Hoogloand, Morris and Tinbergen (1957) demonstrated that the spines of two species of sticklebacks, Gasterosteus aculeatus and Pygosteus pungitius, are an effective defence against the pike (Esox lucius) and perch (Percha fluviatilis) as predators, and the present study was undertaken to compare the fright behaviour (i.e. responses to a predator) of the same two species.

No description available.

This study examined the encoding accuracy and decoding accuracy of individual speakers and audience members as predictors of the accuracy with which public speaking anxiety is communicated during speech performance. Previous research revealed that audiences tend to underestimate the state anxiety of public speakers and that a low-to-moderate, positive correlation exists between speaker self-report and audience-observed state public speaking anxiety. Two divergent theoretical perspectives, differential information processing and emotional communication processes, were proposed as explanations for this phenomenon. Predictors for each perspective were estimated by Kenny's 1988 Social Relations Model (SRM). The study was conducted at a large metropolitan community college in the southwest region of the United States. Eighty subjects (40 males and 40 females) delivered two brief speeches before audiences of 20 fellow classmates. Immediately following each speech, speakers reported their state public speaking anxiety on the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory A-State (STAI A-State). Audience members recorded their observations of speaker state anxiety on an audience version of the STAI A-State. Correlations between speaker self-report and audience-perceived state public speaking anxiety served as the estimate of judgment accuracy. The full SRM explained 65.7% of the variance in communication accuracy. Actor effects, the most powerful predictor of communication accuracy, accounted for 49.5% of the variance. The interaction of actor and partner effects accounted for approximately 10% of the variance. A surprisingly low (5% of the variance) degree of accuracy was attributable to audience decoding skills. Interpretation of the findings and suggestions for future research are presented.

Although the topic is rarely discussed, performance anxiety is a debilitating condition that sometimes even successful actors face. This thesis chronicles my experience dealing with performance anxiety in four productions as an actor in the M.F.A. acting program at The University of Texas at Austin. It includes an overview of research on the topic and calls for additional study from researchers of psychological disorders and practitioners of the acting craft. / text

<p>Denna uppsats syftar till att få insikt i hur några högskolestuderande på klassisk gitarr och klassiskt piano som spelar solo upplever en konsertsituation. Huvudfrågorna har varit: Vad känner de? Har de några problem/svårigheter och i så fall hur beskriver de upplevelsen av detta? Detta har undersökts genom kvalitativa intervjuer med fem musikhögskolestudenter. Resultatet visar på att samtliga informanter upplever att de delvis påverkas negativt av nervositet i samband med en konsert. Nervositeten yttrar sig bland annat genom "fjärilar i magen", svettningar och negativa tankar innan konserten som handlar om att man inte är tillräckligt förberedd, att det kommer gå dåligt och att man skall spela fel. Under en konsert upplever de att de ibland har svårt att behålla koncentrationen och tankar på annat än musiken får fokus, t.ex. vilka som lyssnar, vad publiken tycker eller vad de skall äta till kvällsmat. Endast en av de fem intervjuade uttryckte att hon kände någon sorts glädje innan ett framträdande.</p> / <p>The purpose of this study is to investigate how university music students, playing classical guitar and classical piano, feel about a public performance. The main questions have been: What do they feel? Do they experience any difficulties and if so, how do they describe this? This has been examined by five interviews with music students at a university in Sweden.The results highlight that all of the informants feel that they are affected in a negative way by their nervousness. Signs of nervousness are butterflies in one's stomach, perspiration and negative thoughts prior to the actual concert situation. Those symptoms may deal with the idea of not being adequately prepared, a disastrous performance in general or simply playing wrong notes.During a performance they occasionally find it hard to stay concentrated, and thoughts about other things tend to get more focus: who is listening, what the audience will think or perhaps something as irrelevant as what the performer wants to eat for supper. Only one of the informants expressed that she felt a certain type of positive excitement about getting on stage before a concert.</p>

Denna uppsats syftar till att få insikt i hur några högskolestuderande på klassisk gitarr och klassiskt piano som spelar solo upplever en konsertsituation. Huvudfrågorna har varit: Vad känner de? Har de några problem/svårigheter och i så fall hur beskriver de upplevelsen av detta? Detta har undersökts genom kvalitativa intervjuer med fem musikhögskolestudenter. Resultatet visar på att samtliga informanter upplever att de delvis påverkas negativt av nervositet i samband med en konsert. Nervositeten yttrar sig bland annat genom "fjärilar i magen", svettningar och negativa tankar innan konserten som handlar om att man inte är tillräckligt förberedd, att det kommer gå dåligt och att man skall spela fel. Under en konsert upplever de att de ibland har svårt att behålla koncentrationen och tankar på annat än musiken får fokus, t.ex. vilka som lyssnar, vad publiken tycker eller vad de skall äta till kvällsmat. Endast en av de fem intervjuade uttryckte att hon kände någon sorts glädje innan ett framträdande. / The purpose of this study is to investigate how university music students, playing classical guitar and classical piano, feel about a public performance. The main questions have been: What do they feel? Do they experience any difficulties and if so, how do they describe this? This has been examined by five interviews with music students at a university in Sweden.The results highlight that all of the informants feel that they are affected in a negative way by their nervousness. Signs of nervousness are butterflies in one's stomach, perspiration and negative thoughts prior to the actual concert situation. Those symptoms may deal with the idea of not being adequately prepared, a disastrous performance in general or simply playing wrong notes.During a performance they occasionally find it hard to stay concentrated, and thoughts about other things tend to get more focus: who is listening, what the audience will think or perhaps something as irrelevant as what the performer wants to eat for supper. Only one of the informants expressed that she felt a certain type of positive excitement about getting on stage before a concert.

