Sounds of Difference: A Typology of Reactions of People with Dementia to Individualized Music in the Presence of a Monitoring Person

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Despite promising effects of individualized music listening (IML) for people with dementia, the individualized nature and heterogeneity of reactions to IML remain underexplored. We aimed to develop an empirically derived typology of directly observed reactions of people with dementia to IML and propose recommendations for tailoring the intervention to the respective types.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS

An ideal-type analysis was conducted on 108 video recordings of 45 people with mainly severe dementia (78% female, mean age of 83.02 years, all white participants) listening to recorded individualized music. Dimensions were identified for capturing similarities and differences between types.

RESULTS

The analysis yielded 10 types of reactions ("expressing and sharing joy", "self-disclosure stimulated by music", "concentrated, absorbed listening", "blissful enjoyment", "experience of the music as bittersweet", "sharing memories", "releasing tension", "tensing up and rejecting", "predominant search for social exchange", "no interpretable reaction") and 3 dimensions ("valence" from negative to positive, "arousal" from calm to activated, "communicative activity" from defensive/ resistant to proactive), resulting in a three-dimensional coordinate system, providing a holistic representation and facilitating a systematic contrast of identified reaction types to IML.

DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS

Reactions to IML were influenced by the interaction with the project staff, who monitored the sessions. Based on these observations, we propose recommendations for tailoring both the behavior of the monitoring person (e.g., engaging in synchronous activities like clapping along) and the setup of the intervention (e.g., communal vs. individual listening) to each type, which may improve the effects of IML.

Football Fans in the “Südkurve”: An Escape from the Pressure to Singularize?

With remarkable regularity, escalation processes in soccer stadiums lead to violence between police, private security guards, and soccer fans. This article examines the question of how this happens and what it means. In a consideration of Reckwitz’s thesis of the society of singularities, data from participant observation, interviews, and video analysis is examined in order to address the question of whether going to soccer games can be understood as a temporary break from the compulsion to individualize or singularize. In addition, the article develops the thesis that the escalation of processes of violence does not constitute the collapse of social order, but rather a predictable process in which all participants consistently cooperate (Collins). Through ordered togetherness and opposition, a common ritual (Durkheim and Turner) takes place, an always precarious walk up to the limits of what is socially acceptable, which also leads to the renewal of the social. Going to soccer stadiums, so my thesis, can be understood as testing the boundaries of the socially acceptable.