Dobson, 2010.pdf - University of Sheffield

244 Psychology of Music 39(2)
degrees, throughout the sample. Conversely, the author’s status as ‘musician’ in addition to
‘researcher’ may have engendered a feeling of shared understanding and trust. 4
The participants were approached initially by phone: implicit consent was assumed by their
agreement to take part after hearing an outline of the interview schedule. Before each interview
started participants were assured of the confidentiality of their answers and that data
from their interview transcripts would be treated anonymously. They were asked for their permission
to record the interview and were informed of their right to withdraw from the study
at any time.
Interview schedule
This article originates from a broader study, the interview schedule for which is provided
(see Appendix). Dobson (2010) presents other findings from the research. The interview
schedule began with a warm-up period which sought details of the participants’ work or
study, before asking them to consider how working as a musician affected their lifestyle.
They were asked to identify aspects of their personality which they considered to be advantageous
for working in the music profession, before exploring their perceptions of the levels
of autonomy and creativity experienced in their work. This was followed by a group of questions
on stereotypical musicians’ personalities. Through inviting participants to think about
whether they did fulfil a stereotype (and giving them the opportunity to reject the stereotype
they had provided, or indeed the notion of stereotypes altogether), the aim of this section
was to ease participants into talking comfortably about their experiences in preparation for
the later, potentially sensitive, questions of the schedule (Smith, 1995, p. 13). This section
addressed the incidence of mental health problems in musicians, explored the participants’
perceptions of why such problems occur, and asked them if they had experienced difficulties
concerning emotional well-being or mental health either personally or in other musicians
they knew.
Analysis
The interview transcripts were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis
(IPA), following suggestions proposed by Smith (1995). Initially, one transcript was analysed
in depth by reading the transcript repeatedly and marking summaries, initial interpretations
and then emergent theme titles in the margins. The themes were compiled into a list, and
related themes grouped together, producing a number of ‘master themes’ (Smith, 1995,
p. 19). These were checked against the transcript to ensure they were an acceptable reading
of the raw data. This process was repeated for the next participant’s transcript using the same
themes and master themes where appropriate. Once this transcript was coded the first participant’s
transcript was checked to see if any new emergent themes could be applied. A
cumulative list of master themes and sub-themes for the whole sample was thus devised. As
the number of analysed transcripts grew, newly emergent themes were tested out periodically
on previously analysed transcripts.
IPA was chosen as a method of analysis because it ‘is concerned with cognitions … with
understanding what the particular respondent thinks or believes about the topic under investigation’
(Smith, Flowers, & Osborn, 1997, p. 70). As IPA is intended for data that focuses on
participants’ personal experiences and perceptions, the third person data that was deliberately
obtained (e.g., responses to the questions on stereotypes and accounts of mental health
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