Under the Andrews University Undergraduate Research Scholarship awarded her in 2022, Zoe (under the mentorship of Dr. Karl Bailey) designed and conducted a study on the effects of perfectionism and self-compassion affect burnout among music majors. Sampling a population of undergraduate and graduate music majors across three universities, her results found that holding high self-standards did not necessarily affect musicians' burnout, but rather, their reactions when they failed to meet expectations were the driving forces contributing to burnout. The more musicians exhibited self-compassion in their practicing and performing, the more this counteracted the unwanted effects of the negative perfectionism.
Zoe presented her research in the spring of 2023 at the annual conferences of the Midwest Psychological Association (MPA) and the Michigan Academy of Letters, Arts, and Sciences (MASAL).
With the implications of this research, Zoe strives to encompass these principles in her performing and teaching. She approaches every performance and student with a desire to instill excellence, while also educating students on practical self-compassion strategies to prevent burnout. Her goal is to train inspiring, exceptional artists with empathy, compassion, and self-awareness.
In the fall of 2021, Zoe conducted and piloted a study to examine the effects of mental practice (also known as imagery) on musicians' ability to memorize in performances. By recruiting violin performance majors to learn and perform by memory two etudes using mental and physical practice, her study's results suggested that mental practice could be a comparable replacement for physical time on the instrument. Zoe intends to further current research on this topic by broadening the sample size and including a more diverse selection of musicians.
The conclusions of this pilot study, however, continue to shape how Zoe approaches her practice and teaching strategies. In the summer of 2021, she hosted two workshops for professional musicians on mental practice in bridging the gap between learning notes and memorization. She continues to train her students with imagery to support not only their learning of music but also their performance skills, helping to reduce performance anxiety and self-doubt. By guiding her students through simple mental techniques of visualization and audiation, she empowers them to play with confidence and poise.
presentations
Shiu, Z. (2023, April). K. G. D. Bailey, faculty sponsor. Perfectionism and self-compassion on burnout in music majors. Poster presentation presented at the annual conference of the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago, IL.
Shiu, Z. (2023, March). K. G. D. Bailey, faculty sponsor. Perfectionism and self-compassion on burnout in music majors. Oral presentation presented at the annual conference of the Michigan Academy of Sciences of Sciences, Arts, and Letters, Berrien Springs, MI.