بررسی شخصیت در لکنت زبان: نتایج یک مطالعه مورد شاهدی با استفاده از NEO-FFI
کد مقاله | سال انتشار | تعداد صفحات مقاله انگلیسی |
---|---|---|
33528 | 2011 | 5 صفحه PDF |
Publisher : Elsevier - Science Direct (الزویر - ساینس دایرکت)
Journal : Journal of Communication Disorders, Volume 44, Issue 2, March–April 2011, Pages 218–222
چکیده انگلیسی
A recent study by Iverach et al. (Journal of Communication Disorders, 2010) compared persons who stutter with two normative samples in the context of the five-factor model of personality measured by the NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI). Persons who stutter were characterized by higher Neuroticism, lower Conscientiousness and lower Agreeableness scores in contrast to the normative data from an Australian and a United States sample. Moreover, the authors report that the scores on all five personality dimensions in the stuttering group were within those of the normative samples. A shortcoming of the Iverach et al. study is the lack of a matched control group. In the present study we compared persons who stutter with a control group matched to age and gender. Furthermore, none of the controls had a history of personal and family stuttering. The findings with respect to Neuroticism could be replicated in our sample. But in contrast to Iverach et al. we found higher Conscientiousness and Agreeableness scores in persons who stutter compared to the control group. Learning outcomes: The reader of the present study will learn that elevated Neuroticism scores can be observed in persons who stutter across cultures such as Germany or Australia. With respect to other personality dimensions such as Conscientiousness or Agreeableness the picture is much more difficult.
مقدمه انگلیسی
Persistent developmental stuttering is a speech disorder with a prevalence of about 1% among adults (Bloodstein & Bernstein Ratner, 2008) that can severely hinder communication and quality of life (Yaruss, 2001). Several studies investigated and discussed stuttering in the context of personality and temperament (Alm and Risberg, 2007, Anderson et al., 2003, Prins, 1972, Schwenk et al., 2007, Seery et al., 2007 and Van Riper, 1982). Convincing arguments for the hypothesis that stable traits are causal factors in the development of stuttering do not exist so far (Bloodstein & Bernstein Ratner, 2008). Furthermore it is still unclear if the speech disorder has a significant impact on the personality of the afflicted persons. The empirical findings in this area are mixed and sometimes controversial (for a very good overview, see again Bloodstein & Bernstein Ratner, 2008). In consideration of the various methodological approaches used in the diverse studies, inconsistencies in the findings are not surprising. One of the reasons for contradictory results in the field is a lack of use of standardized questionnaires measuring personality. This has been pointed out explicitly very early by Goodstein (1958). Another reason for the heterogeneous findings could be that the studies used different kinds of control groups. For instance, Walnut (1954) compared the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) scores of a stuttering population with the norms of the MMPI (Hathaway & McKinley, 1943), Sermas and Cox (1982) compared the MMPI scores of persons who stutter with MMPI scores of psychiatric patients, and Treon, Dempster, and Blaesing (2006) with MMPI scores of a carefully matched control sample. The three studies led to ambiguous results. Bloodstein and Bernstein Ratner (2008) mentioned in this context that is it risky to compare collected personality data from a stuttering population with published test norms and emphasize the importance of selected case-control groups. In order to prevent ambiguity regarding the link between stuttering and personality, it is furthermore essential to use the same inventories when doing replication studies. When such studies were conducted in different cultures, it is of additional importance to consider potential cross-cultural personality differences (Terracciano & McCrae, 2006). Recently, Iverach et al. (2010) published an interesting study in the field of personality and stuttering. The authors searched for an association between the prominent five-factor model of personality and stuttering. The so-called Big Five include the personality dimensions Extraversion, Neuroticism, Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness, and Agreeableness as measured by the NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI; Costa & McCrae, 1992). Susca (2006) suggested before to administer this valid and reliable inventory when comparing personality traits of people who stutter and people who do not stutter. Iverach et al. reported that 93 adult participants seeking speech treatment for stuttering in Australia and New Zealand were associated with significantly higher Neuroticism, lower Conscientiousness and lower Agreeableness scores compared to normative data from an Australian and an United States sample. The personality self-report scores of the stuttering group were within the average range for all five personality dimensions. Convincingly, the authors expected that besides higher Neuroticism scores, persons who stutter would also be associated with lower Extraversion scores. This hypothesis could not be confirmed. As mentioned by Iverach et al. in their discussion, a problem of their study design is a lack of a matched control group. This might bias their findings, because the male gender is more prevalent in persons who stutter (about two to four times more men than women stutter; Craig and Tran, 2005 and Yairi and Ambrose, 2005), whereas both sexes are equally distributed in the normal population. As pronounced differences between males and females exist with respect to personality dimensions linked to negative emotionality (such as neuroticism) ( Chapman et al., 2007 and Costa et al., 2001), it is also of particular importance to take into account the gender distribution by using once again a case-control design. Furthermore, Iverach et al. cannot control for the fact that there are also persons who stutter in their used normative samples. Following this argumentation line, we would like to add to the findings of Iverach et al. our present NEO-FFI scores of a stuttering sample that was compared to a sex- and age-matched control group of persons who had no personal or family history of stuttering.
نتیجه گیری انگلیسی
In sum, our study underlines the importance of the construct Neuroticism in the context of the investigation of personality in persons who stutter. For the future, longitudinal studies are of high importance in this field, because higher Neuroticism scores are likely to be a consequence and not an etiological factor of stuttering. Upcoming studies should also investigate the association between severity of stuttering, applied coping strategies, perceived quality of life, and personality dimensions such as Neuroticism.