," needs, issues, and interests and each section will evolve in its own direction. There is much work that needs to be done, and we need contributions for all groups if we are to make a positive changes that impact future generations.
-- Dr. Marcie Zinn, President
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SPPA seeks to form several Professional Divisions in upcoming years to provide forums for the exchange of information in specific areas of Performing Arts Psychology research and applications.
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