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Interpersonal Processes and Hearing Voices: A Study of the Association Between Relating to Voices and Distress in Clinical and Non-Clinical Hearers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 November 2009

Eleanor Sorrell ,
Mark Hayward  and
Sara Meddings
Eleanor Sorrell
Affiliation:
North Essex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, UK
Mark Hayward*
Affiliation:
Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and University of Surrey, UK
Sara Meddings
Affiliation:
Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, UK
*
Reprint requests to Mark Hayward, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts and Human Sciences, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 7XH, UK. E-mail: m.hayward@surrey.ac.uk
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Abstract

Background: Previous research suggests that the distress experienced by clinical voice hearers is associated with the perceived relationship between voice and hearer, independent of beliefs about voices and depression. Aims: This study aimed to replicate these findings and generate further hypotheses by comparing the voice hearing experiences of clinical and non-clinical hearers. Method: A cross-sectional, quantitative design was employed and used between-subjects and correlational methods. Thirty-two clinical voice hearers and 18 non-clinical voice hearers were assessed using the PSYRATS, the Voice and You questionnaire, the Beliefs About Voices Questionnaire – Revised, and the Beck Depression Inventory-II. Results: For clinical voice hearers, distress was significantly associated with perceptions of the voice as dominating and intrusive, and hearers distancing themselves from the voice. However, these associations were not independent of beliefs about voices’ omnipotence or malevolence. Non-clinical voice hearers were significantly less distressed than clinical voice hearers and voices were perceived as less dominant, intrusive, malevolent and omnipotent. Non-clinical hearers were found to relate from a position of less distance to voices perceived as benevolent. Conclusions: Findings from previous research were only partially replicated. Clinically, the development of less maladaptive relationships between voice and voice hearer may reduce distress.

Keywords

Voice-hearingbeliefsinterpersonal issuescognitive therapy
Type
Research Article
Information
Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy , Volume 38 , Issue 2 , March 2010 , pp. 127 - 140
Copyright
Copyright © British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies 2009

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