Thesis Defense Announcement

The School of Communication Sciences and Disorders announces the Final Thesis Defense of

Karen Crow

for the Degree of Master of Arts

October 19, 2018 at 11:00 AM in Community Health Building, Room 3062

Advisor: Miriam van Mersbergen

The voice and the self: Does interoceptive awareness predict voice congruence? A pilot study

ABSTRACT:  Voice congruence is the extent to which one's voice is in alignment, or congruent, with one's sense of self. Voices are, by nature, idiosyncratic manifestations of each individual and thus contribute to an individual's unique self-representation. Interoception is defined as the body's ability to perceive its internal physiological state(s), more commonly known as body awareness. An individual's interoceptive abilities have been shown to correlate with emotional and perceptual experience, which poses implications for cognition, self-perception, and personality. Thus, given the known links between the voice and the sense of self, populations experiencing voice disorders or voice incongruence may experience an altered sense of self or an incongruence between the internal construct of self and the external representation of their voice. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which interoceptive awareness predicts voice congruence in individuals with normal, healthy voices. Fifty individuals underwent an interoceptive awareness task and were split into two groups, High and low interoceptrive awareness. Following this task they underwent a speaking and listening task designed to highlight their speaking voice. After speaking and listening, they competed a Vocal Congruent Scale. Results indicated that individuals with higher levels of interoceptive awareness rated themselves as having higher voice congruence. These findings pose compelling implications for many voice-related populations and may serve to guide future clinical and research practices with such populations.