| Why do so many young musicians make the seemingly irrational decision to pursue the extraordinarily competitive, challenging professional music career path? Despite the widespread career advice communicated by music teachers to their students, "Do music if it's the only thing you can do," and very low job availability, the job market for musicians across genres is characterized by an extremely high supply of talented, motivated people. My dissertation investigates the nature of a subjective orientation--having a calling---that sheds light on musicians' paradoxical career paths. Specifically, four research questions are addressed: (1) What is having a calling? (2) Can having a calling be measured? (3) What are the antecedents of having a calling? (4) What are the consequences of having a calling? These questions were explored through a longitudinal survey study, covering a span of 3 1/2 years, 2001-2005. There were four waves of data collected from 567 talented young musicians. Additional qualitative data was collected through 82 interviews with participants (n=46).; The results for each of the research questions are as follows: (1) A new, integrated view of calling was developed. Calling is comprised of seven elements: passion, identity, urgency, engulfs consciousness, longevity of involvement, sense of meaning, and domain-specific self-esteem. (2) I created a new, 28-item survey scale based on the seven elements of calling. Analyses indicated that the scale is psychometrically robust, calling decreased over time on average, and there was variability across individuals in the direction and magnitude of change over time. (3) Individual growth modeling analyses indicated that two categories of predictors, behavioral involvement in the calling domain and social encouragement, were significant antecedents of calling. Neither personal characteristics, with the exception of gender, nor musical ability were significant predictors of calling. (4) Multiple regression analyses of the relationship between two temporal views of calling, initial level and change over time, and one behavioral, three cognitive, and two behavioral outcomes indicated that calling was a powerful predictor of these career and life consequences.; These results have implications for theory and research on the subjective side of careers and the role of time in careers. Further, numerous questions arise about the long-term implications of having a calling. |