The purpose of our study is to find out how teachers can help their students to learn how to managestage fright. By interviewing high school teachers and high school students and also observe one oftheir classes, we wanted to find out how they think about the causes of stage fright and what youcan do to relieve it. We also wanted to find out how teachers are working to teach students how todeal with stage fright, and how they think that you also could work. As a teacher of music, among other things, the task is to assess and rate the students performancesin music. Several components are based on the students' courage to play on his or her instrument infront of other people. Those who suffer from stage fright find this in many cases hard, which bothinhibit the student's development and hampers the assessment for the teacher. It is assumed, however, implicit in the curriculum of music that stage fright does not exist or that students have thetools to manage it. We want our work to provide an input into how teachers in high school can work with stage frightwith their students and we believe that teachers in other subjects also can use this. There is some research on how to deal with stage fright as a musician, but a lot comes from thesport which for a long time has studied how to perform best under pressure. The results of our studyshow that stage fright can be caused by several things, and that there are also several ways to learn how to manage it. For example, to be well prepared and gain greater self-awareness. Much is basedon strengthening self-esteem and make sure the teacher sees each student's needs. But theinterviewed teachers also feel that they lack skills and education in the area, and they base their thoughts only on their own empirical data.

The purpose of this research is to overcome stage fright through different techniques of thorough preparation in the practice room. The main methods discussed are mindfulness and mental training. Five selected orchestral excerpts have been prepared and performed using these methods, then presented as recordings in three different situations and analysed according to the performance quality that is then measured by percentage. From my research I deduct that mental training is an essential part of practising that leads to less stage fright and will increase performance results dramatically. / <p>Eduard Oja Piano Quintet</p><p></p><p>Medverkande: Anna-Lena Ohlwein, Doris Mägi, Viktoria Hillerud, Joline Granath</p>

Muzikas – atlikėjas yra tarytum tarpininkas tarp kompozitoriaus ir klausytojo. Jo valioje atsiduria kūrinys, kurį jis perleidžia per savo unikalų vidinį pasaulį. Norint pasiekti profesinių aukštumų neužtenka būti gabiu ar muzikaliu. Reikia turėti tvirtą charakterį, stiprią valią ir pasitikėjimą savimi. Problema. Skiriamas per mažas dėmesys į tai, kokią įtaką muzikantui - atlikėjui daro žema savivertė, valios stoka. Nepakankamas žinių kiekis apie kovos su scenos baime būdais. Siauras saves pažinimas užkerta kelius į sau iškeltų tikslų pasiekimą, mažina galimybes panaudoti turimus talentus, išsiugdyti naujus. Tyrimo objektas. Pagrindinės psichofiziologinės savybės, reikalingos muzikos atlikėjui. Tyrimo tikslas. Siekiama išsiaiškinti kokiais būdais muzikantai - atlikėjai kovoja su scenos baimės, valios ugdymo ir savivertės kėlimo problemomis. Taip pat identifikuoti jų požiūrį į išvardintų savybių svarbą muzikanto – atlikėjo specialybėje. Tyrimo klausimas. Koks yra muzikos atlikėjų studentų požiūris į valią, savivertę ir kovą su scenos baime? / A musician – performer is an intermediate between the composer and the listener. He controls the piece which he lets through his own unique internal world. It is not enough to be gifted or musical in order to achieve professional goals. One must also have a strong character, strong will and self-confidence. The problem. Not enough attention is paid to how low self-esteem and lack of willpower influence a musician – performer. Not enough knowledge about the methods to cope with stage-fright. Narrow knowledge of self prevents the achievement of goals, reduces the potential to use one’s talents and develop new ones. Object of the analysis. The fundamental psycho-physiological qualities necessary for a musical performer. Goal of the analysis. To find what kind of methods do musicians – performers use to cope with the problems of stage-fright, education of will and improvement of self-esteem. Also, to identify their attitude towards the importance of the listed qualities in the specialty of musician – performer. Matter of the analysis. What is the attitude of musicians – performers towards the willpower, self-esteem and struggle with stage-fright?

Many musicians are forced to scale down or even abandon their profession due to injuries caused by playing and practicing their instruments for long hours in unnatural body positions; also, the competition and the high standard expected of performers in the industry causes anxiety and tension in their lives. Increasingly, music schools, conservatories and colleges attempt to cater for these problems by including classes in the Alexander Technique. But young learners can also fall prey to these problems. Performance anxiety is potentially a threat to any musician’s career and can be experienced at all levels of expertise. In the light of this the following research question was tested: Is it possible to substantially reduce performance anxiety (stage fright) in instrumental playing by implementing Alexander Technique principles? The study included a group of twelve school-going children who had been identified as being prone to performance anxiety. They were divided into two groups of six each, one being the experimental group and the other the control group. The experimental group consisted of six flute students who were exposed to selected Alexander Technique principles in their lessons, while the control group consisted of six flute students that were taught by different teachers, who provided no exposure. Both groups were tested at the beginning of the research, before they played an examination, to ascertain the level of performance anxiety they experienced. Eighteen months later, after the experimental group had been exposed to Alexander principles, both groups played another examination and were then tested again to ascertain whether or not the experimental group’s levels of anxiety had been significantly reduced, compared to the control group. The control groups’ second testing was very similar to their first testing and performance anxiety was still a big drawback to their musical performance. Not only was performance anxiety markedly reduced in the experimental group, but their self-esteem and self-confidence were increased as well. As a result it was deduced that young learners can benefit tremendously from learning and applying Alexander Technique principles to the playing of a musical instrument. Copyright / Dissertation (MMus)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Music / unrestricted