Measuring Communicative Congruence and Communicative Dysphoria in a Sample of Individuals Without Voice Disorders

Abstract

Purpose: This study examines communicative congruence and communicative dysphoria in adults who deny having a voice disorder. Communicative congruence is the degree to which a person's communication is consistent with their sense of self/identity. Communicative dysphoria is the psychological entropy resulting from communicative in congruence. We propose that these experiences may influence patients' psychosocial well-being and are thus relevant to the field of speech-language pathology. We hypothesized that both constructs would be normally distributed with an inverse relationship. We also hypothesized that communicative congruence would predict scores on the Center for Epidemiological Studies–Depression (CES-D) scale, subscales of the Big Five Aspect Scales (BFAS; a personality measure), and achieve convergent validity with the Vocal Congruence Scale (VCS). Method: Participants (adults 18–70 years) completed the BFAS, CES-D, VCS, and the Voice Handicap Index–10 (VHI-10) before recording a series of speech tasks. Participants' recordings were played back while they responded to questions probing their communicative congruence and communicative dysphoria. Results: The 196 participants were predominantly female (67.3%) and cisgender (96.4%). Communicative congruence was negatively skewed, and communicative dysphoria was normally distributed. Both variables significantly related to each other: More in congruence was associated with more dysphoria. Communicative congruence was inversely related to CES-D scores. The personality metatrait Plasticity related to communicative congruence, as did the domain of Extraversion and the aspects Withdrawal, Enthusiasm, and Assertiveness. Communicative congruence achieved high convergent validity with the VCS. Conclusions: Counter to our hypothesis, participants reported more congruence than incongruence, but all other hypotheses were supported. Participants who reported in congruence were more likely to report symptoms of depression. These findings suggest that even in a predominantly cisgender cohort, some individuals' mental well-being might relate to how well their communication aligns with their identity. This work may inform future investigations into these constructs and their effects on voice therapy outcomes. Supplemental Material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.20739967

Do You Like Your Voice? A Population‐Based Survey of Voice Satisfaction and Voice Enhancement

“…We hypothesize that this may lead to more discontent with voice than is currently realized. A recent study by Welch and Helou 28 describes the term communicative dysphoria, which is the psychological entropy resulting from communicative incongruence in patients without voice disorders. Findings from their study suggested that some individuals' mental well‐being may relate to how well their communication aligns with their identity 28 …”

“…Findings from their study suggested that some individuals' mental well-being may relate to how well their communication aligns with their identity. 28 In exploring this relationship, our research raises a fundamental question for the future of laryngology: Should we be paying more attention to elective voice enhancement to serve our patients? A large number of respondents in this cohort indicated that they desire clarity of the voice; pitch also appeared to be a main source of dissatisfaction.…”