The attitude of dysphonic individuals towards others with dysphonia and their self-perception

Abstract

This study examined three levels of self-concept in adults with voice disorders. The three levels are their self-perceived severity of voice problems, their meta-perception and their attitudes towards others with voice disorders. Eleven pairs of vocally healthy (vocally healthy listener group) and voice-disordered listeners (dysphonic listener group) were asked to give ratings on their self-perceived severity of their voice conditions, meta-perception and their attitudes towards individuals with different severities of voice disorders using semantic differential scale. The result showed that the dysphonic listener group gave significantly more negative ratings in their self-perceived severity and meta-perception than normal listener group. Similar attitude scores towards individuals with voice disorders were obtained from both listeners groups. The results suggested that voice-disordered individuals with voice disorders and speech therapists should not under-estimate the consequence of voice disorders. The study concluded that voice-disordered people individuals hold a generally negative attitude towards themselves. Limitations of the study and recommendations for future researches were discussed.