Using the Theory of Social Representations as theoretical and methodological framework, the purpose of this study was to analyze adults’ mental images (social representations) of music and musical selves across the lifespan. Participants (N = 74) were chosen using purposive sampling in various sociocultural contexts in a large city in the Southeastern United States. As previous studies documented, projective techniques (drawings and linguist associations) can access the most latent dimensions of thinking. Accordingly, drawings and linguistic associations to the textual stimuli “me,” “music,” and “music and me” were used to gain insights into adults’ mental images of music and musical selves. Participants were also asked to provide socio-demographic data that might affect or correlate with their responses. The Correspondences Analysis technique was used to reconstruct representational fields associated with the stimuli. For each stimulus, a five-factor extraction identified hidden dimensions in adult musical thinking and summarized the links between socio-demographic variables and adults’ responses. From a developmental perspective, the comparison of drawings and linguistic associations revealed stable and changing elements in adults’ representations of music and musical selves across the lifespan. From a sociocultural perspective, this study documented the influence of the variable ethnicity on adults’ responses.

以社会表征理论为理论和方法框架，本研究的目的是分析成年人在整个生命过程中音乐和自我的心理形象（社会表征）。参加人数 = 74）是在美国东南部的一个大城市中，采用有针对性的抽样方法在各种社会文化背景下选择的。正如以前的研究记录的那样，射影技术（绘画和语言学家的联想）可以使用最潜在的思维方式。因此，与文字刺激“我”，“音乐”和“我和音乐”有关的绘画和语言联系被用来洞察成年人对音乐和自我的心理印象。还要求与会人员提供可能影响其反应或与其反应相关的社会人口统计数据。对应分析技术用于重建与刺激相关的代表性场。对于每种刺激，五因素提取确定了成人音乐思维中的隐藏维度，并总结了社会人口统计学变量与成人反应之间的联系。从发展的角度看，绘画和语言联想的比较揭示了成年人在整个生命过程中对音乐和音乐自我的表征中不断变化的元素。从社会文化的角度来看，这项研究记录了可变种族对成年人反应的影响。