Social work versus music therapy graduate students' perceived effectiveness of music therapy interventions with an end-stage dementia patient

The purpose of this investigation was to determine differences in the way music therapists and social workers discern effectiveness of therapeutic interventions. Participants (N=71) were graduate students recruited from the Master of Social Work (n=44) and Master of Music Therapy (n=27) programs at Florida State University. Participants were shown a 20- minute video containing footage from two music therapy sessions with a 91-year-old end-stage dementia patient and were asked to complete a brief questionnaire based on their perceptions of the interventions used in the video. The research design was post-test only and included all questions from the questionnaire in the analysis. A two-tailed t-test was performed for all questions requiring participants to provide a rating on a Likert-type scale and indicated differences in ratings between music therapy and social work ratings of the interventions shown in the video. Additionally, for questions requiring participants to provide a short answer, qualitative analysis techniques were used to determine differences in the way social workers and music therapists discuss effectiveness of interventions. Findings and limitations will be discussed and suggestions made for future research.