The relationship between musical taste and some personality traits

Brojna istraživanja provedena su na temu glazbenih preferencija s ciljem određenja značajki koje utječu na njih, a to ni ne čudi s obzirom da je glazba oduvijek bila važan sastavni dio ljudskog života. U ovom radu bit će predstavljeni rezultati nekoliko takvih istraživanja, inozemnih i hrvatskih, s ciljem boljeg razumijevanja odnosa nekih značajki ličnosti i glazbenih preferencija. Prije toga, bit će predstavljene neke od najpoznatijih teorija ličnosti i modela glazbenih preferencija kako bismo ih na kraju mogli povezati i donijeti zaključke. Poseban naglasak bit će stavljen i na mogućnost promjene i unapređenja glazbenog ukusa pod utjecajem okoline, naročito škole i glazbenog odgoja. Rentfrow i Gosling (2003) u svom radu navode kako je glazba sveprisutna u našim životima i igra važnu ulogu u formiranju osobnosti i socijalnog identiteta te u smislu fiziološke pobude. Oni su se prvenstveno fokusirali na pronalazak odgovora na pitanje zašto se ljudima sviđa glazba koja im se sviđa, a polazište za istraživanje strukture glazbenih preferencija stavili su na osobine ličnosti, samopoimanje i kognitivne sposobnosti pojedinca (Rentfrow i Gosling, 2003). I hrvatski autori ističu važnost istraživanja značajki ličnosti u psihologiji kao mogućih prediktora glazbenog ukusa i preferencija, te se slažu oko nepobitnog utjecaja kojeg glazba ima na ljude. Ona je neizostavan dio naše okoline, a ima razne emocionalne, kognitivne i socijalne funkcije (Reić Ercegovac i Dobrota, 2011).There is a large number of researches that have been carried out on the topic of musical preferences whose main goal was to determine the factors that influence them, and the interest in this topic is not surprising if we take into account the fact that music has always been an important part of human lives. This paper will present the results of some of those researches, foreign and Croatian, with the aim of better understanding of the relationship between some of the personality traits and musical preferences. Before that, some of the most popular personality traits theories and theories of musical preferences will be presented so that we could connect them and eventually make conclusions. A special emphasis will be made on the possibility of changing and improving musical taste under the influence of the environment, especially the school environment and music education. Rentfrow and Gosling (2003) stated in their work that music is all-present in our lives and plays a major role in the formation of personality and social identity as well as in the sense of physiological arousal. Their focus was mainly on finding the answer to the question why people like the music they like, and the foundation for their research was placed on personality traits, self-views and cognitive abilities of an individual (Rentfrow and Gosling, 2003). Croatian authors have also emphasized the importance of studying some of the personality traits in psychology as possible predictors of the musical taste, and have agreed on the irrefutable influence that music has on people. It is an infallible part of our environment, and has various emotional, cognitive and social functions (Reić Ercegovac and Dobrota, 2011)