Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts 2014, Vol. 8. No. 2, 219-226 © 2014 American Psychological Association 1931-3896/14/$12.00 DOI: l0.1037/a0035634 The Relationship Between Reflective Rumination and Musical Ability Meghan E. Jones Elizabethtown College and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Michael M. Roy Elizabethtown College and North-West University, Potchefstroom Jay Verkuilen City University of New York Rumination has primarily been described as maladaptive due to its relation with depression. However, rumination has also been associated with artistic creativity. Higher levels of rumination in musicians may be associated with ability because the repetitive thought style in rumination may mirror the repetitive practice required to succeed as a musician. The current study examined reflective and brooding rumination in relation to depression in musicians and nonmusicians. Results indicated that musicians exhibited higher levels of reflective rumination than nonmusicians and that, within musicians, reflective rumination was related to certain aspects of musical performance. The current findings indicate that having a reflective ruminative thought style is predictive of musical performance. Keywords: music, rumination, depression, reflection, creativity Rumination has been thought to be a primarily maladaptive thought style in which intense self-reflection and repetitive, rigid thought amplifies nearly all personal experiences, especially neg- ative experiences (Nolen-Hoeksema, Wisco, & Lyubomirsky, 2008; Trapnell & Campbell, 1999). However, it may be that not all pattems of ruminative thought lead directly and exclusively to detrimental outcomes. Researchers have explored possible positive aspects of mmination (Altamirano, Miyake, & Whitmer, 2010; Andrews & Thomson, 2009; Verhaeghen, Khan, & Joormann, 2005). For example, Andrews and Thomson (2009) suggested that rumination might be an evolved adaption that facilitates effective stress response and Altamirano, Miyake, and Whitmer (2010) found that the more singular mindset that underlies rumination is helpful for certain tasks. Further, research from a wide range of perspectives has sug- gested that multiple ruminative styles exist that may involve dif- ferent mechanisms of self-attentiveness (e.g., Nolen-Hoeksema et al., 2008). Trapnell and Campbell (1999) established two distinct This article was published Online First April 7, 2014. Meghan E. Jones, Department of Psychology, Elizabethtown College and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Michael M. Roy, Depart- ment of Psychology, Elizabethtown College and North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa; Jay Verkuilen, Department of Music, City University of New York, Department of Educational Psychology at the Graduate Center. We would like to than Douglas Bomberger, Robert Spence, Sarah Daughtrey, Erika Schnarrs, and Mary Settle for their help with this project. Correspondence conceming this article should be addressed to Michael M. Roy, Department of Psychology, Elizabethtown College, 1 Alpha Dr. Elizabethtown PA, 17022. E-mail: roym@etown.edu factors of private self-consciousness—neurotic self-attentiveness, or rumination, and intellectual self-attentiveness, or reflection. In parallel, Nolen-Hoeksema, Wisco, and Lyubomirsky (2008) define rumination as repetitive focus on distress and negative affect but distinguish between brooding rumination, more passive and ab- stract, and reflective rumination, more purposeful and concrete. Similarly, Conway, Csank, Holm, and Blake (2000) established a construct to solely target a more maladaptive sadness ruminative style, which appears to parallel to brooding rumination. Central to our focus, artistic creativity has been associated with reflective rumination (Cohen & Ferrari, 2010; Verhaeghen et al., 2005) and may explain why artistic types exhibit higher levels of depression (Akinola & Mendes, 2008; Jamison, 1993; Young, Wirmer & Cordes, 2012). Participants high in refiective rumination were more serious about their creative endeavors and exhibited greater creativity (Verhaeghen et al., 2005). Here we explored musical ability as an area in which a mminative thought style may be prevalent and beneficial. Rumination Response styles theory, as developed by Nolen-Hoeksema et al. (2008), describes rumination as a coping mechanism through which individuals engage in repetitive and passive thought on the symptoms and possible causes of distress. They found that rumi- native tendencies are relatively stable over time and are linked to several maladaptive consequences including negative attributional styles, self-criticism, pessimism, neuroticism, and problem-solving deficits. A key feature of rumination is that the repetitive thoughts persist when no demand exists (Verhaeghen et al., 2005). Nolen-Hoeksema et al.'s (2008) rumination construct distin- guishes brooding rumination from reflective rumination. Brooding rumination involves negative thoughts about mood and how a 219