The purpose of this study was to contribute an experiential understanding of everyday
"music listening experiences through a text that also conveyed a pathic way of knowing. I
studied the phenomenon of music listening in the particular context of women living with
chronic illness (i.e., a physical condition that is managed rather than cured), and in keeping with
van Manen's (1990, 2000) applied hermeneutic-phenomenological approach. Van Manen's
approach to phenomenological inquiry emphasizes implementation of the reductio (the
reduction), attention to the vocatio (the vocative dimension), and the use of empirical and
reflective methods to generate and analyze data. The question that guided this study was: What
is the lived experience and lived meaning of music listening for women living with chronic
illness?
Six women were interviewed in multiple conversations about their music listening
experiences. All lived with chronic illness, and identified music listening as important in their
lives. Following an initial analysis based on multiple readings from holistic, selective, and
detailed perspectives, I used a guided existential reflection based on lived body, lived time, lived
space, and lived relation to further understand, organize, and reveal the many ways in which the
women listened to music. Writing and rewriting in a reflective and dialogical manner were
grounding elements of analysis.
Findings contribute in several ways. Most broadly, the final text was constructed to
communicate an understanding that is embodied and discursive (i.e., knowledge as
participation), and that leads to personal formative knowledge (i.e., knowledge as being). As a
phenomenology of music listening, results suggested that to listen to music is to be in the
company of music; that is, to be with a longtime companion who ultimately aids in
accommodating the unanticipated arrival of chronic illness. Implications include future research
to further investigate the complex, relational dynamics associated with music listening
experiences, as well as the possibility of the body as a source of knowledge (i.e., mind-body),
acting as a musical compass in music listening experiences. Implications for counselling
practice are also described.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/13208 |
| Date | 05 1900 |
| Creators | Nicol, Jennifer James |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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