Psychological Aspects of Museum Visits for Undergraduate Italian Students

This chapter presents two studies on museums attendance by young adult participants. The aims of the first study were to explore the representation of the museum and the relationship between the students’ major areas of study and the typology of museum visited. The first study also examines whether art training received during the school curriculum (before university) can be related to museum attendance. The second study was carried out to investigate the psychological factors involved in the museum attendance. Personality traits, motivations, emotions, intentions and past museum experiences were considered. The aims were to investigate personality antecedents of past experience about museum, and motivations of museum visits in the last year, and to individuate the best psychological predictors of future visits to museums