Music therapy research: II. Research methods suitable for music therapy

Journal/Book: Arts in Psychotherapy. 1993; 20: 117-131.

Abstract: Discusses the pursuit of meaning in researching therapeutic realities and discusses methodological difficulties in music therapy research. It is argued that there is no universally agreed and validated measure for assessment in music therapy. Music therapists emphasize that the basis of assessment should be musical parameters taken from their therapeutic epistemology, not those borrowed or imposed by medical science or psychology. Once an assessment method is established, changes in the musical playing of patients can be compared with clinical changes. Methods are discussed for assessing improvised music playing in adults, as well as correlating a child development scale with improvised music playing. Relative to describing the relationship between music and the experience of the body in time and space, suggestions are made for using music therapy to treat Alzheimer's disease (AD) and movement disturbances that appear as neurological phenomena.

Note: research & assessment methods for music therapy

Keyword(s): Music therapy; experimental methods; measurement ; experimentation

Zurück | Weiter