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      Getting into the musical zone: trait emotional intelligence and amount of practice predict flow in pianists

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          Abstract

          Being “in flow” or “in the zone” is defined as an extremely focused state of consciousness which occurs during intense engagement in an activity. In general, flow has been linked to peak performances (high achievement) and feelings of intense pleasure and happiness. However, empirical research on flow in music performance is scarce, although it may offer novel insights into the question of why musicians engage in musical activities for extensive periods of time. Here, we focused on individual differences in a group of 76 piano performance students and assessed their flow experience in piano performance as well as their trait emotional intelligence. Multiple regression analysis revealed that flow was predicted by the amount of daily practice and trait emotional intelligence. Other background variables (gender, age, duration of piano training and age of first piano training) were not predictive. To predict high achievement in piano performance (i.e., winning a prize in a piano competition), a seven-predictor logistic regression model was fitted to the data, and we found that the odds of winning a prize in a piano competition were predicted by the amount of daily practice and the age at which piano training began. Interestingly, a positive relationship between flow and high achievement was not supported. Further, we explored the role of musical emotions and musical styles in the induction of flow by a self-developed questionnaire. Results suggest that besides individual differences among pianists, specific structural and compositional features of musical pieces and related emotional expressions may facilitate flow experiences. Altogether, these findings highlight the role of emotion in the experience of flow during music performance and call for further experiments addressing emotion in relation to the performer and the music alike.

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              The happy personality: a meta-analysis of 137 personality traits and subjective well-being.

              This meta-analysis used 9 literature search strategies to examine 137 distinct personality constructs as correlates of subjective well-being (SWB). Personality was found to be equally predictive of life satisfaction, happiness, and positive affect, but significantly less predictive of negative affect. The traits most closely associated with SWB were repressive-defensiveness, trust, emotional stability, locus of control-chance, desire for control, hardiness, positive affectivity, private collective self-esteem, and tension. When personality traits were grouped according to the Big Five factors, Neuroticism was the strongest predictor of life satisfaction, happiness, and negative affect. Positive affect was predicted equally well by Extraversion and Agreeableness. The relative importance of personality for predicting SWB, how personality might influence SWB, and limitations of the present review are discussed.
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                Author and article information

                Journal
                Front Psychol
                Front Psychol
                Front. Psychol.
                Frontiers in Psychology
                Frontiers Media S.A.
                1664-1078
                22 November 2013
                2013
                : 4
                : 853
                Affiliations
                [1] 1Department of Basic Psychological Research and Research Methods, University of Vienna Vienna, Austria
                [2] 2Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths, University of London London, UK
                Author notes

                Edited by: Narayanan Srinivasan, University of Allahabad, India

                Reviewed by: Massimiliano Palmiero, University of L'Aquila, Italy; Barbara Colombo, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Italy; Saskia Jaarsveld, University of Kaiserslautern, Germany

                *Correspondence: Manuela M. Marin, Department of Basic Psychological Research and Research Methods, University of Vienna, Liebiggasse 5, Vienna, A-1010, Austria e-mail: manuela.marin@ 123456univie.ac.at
                This article was submitted to Cognitive Science, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology.
                Article
                10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00853
                3837225
                24319434
                a1fbb45b-b8c3-4ed2-bef8-693d01e424c5
                Copyright © 2013 Marin and Bhattacharya.

                This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

                History
                : 08 September 2013
                : 28 October 2013
                Page count
                Figures: 2, Tables: 8, Equations: 0, References: 104, Pages: 14, Words: 12928
                Categories
                Psychology
                Original Research Article

                Clinical Psychology & Psychiatry
                music performance,autotelic personality,emotion,altered states of consciousness,optimal experience

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