E-Book of Articles - World Federation of Music Therapy

Sabbatella, Patricia: The process of Evaluation in Music Therapy
In the words of Bruscia (1995:73) "music therapy is too broad and complex
to be defined, contained or limited by one research approach". Wheeler
(1995:3) corroborates this idea when she says " the methods of music
therapy research are generally part of a larger conception of research with
particular adaptations to the needs of music and music therapy". It is
fundamental to take the above-mentioned into consideration when
developing a research plan, as well as, to combine specific music therapy
knowledge with current research strategies and techniques with the aim of
adapting the latter to the specific needs of the research object. To
formalise the research design the suggestions of Fox (1981) concerning the
underlying dimensions that can be used to structure or classify the research
ideas in order to select their orientation or approach should be taken into
account. Following these ideas, the answers to our questions and the needs
of our research study can best be found somewhere in the present, amongst
the music therapists who are working anonymously, in everyday clinical
music therapy practice. Based upon a Survey Design the object of this
research is to describe the current situation about evaluation in music
therapy clinical practice based on the information given for this study by
the music therapists. For this purpose the descriptive study is based on a
survey/questionnaire which will make it possible to gather the necessary
data taken from the "Cuestionario sobre Practica Profesional de la
Musicoterapia" designed by the author of this work.
2.- Data Collection: Survey of Music Therapy Clinical Practice
The general objective of the Survey of Music Therapy Clinical Practice is to
gather data about music therapy clinical work focus on methodology and
evaluation of clients in different areas and levels of practice. The survey
consists of 24 open and closed questions organised in three sections:
Professional Issues, Methodology of Clinical Practice, Assessment and
Evaluation of Clients (Table 2).
The reliability and validity of the Survey was tested through External Peer
Review (Fox, 1981), and for this purpose a Validation Survey was developed.
The criterion applied in the selection of the external peers was to take
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