Shame, Social Deprivation and the Quality of the Voice-Hearing Relationship

Objectives: Many individuals hold different beliefs about the voices that they hear and have distinct relationships with them, the nature of which may determine the distress experienced. Understanding what factors contribute to these beliefs and relationships and consequently the resulting distress is important. The current research examined whether shame and social deprivation, in a sample of adult voice-hearers, were related to the relationships that individuals had with their voices or the beliefs that they held about them. Design: The study utilised a cross-sectional, internet-based design. Methods: Eighty-seven adult voice-hearers from England were recruited to the online survey. Participants completed measures regarding shame, beliefs about voices and relationships with voices and provided demographic information and postcodes that were used to refer to Index of Multiple Deprivation data (IMD). Results: Social deprivation and shame were not associated. Shame was positively associated with variables describing negative voice-hearing beliefs/relationships but not positive voice-hearing beliefs/relationships. Principal component analysis (PCA) on the eight voice-hearing variables yielded two components related to positive and negative voice-hearing qualities. A multiple regression conducted on the two components identified that shame was only associated with negative voice-hearing qualities. Conclusions: The results suggest that therapies that target shame may be helpful when working with negative voice-hearing beliefs and relationships. Future research should utilise experimental or longitudinal designs to examine the direction of the relationship.