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Updated: Jul 11, 2025

Author Spotlight: Investigating the Impact of Emotional Prosodies on Voice Recognition and Perception
Published on: August 9, 2024
Social identification, identity integration and wellbeing in people who hear voices
Lorna I Hogg1,2,3, Laura G E Smith1, Tim Kurz1,4
1Department of Psychology, University of Bath, Bath, UK.
Objectives:
Hearing voices is associated with public stigma and this can influence readiness to identify as a voice hearer (VH) and psychological wellbeing. In this study, we investigated the relationships between a VH social identity, the integration of that identity with other important social identities and wellbeing.
Design:
Cross-sectional study, with a subset of longitudinal data across three time points.
Methods:
People who self-identified as voice hearers completed questionnaires (VH social identity, identity integration, wellbeing and perceptions of in-group and out-group empathy) at three time points, spaced at 3-monthly intervals. The final sample comprised 182 participants at T1, 91 at T2 and 75 at T3. Hierarchical linear multiple regression analyses were used to test all hypotheses.
Results:
The integration of a VH social identity was strongly associated with better psychological wellbeing at T1. Identity integration was also associated with static wellbeing scores at 6 months. Effects on wellbeing were not accounted for by either severity of voice-hearing or paranoia. Whilst perceptions of in-group empathy were associated with VH social identification, perceptions of outgroup empathy were important for identity integration.
Conclusions:
Integrating a VH social identity with other important identities into a coherent sense of self is important for wellbeing in voice hearers; perceived in-group and outgroup empathy are important in this process.
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