Dimensionality in High School Student Participants' Perceptions of the Meaning of Choral Singing Experience

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to investigate high school participants' views of the meaning of high school choral singing experience. For the purposes of this study, meaning is defined as a psychological construct with cognitive and affective aspects, manifested overtly through behavior, reflecting an individual's evaluation and valuation of an experience. A further purpose was to determine the efficacy of a multidimensional conceptualization of the meaning construct. A Likert-type scale was developed and administered to 673 high school choral students in 14 ensembles. Principal components factor analysis with oblique rotation yielded six interpretable factors in the meaning of high school choral singing experience. These dimensions were labeled achievement, spiritualistic, musical-artistic, communicative, psychological, and integrative. The results of the present study appear to confirm the validity of a multidimensional conceptualization of the meaning construct.