Absorption and Openness to Experience : an Everyday Tale of Traits, States and Consciousness Transformation with Music

In what ways may individual differences in personality, age and training shape subjective experiences with and of music? And how far is it possible to determine whether particular personality characteristics may predict capacity for certain subtle shifts of consciousness such as episodes of spontaneous, effortless involvement? This chapter examines the construct of Openness (the fifth and most variably defined ‘Big 5’ dimension) and the associated sub-construct of Absorption, both of which have attracted increasing attention from researchers in the last five years. Drawing on a subset of findings from a mixed method study of 10-18 year olds involvement in music in daily life, it outlines what trait and state models can and cannot reveal about the phenomenology of musical consciousness.