Dr. Alexandra Lamont

Title: Senior Lecturer in Music Psychology
Phone: (+44) 01782 7 33323
Email:
Location: Dorothy Hodgkin Building 1.86
Role: Course Director, MSc Child Social Development, MSc Psychology of Health & Wellbeing.
Deputy Postgraduate Research Director, Research Institute of Social Sciences
Contacting me: Please make an appointment via email.
ALamont

I came to Keele in 2001 primarily to teach on the MSc in Music Psychology and have been involved with postgraduate teaching and research ever since.  I have studied and taught in the fields of music, education and psychology, and my interests are diverse.  In psychology, my expertise lies in developmental psychology and in research methods, as well as my specialism in music psychology.  I am also interested in musical development and music education, and in the sociology and psychology of music consumption.

Research Participants Needed

I am currently seeking adult participants aged 18 and above for a number of studies. Your help is greatly appreciated!  Please pass these links on to others who might also be interested.

1) Just launched: a new study of professional, student, and amateur musicians asking about your experiences of performing.  This is quite a lengthy survey at 30 mins but will provide some very valuable information about how people approach the demands of performance.

2) New for 2013: A study of your strongest and most intense experience of music.  This survey is an open ended online survey that does need you to think a bit about a musical experience you have had, but is very easy to complete.  Anyone can fill this out - you don't have to be actively involved in music making.

3) Research on adult amateur music-making.  If you are interested in helping please click the links to complete a short online survey.  If you grew up in the UK please click here; if you grew up in the US here; or if elsewhere in the world, here. 

4) Research on adults who are not actively involved in music making: a nice short survey.

 

My research centres on issues of musical development and musical engagement across the lifecourse.  I have carried out studies with infants in the laboratory, research with children at schools using a range of methods, and studies of adults both in laboratory settings and more often in real life contexts.  My main research question is why and how people choose to engage with music.  Why does a toddler respond well to a familiar piece of music?  What can children learn about themselves through music?  Why do we experience strong emotions in relation to music at festivals and live concerts?  What kinds of social bonds are formed through active musical engagement?  My research focuses on exploring these questions in everyday settings and placing musical experience in the wider context of people's lives.

Recently I have been involved in evaluation research for a range of music education initiatives including Wider Opportunities Whole Class Instrumental and Vocal Tuition and Music Partnerships between professional musicians and organisations and local education authorities and schools.  I am exploring motivations to engage in amateur music-making including choirs for older people with Professor Michael Murray, and I am also working with Dr Nicholas Reyland on the visual and auditory density of children's television and its effects on young children: we are just completing our analysis of a pilot study funded by a small grant from the British Academy on television watching in 3 and 4 year olds.

I am a member of the Centre for Psychological Research within the Research Institute for Social Sciences.  Within this I convene the Psychology, Health and Wellbeing group.

In January 2012 I was appointed Editor of the journal Psychology of Music.

Selected Publications

  • Lamont A. 2012. Emotion, engagement and meaning in strong experiences of music performance. PSYCHOLOGY OF MUSIC, vol. 40(5), 574-594. link> doi>
  • Lamont A, Daubney A, Spruce G. 2012. Singing in primary schools: case studies of good practice in whole class vocal tuition. BRITISH JOURNAL OF MUSIC EDUCATION, vol. 29(2), 251-268. link> doi>
  • Greasley AE and Lamont A. 2011. Exploring engagement with music in everyday life using experience sampling methodology. MUSICAE SCIENTIAE, vol. 15(1), 45-71. link> doi>
  • Lamont A and Eerola T. 2011. Music and emotion: Themes and development. MUSICAE SCIENTIAE, vol. 15(2), 139-145. link> doi>
  • Lamont A. 2011. The beat goes on: music education, identity and lifelong learning. Music Education Research, vol. 13(4), 369-388. doi>

Full Publications List show

Books

  • Berryman JC, Smythe PK, Taylor A, Lamont A, Joiner R. 2002. Developmental Psychology and You. BPS Blackwell, Oxford.

