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University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Attributional beliefs in music learning: 'talent' or hard work?

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

Attributional beliefs of three distinct groups regarding the sources of musical skill—hard work or innate/internal -- were explored through two separate studies. Subjects for the pilot study consisted of thirty-seven private university music majors compared with adult chancel choir members, while the thesis study compared the responses of thirty-four public university music majors with chancel choir members. All subjects responded to researcher-developed attributive questionnaires. The pilot study indicated that a majority had the same notion, that musical skill comes from hard work and innate ability, with no statistical difference between private university music majors and the adult non-majors, p < .9999, on the Freeman-Halton extension of Fisher’s. Differences were found in the thesis study, with the majority of public university music majors favoring hard work and the adult non-majors equally divided between the two choices, resulting in a statistically significant difference at p < .0016 on Freeman-Halton extension of Fisher’s.

Degree

thesis:*
Grantor dc:publisher
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Harris, Brian Joseph
Contributors dc:contributor
  • Lee, William R.
  • Harris, Lee D.; Ford, Joseph Kevin
  • College of Arts and Sciences

Subjects

dc:subject × 1

Rights

dc:rights
Language dc:language
English, eng

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Repository record dc:identifier
https://scholar.utc.edu/theses/27
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:scholar.utc.edu:theses-1026

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
University of Tennessee - Chattanooga
Base URL
scholar.utc.edu/do/oai/
Last updated
2026-07-24
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
related terms
citation

Harris, Brian Joseph. Attributional beliefs in music learning: 'talent' or hard work?. University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, https://scholar.utc.edu/theses/27