Is music performance anxiety just an individual problem? Exploring the impact of musical environments on performers’ approaches to performance and emotions.

Cultural environments appear to impact on the way individuals appraise events and, as a consequence, on their emotional experiences (Jarymowicz & Bar-Tal, 2006; Markus & Kitayama, 1991; Schwartz, 1992, 2006; Turner & Stets, 2008). However, although music performance anxiety (MPA) has been extensively investigated (Gabrielsson, 2003), little is known about the impact of cultural factors on MPA. To fill this gap in current research, the study explored how classical and nonclassical performers differed in the way they experienced two important aspects of their music making, namely practice and public performance. It also compared the emotions that the two groups reported during performance with those they reported during their daily life and with their particular approach to performance.The article starts with a review of the findings on MPA, focusing in particular on the relationship that has been found between MPA and the performers' way of thinking about performance. It then discusses the impact of culture-the tendency of groups to develop a characteristic hierarchy of goals, values, and associated behaviors- on individuals' cognitions and emotions, and suggests that performers belonging to different environments, such as classical and nonclassical, are exposed to a different hierarchy of values and goals. These different values and goals impact on the criteria according to which performers appraise their musical activities, leading to different qualities of emotional experiences.Understanding Music Performance AnxietyMPA is a prevalent problem among musicians (Kenny, 2005; Steptoe, 2001; Steptoe & Fidler, 1987) that may have devastating effects on their well-being and careers (Nagel, 2010). It appears to be a complex phenomenon that results from the interplay of various factors, such as the performer's personal characteristics, the degree of task mastery, the stress of the particular situation (Cox & Kenardy, 1993; Hamann, 1982; LeBlanc, Jin, Obert, & Siivola, 1997; Wilson & Roland, 2002;), and the performers' thoughts about performance. Personal characteristics associated with MPA include trait anxiety (Cox & Kenardy, 1993; Kenny, Davis, & Oates, 2004; Lehrer, Goldman, & Strommen, 1990; Osborne & Kenny, 2008; Steptoe & Fidler, 1987), perfectionism and/or excessive need for control (Mor et al., 1995; Wilson & Roland, 2002), neuroticism, introversion, and proneness to social phobia (Craske & Craig, 1984; Steptoe & Fidler, 1987; Wilson, 1997). These personal characteristics, or basic tendencies seem to be at least partly biologically determined (McCrae et al., 2000: p. 174).MPA has also been shown to correlate with certain kinds of cognitions, that is, negative self-talk, preoccupation about being good enough, concerns about others' negative evaluation, fear of humiliation, catastrophisation (believing that minor errors may have catastrophic consequences), or other irrational beliefs, such as the conviction that one must be perfectly competent at musical performance to be a worthwhile person (Dews & Williams, 1989; Kendrick, Craig, Lawson, & Davidson, 1982; Kenny & Osborne, 2006; Osborne & Kenny, 2008; Steptoe & Fidler, 1987; Wilson & Roland, 2002).The impact of cognition on emotion is widely acknowledged, and is particularly emphasized by appraisal theorists who argue that it is not reality per se that elicits emotions, but rather the subject's appraisal, or subjective evaluation, of this reality (Frijda, Manstead, & Bem, 2000; Ortony, Clore, & Collins, 1990). Cognitive processes seem to determine the relevance of events as well as elicit and differentiate emotions (Scherer, 2005). Frijda highlights the predictable causal relation that exists between cognition and emotion, claiming that the subjects' appraisals of events inexorably determine the emotions that they will experience (Frijda, 1988). …