Journal Articles

  • Lamont A. 2012. Emotion, engagement and meaning in strong experiences of music performance. PSYCHOLOGY OF MUSIC, vol. 40(5), 574-594. link> doi>
  • Lamont A, Daubney A, Spruce G. 2012. Singing in primary schools: case studies of good practice in whole class vocal tuition. BRITISH JOURNAL OF MUSIC EDUCATION, vol. 29(2), 251-268. link> doi>
  • Greasley AE and Lamont A. 2011. Exploring engagement with music in everyday life using experience sampling methodology. MUSICAE SCIENTIAE, vol. 15(1), 45-71. link> doi>
  • Lamont A and Eerola T. 2011. Music and emotion: Themes and development. MUSICAE SCIENTIAE, vol. 15(2), 139-145. link> doi>
  • Lamont A. 2011. The beat goes on: music education, identity and lifelong learning. Music Education Research, vol. 13(4), 369-388. doi>
  • Lamont A. 2011. University students' strong experiences of music: Pleasure, engagement, and meaning. Musicae Scientiae: the journal of the European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music, vol. 15(2), 229-249. doi>
  • LAMONT A and HEYE A. 2010. Mobile listening situations in everyday life: The use of MP3 players while travelling. Musicae Scientiae, vol. 14(1), 95-120. doi>
  • Lamont AM and Webb R. 2010. Short- and long-term musical preferences: What makes a favourite piece of music?. Psychology of Music, vol. 2, 222-241. doi>
  • Lamont A. 2009. The Social and Applied Psychology of Music. MUSICAE SCIENTIAE, vol. 13, 463-466. link> doi>
  • LAMONT AM and Maton K. 2008. Choosing music: Exploratory studies into the low uptake of music GCSE. Journal of Music Education, vol. 25(3), 267-282.
  • Lamont A. 2008. The child as musician: A handbook of musical development. MUSICAE SCIENTIAE, vol. 12, 169-171. link> doi>
  • LAMONT AM. 2008. Young children’s musical worlds: musical engagement in 3-5-year-olds. Journal of Early Childhood Research, vol. 6(3), 247-261. doi>
  • Leighton G and Lamont A. 2006. Exploring children's singing development: do experiences in early schooling help or hinder?. Music Education Research, vol. 8(3), 311-330.
  • Lamont AM. 2005. What do monkeys' music choices mean?. Trends Cogn Sci, vol. 9(8), 359-361. link> doi>
  • Lamont A. 2003. Toddlers' Musical Preferences: Musical Preference and Musical Memory in the Early Years. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 999, 518-519. doi>
  • Lamont A, Hargreaves DJ, Marshall NA, Tarrant M. 2003. Young people's music in and out of school. British Journal of Music Education, vol. 20(3), 229-241.
  • Lamont A. 2002. Musical development and learning: The international perspective. PSYCHOLOGIST, vol. 15, 138. link>
  • Lamont A and Dibben N. 2001. Motivic Structure and the Perception of Similarity. Music Perception, vol. 18(3), 245-274.

Chapters

  • Sloboda J, LAMONT AM, Greasley AE. 2009. Choosing to hear music: motivation, process and effect. In The Oxford Handbook of Music Psychology. Hallam S, Cross I, Thaut M (Eds.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • LAMONT AM. 2009. Music in the school years. In The Oxford Handbook of Music Psychology. Hallam S, Cross I, Thaut M (Eds.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • LAMONT AM and Greasley AE. 2009. Musical Preferences. In The Oxford Handbook of Music Psychology. Hallam S, Cross I, Thaut M (Eds.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Lamont A. 2002. Music education and research. In Aspects of Teaching Secondary Music: Perspectives on Practice. Spruce G (Ed.). Routledge Falmer, London.
  • Lamont A. 2002. Music psychology and the secondary music teacher. In Teaching Music in Secondary Schools: A Reader. Spruce G (Ed.). Routledge Falmer, London.
  • Lamont A. 2002. Musical identities and the school environment. In Musical Identities. MacDonald RAR, Hargreaves DJ, Miell DE (Eds.). Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Year 1

  • PSY-10020 Natural, Unnatural, Supernatural: The Psychology of Unusual Phenomena

Year 2

  • PSY-20013 Research Methods and Perspectives

Year 3

  • PSY-30043/4 Research in Music Psychology (module leader)
  • PSY-30096 Happiness and Wellbeing: Social Scientific Approaches (module leader)
  • PSY-30061 Final Year Psychology Project

Postgraduate 

  • PSY-40015 Dissertation
  • PSY-40034 Theory and Methodology in Psychology
  • PSY-40033 Research Apprenticeship in Psychology (module leader)
  • PSY-40035 Qualitative Research Methods (module leader)
  • CRI-40024 Research Design & Process