A Study of Individual Differences and Stress Among North American Musicians

An exploratory study using a web-based questionnaire collected 1,405 responses, primarily from musicians in the United States and Canada. Questionnaire items measured the Big Five dimensions of personality, psychosomatic health, sources of occupational stress, general demographic variables, and music related variables. A three-stage hierarchical clustering method assigned musicians to nine clusters based upon the Big Five dimensions of personality, forming a typology. Exploratory factor analysis of two item sets yielded latent variables for typal explication. The first analysis produced five group factors and one general factor for measuring occupational stress. The second analysis produced a unidimensional scale measuring psychosomatic troubles. Multivariate and univariate tests found both occupational stress and psychosomatic troubles to be significantly higher in types high on Neuroticism. Within-type comparisons using the standard error of proportional differences found that types high on neuroticism were less satisfied with their present musical activities, had less enjoyment in their work as musicians, and were likely to earn less. Members of the type highest in neuroticism, constituting 9% of musicians clustered, reported the highest stress and psychosomatic troubles, smoked more, and deviated most with respect to sample norms. Musicians were above average on the Big Five dimension Openness to Experience.