The role of optimism in patients with tinnitus and in patients with hearing impairment

Abstract

Optimism was investigated in a sample of audiology clinic patients, consisting of one group of tinnitus sufferers (N = 30) and one group of hearing impaired subjects not experiencing tinnitus (N = 44). Optimism was measured by the Life Orientation Test (LOT). In the tinnitus group the LOT correlated significantly with measures of tinnitus related distress and in the hearing impaired group with measures of disability and emotional reactions due to the hearing impairment. Cronbach's alphas for the measures used were generally high. Principal components analysis of the LOT confirmed earlier findings by showing two separate factors; one with the positively worded LOT items reflecting the presence of optimism and one with the negatively worded LOT items reflecting the presence of pessimism. The results indicate that dispositional optimism is an usable concept in research with audiological samples, and that optimism is related with tinnitus distress and experienced disability and emotional reactions due to hearing impairment. Further research should investigate the possible role of personality factors in tinnitus and hearing impairment.     

Book Review

Throughout different civilisations and historical epochs, anthropological and religious texts have been replete with accounts of persons who have reported anomalous experiences in the form of visions or voices. In these contexts, such experiences are considered to be a “gift” that can be spiritually enriching or life enhancing. One such group of individuals are mediums who claim to receive information from spirits of the deceased in the form of auditory or visual perceptions. This study explores how mediums come to interpret their experiences as mediumistic and how they describe their relationship with spirit voices. In-depth interviews were conducted with 10 Spiritualist mediums using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Three themes were identified: “Childhood anomalous experiences”, “A search for meaning: Normalisation of mediumship”, and “relationship with spirit”. These themes illuminated aspects of the mediumistic experience that have therapeutic implications for individuals who have similar experiences but become distressed by them.     

Re-expanding the phenomenology of hallucinations: lessons from sixteenth-century Spain

The paradigm within which hallucinations are studied, and the explanatory frameworks employed, may bias the phenomenological analysis of these experiences. After introducing the new term, hallucination, this paper undertook an inter-disciplinary study of the phenomenology of hallucinations identified by the sixteenth-century theologians, St John of the Cross and St Teresa of Avila. It was examined whether the phenomenological properties they highlighted are identified and addressed by contemporary psychological research. Many of these properties were indeed found to be acknowledged and studied by contemporary research in psychiatric patients, as well as in healthy individuals during hypnagogia, near-death experiences and at times of stress. However, many experiences, such as “internal voices,” “soundless voices,” and “voices that save,” were found to be neglected by contemporary research, as was the potential for hallucinations to communicate novel/original information. Finally, it was examined how these phenomenological insights may be “front-loaded” into future experimental designs.     

Auditory Verbal Experience and Agency in Waking,Sleep Onset,REM, and Non‐REM Sleep

We present one of the first quantitative studies on auditory verbal experiences (“hearing voices”) and auditory verbal agency (inner speech, and specifically “talking to (imaginary) voices or characters”) in healthy participants across states of consciousness. Tools of quantitative linguistic analysis were used to measure participants’ implicit knowledge of auditory verbal experiences (VE) and auditory verbal agencies (VA), displayed in mentation reports from four different states. Analysis was conducted on a total of 569 mentation reports from rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, non‐REM sleep, sleep onset, and waking. Physiology was controlled with the nightcap sleep–wake mentation monitoring system. Sleep‐onset hallucinations, traditionally at the focus of scientific attention on auditory verbal hallucinations, showed the lowest degree of VE and VA, whereas REM sleep showed the highest degrees. Degrees of different linguistic‐pragmatic aspects of VE and VA likewise depend on the physiological states. The quantity and pragmatics of VE and VA are a function of the physiologically distinct state of consciousness in which they are conceived.     

听觉经验缺失对时距估计影响的实验研究

采用复制法,通过聋人与听力正常人时距估计的对比实验研究,结果发现听觉经验缺失对时距估计有一定的影响：（1）两类被试在2000ms和10000ms的时距估计中,再现时距的平均数表现出了显著性差异。听力正常被试倾向于低估时距,聋人被试倾向于高估时距。（2）聋人被试不同时距再现相对误差率之间不存在显著性差异;听力正常被试时距再现相对错误率在2000ms与10000ms、30000ms存在显著差异,10000ms和30000ms之间差异不显著。     

Absorption and spiritual experience: A review of evidence and potential mechanisms

Some people seem to have a ‘talent’ for spiritual experience: they readily sense the presence of supernatural beings, receive special messages from God, and report intense feelings of self-transcendence, awe and wonder. Here we review converging strands of evidence to argue that the trait of 'absorption' captures a general proclivity for having spiritual experiences. Participants scoring highly on the Tellegen Absorption Scale report vivid experiences of hearing God's voice during prayer, intense mystical experiences in response to psychedelics or placebo brain-stimulation, and strong feelings of presence and transcendence when confronted with natural beauty, virtual reality, or music. Several mechanisms may help to explain the relationship between absorption and spiritual experience. We suggest that absorption captures an experiential mindset that intensifies inner and outer sensory experience in ways that reflect both prior expectation and novel sensory engagement. It seems to enable that which must be imagined to feel more real.     

Do eating disorder voice characteristics predict treatment outcomes in anorexia nervosa? A pilot study

Individuals with anorexia nervosa often describe experiencing an internal “voice” of their disorder, which previous research has associated with multiple dimensions of eating pathology. This pilot study examined whether eating disorder measures use invoice characteristics at the outset of outpatient therapy predicted changes in disordered eating over the course of treatment. Participants were 14 individuals meeting ICD-10 criteria for anorexia nervosa. Participants completed measures relating to the severity of disordered eating and voice-related characteristics (perceived voice power and metacognitive appraisals about its nature) at the start and end of therapy. Results indicated that the perceived power of the eating disorder was reduced over the course of outpatient therapy, although its other characteristics remained stable. Greater levels of voice power, omnipotence and benevolence at the outset of therapy were related to greater improvements in eating attitudes. No voice-related characteristics were associated with changes in weight. These findings suggest that voice-related appraisals do not obstruct the effectiveness of outpatient therapies for anorexia nervosa. Further studies are needed to ratify these preliminary findings.