Dissertation - World Federation of Music Therapy

skills, however, the results are not directly comparable. The findings of this study
included significant increases in the total SOC score from pre-test to post-test and pre-
test to follow-up, with the most marked improvements demonstrated in the scores
from the Comprehensibility subscale, whereas Körlin and Wrangsjö found the most
marked improvement in the Manageability subscale (Körlin and Wrangsjö 2001).
According to Antonovsky it is difficult to change a person’s SOC through
psychotherapy. “One’s orientation to the world, formed over the course of decades, is
too deeply rooted a phenomenon to be subject to change in such encounters.”
(Antonovsky 1987, p. 124). However, Antonovsky also expressed sympathy for
interventions aimed at what he considered temporary and limited improvements:
“…for this too we must be grateful.” (p. 125). According to Antonovsky stable
improvements are only possible, if the intervention “equips people to seek out, within
the scope of their lives, what I would call SOC-enhancing experiences. This would be
true for any therapeutic mode that facilitates a long-lasting, consistent change in the
real-life experiences that people undergo.” (p. 126) The findings of this study suggest
that BMGIM may be such a facilitator.
In their study, Körlin and Wrangsjö investigated how a BMGIM series influenced
psychological functioning and SOC in client volunteers who were rated as
‘functional’ or ‘dysfunctional’ based on SCL-90 criteria. In SOC, they found that both
functional and dysfunctional groups showed moderate effects in the Manageability
subscale, interpreted as a reflection of increased imaging competence (Körlin and
Wrangsjö uses the concept ‘imaginal competence’) while Comprehensibility was
unaffected. According to Körlin and Wrangsjö, SOC is not unaffected by
psychotherapy (as suggested by Antonovsky), and the scale seems to measure
outcome similar to the other measures, although with less sensitivity to change.
Contrary to Körlin and Wrangsjö’s findings, it was found in this study that especially
the Comprehensibility subscale was markedly increased from pre-test to post-test in
five of six participants, while Manageability scores increased slightly from pre- to
post-test in all participants, and the Meaningfulness scores increased in three and
decreased in three participants.
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