Elsevier

Consciousness and Cognition

Volume 20, Issue 4, December 2011, Pages 1586-1593
Consciousness and Cognition

The varieties of inner speech: Links between quality of inner speech and psychopathological variables in a sample of young adults

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2011.08.005Get rights and content

Abstract

A resurgence of interest in inner speech as a core feature of human experience has not yet coincided with methodological progress in the empirical study of the phenomenon. The present article reports the development and psychometric validation of a novel instrument, the Varieties of Inner Speech Questionnaire (VISQ), designed to assess the phenomenological properties of inner speech along dimensions of dialogicality, condensed/expanded quality, evaluative/motivational nature, and the extent to which inner speech incorporates other people’s voices. In response to findings that some forms of psychopathology may relate to inner speech, anxiety, depression, and proneness to auditory and visual hallucinations were also assessed. Anxiety, but not depression, was found to be uniquely positively related to both evaluative/motivational inner speech and the presence of other voices in inner speech. Only dialogic inner speech predicted auditory hallucination-proneness, with no inner speech variables predicting levels of visual hallucinations/disturbances. Directions for future research are discussed.

Highlights

► We develop a questionnaire to assess a number of qualities of inner speech. ► We examine its correlations with psychopathology in young adults. ► The inner speech questionnaire was found to have satisfactory psychometrics. ► Anxiety, but not depression, correlated with specific varieties of inner speech. ► Proneness to auditory hallucinations correlated with levels of dialogic inner speech.

Section snippets

Introduction and Method

When asked by Theaetetus to define thought, Socrates replied, “As the talk which the soul has with itself… the soul… when it thinks, is merely conversing with itself, asking itself questions and answering” (Plato, 1987, 189e). Despite an entrenched skepticism about the possibility of a scientific study of such experiences (Hurlburt & Schwitzgebel, 2008), recent years have seen a re-emergence of interest in inner speech, including its phenomenology, meaning, use, and development (e.g., Wiley,

Participants

Two hundred and thirty-five students (77 men) at a UK university with a mean (SD, range) age of 20.38 (2.90, 18–30) took part in the first stage of the study. Participants were recruited via e-mail invitation. There was no financial incentive to participate and all answers were given anonymously, with the participants only indicating their age and gender. A second separate sample of 220 students (47 men) with a mean (SD, range) age of 22.95 (3.52, 18–30) took part in the second stage of the

Development of the Varieties of Inner Speech Questionnaire (VISQ)

Twenty items addressing the dialogic, condensed, and evaluative/motivational properties of inner speech, as well as the presence of the voices of others in inner speech, were developed based on discussions with students and informal piloting of a range of question wordings. This 20-item inner speech questionnaire was then administered to the first set of participants (N = 235). Missing data formed less than 0.5% of the total responses, and such data points were replaced by the mean response value

Discussion

The present study aimed to develop a questionnaire to assess a range of qualitative and functional aspects of inner speech. The resulting Varieties of Inner Speech Questionnaire (VISQ) was shown to have a reliable four-factor structure, derived by exploratory factor analysis and confirmed by confirmatory factor analysis. The four subscales, Dialogic Inner Speech, Condensed Inner Speech, Other People in Inner Speech, and Evaluative/Motivational Inner Speech were all found to have satisfactory

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Drs. Rebecca Knowles and Georgina Rowse for their help supporting data collection, and to the anonymous referees of this paper for their helpful comments.

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