The Relationship Between Acoustic Characteristics and Personality Dimensions in Patients With Dysphonia

Abstract

Objectives: Voice is influenced by personality. However, it is still questionable which acoustic features are influenced by personality traits. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between acoustic characteristics and personality dimensions. Methods: Thirty-three participants with dysphonia and 33 participants without dysphonia were recruited to take part in this cross-sectional study. Personality dimensions were evaluated by the revised NEO personality inventory, and acoustic characteristics by using the Praat software. The tasks included prolongation of the vowel /a/, expression of declarative and interrogative sentences, reading, and connected speech. The acoustic features included fundamental frequency range, jitter, shimmer, harmonic-to-noise ratio, intensity, and duration. SPSS V. 23 was used for statistical analysis. For correlation analysis, the Pearson and Spearman correlation coefficients were employed. Results: In individuals with dysphonia, a significant relationship was observed between personality dimensions and the following acoustic features: A. extraversion and intensity in connected speech (P=0.045) and the reading task (P=0.036); B. openness and shimmer in /a/ vowel prolongation (P=0.003); C. openness and the harmonic-to-noise ratio in /a/ the vowel prolongation task (P=0.017); and D. agreeableness and duration in expressing interrogative sentences (P=0.019). Discussion: In Persian-speaking participants with and without dysphonia, some acoustic characteristics were significantly correlated with the mean score of the personality test (revised NEO personality inventory). It seems that each voice feature is influenced by personality dimensions. This finding indicates that changes in acoustic characteristics of voice due to personality can be evaluated in laboratory and hearing examinations.

Relationship among five‐factor personality traits and psychological distress with acoustic analysis

“…These findings are at odds with the previous research by Kasefy et al that showed openness had a large correlation with shimmer. It is assumed this difference might be due to the smaller sample size of this study done by Kasefy et al 27 Small to medium correlations between agreeableness with jitter and NHR and between conscientiousness with CPP were observed in participants without dysphonia. This finding is somewhat incongruent with the past study which found no correlation between agreeableness and jitter in participants without dysphonia.…”

“…This finding is somewhat incongruent with the past study which found no correlation between agreeableness and jitter in participants without dysphonia. As mentioned above, this difference might be attributed to the smaller sample size of the previous study 27 . Furthermore, a negative weak correlation between depression and jitter was found only in the dysphonia group.…”

“…As mentioned above, this difference might be attributed to the smaller sample size of the previous study. 27 Furthermore, a negative weak correlation between depression and jitter was found only in the dysphonia group. The results of bootstrapping technique are indicative of a relatively great variance of correlation coefficients in a larger resampled population.…”

“…To our best knowledge, only two studies examined the effect of dysphonia on the relationship between personality traits and psychological distress with acoustic characteristics 27,28 . Extraversion, openness, and agreeableness traits had relationships with some acoustic characteristics 28 .…”

“…[23][24][25][26] To our best knowledge, only two studies examined the effect of dysphonia on the relationship between personality traits and psychological distress with acoustic characteristics. 27,28 Extraversion, openness, and agreeableness traits had relationships with some acoustic characteristics. 28 Toles et al reported the relationships between personality traits and the acoustic characteristics in singers with dysphonia diagnosed with vocal nodules.…”