Possible Selves as a Source of Motivation for Musicians

Abstract

Music can be a core element of the sense of self. Integration of the future, possible musical self within the self-concept helps to account for the enormous investment of time and energy necessary to become a musician. In this qualitative study, we explore the motivational dimensions of the possible musical self. Possible selves exist in multiple domains with both positive and negative elements. Respondents from a diverse, snowball sample (N = 204) of musicians completed an online survey describing their hoped for, expected and feared musical selves. Coding of the responses identified major themes. The ‘hoped for’ selves yielded four main themes among 171 responses: improvement, social connection, success and enjoyment. The ‘feared’ selves yielded a total of five main themes among 160 responses: being a poor musician, injury/illness, financial difficulty, lack of knowledge and lack of social connection/recognition. The ‘expected’ selves yielded only one additional category, negative expectations. The balance or tension between the positive and negative elements of possible selves is analysed to produce a composite description of the possible musical self. Limitations of the study and links between the present results and possible selves theory are discussed.