TY - JOUR
T1 - The Voice Characterisation Checklist
T2 - Psychometric Properties of a Brief Clinical Assessment of Voices as Social Agents
AU - Edwards, Clementine J.
AU - Owrid, Oliver
AU - Miller, Lucy
AU - Jafari, Hassan
AU - Emsley, Richard
AU - Rus-Calafell, Mar
AU - Jamieson-Craig, Thomas
AU - Clancy, Moya
AU - McLeod, Hamish
AU - Fornells-Ambrojo, Miriam
AU - McDonnell, Jeffrey
AU - Montague, Alice
AU - Mark, Huckvale
AU - Bucci, Sandra
AU - Haddock, Gillian
AU - Garety, Philippa
AU - Ward, Tom
N1 - Funding Information:
The intellectual property in the Avatar Therapy software and therapy manuals arising from research funded by the Wellcome Trust is owned by a collaboration of UCL, KCL and UCL Business. A patent for aspects of the Avatar Therapy software is owned by UCL Business.
Funding Information:
This study is funded by The Wellcome Trust Ltd., through an Innovations Project award (grant reference [215471/Z/19/Z]). The funding body has no role in the design of the study or the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data or the writing of the manuscript. The work was also part funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College London (PG and RE). RE is supported by an NIHR Research Professorship (NIHR300051). MR-C acknowledges individual funding from the Sofja Kovalevskaja Award (Alexander von Humbold Foundation and Ministry of Education and Research, Germany). GH acknowledges individual funding from an NIHR Senior Investigator Award (NIHR201393). SB is supported by an NIHR Research Professorship (NIHR300794) and is Director and shareholder of CareLoop Health Ltd., a spin out from the University of Manchester to develop and market digital solutions for remote monitoring using smartphones for mental health conditions, currently schizophrenia and postnatal depression. SB also reports research funding from The Wellcome Trust.
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2023 Edwards, Owrid, Miller, Jafari, Emsley, Rus-Calafell, Craig, Clancy, McLeod, Fornells-Ambrojo, McDonnell, Montague, Huckvale, Bucci, Haddock, Garety and Ward.
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - Aim: There is growing interest in tailoring psychological interventions for distressing voices and a need for reliable tools to assess phenomenological features which might influence treatment response. This study examines the reliability and internal consistency of the Voice Characterisation Checklist (VoCC), a novel 10-item tool which assesses degree of voice characterisation, identified as relevant to a new wave of relational approaches. Methods: The sample comprised participants experiencing distressing voices, recruited at baseline on the AVATAR2 trial between January 2021 and July 2022 (n = 170). Inter-rater reliability (IRR) and internal consistency analyses (Cronbach’s alpha) were conducted. Results: The majority of participants reported some degree of voice personification (94%) with high endorsement of voices as distinct auditory experiences (87%) with basic attributes of gender and age (82%). While most identified a voice intention (75%) and personality (76%), attribution of mental states (35%) to the voice (‘What are they thinking?’) and a known historical relationship (36%) were less common. The internal consistency of the VoCC was acceptable (10 items, α = 0.71). IRR analysis indicated acceptable to excellent reliability at the item-level for 9/10 items and moderate agreement between raters’ global (binary) classification of more vs. less highly characterised voices, κ = 0.549 (95% CI, 0.240–0.859), p < 0.05. Conclusion: The VoCC is a reliable and internally consistent tool for assessing voice characterisation and will be used to test whether voice characterisation moderates treatment outcome to AVATAR therapy. There is potential wider utility within clinical trials of other relational therapies as well as routine clinical practice.
AB - Aim: There is growing interest in tailoring psychological interventions for distressing voices and a need for reliable tools to assess phenomenological features which might influence treatment response. This study examines the reliability and internal consistency of the Voice Characterisation Checklist (VoCC), a novel 10-item tool which assesses degree of voice characterisation, identified as relevant to a new wave of relational approaches. Methods: The sample comprised participants experiencing distressing voices, recruited at baseline on the AVATAR2 trial between January 2021 and July 2022 (n = 170). Inter-rater reliability (IRR) and internal consistency analyses (Cronbach’s alpha) were conducted. Results: The majority of participants reported some degree of voice personification (94%) with high endorsement of voices as distinct auditory experiences (87%) with basic attributes of gender and age (82%). While most identified a voice intention (75%) and personality (76%), attribution of mental states (35%) to the voice (‘What are they thinking?’) and a known historical relationship (36%) were less common. The internal consistency of the VoCC was acceptable (10 items, α = 0.71). IRR analysis indicated acceptable to excellent reliability at the item-level for 9/10 items and moderate agreement between raters’ global (binary) classification of more vs. less highly characterised voices, κ = 0.549 (95% CI, 0.240–0.859), p < 0.05. Conclusion: The VoCC is a reliable and internally consistent tool for assessing voice characterisation and will be used to test whether voice characterisation moderates treatment outcome to AVATAR therapy. There is potential wider utility within clinical trials of other relational therapies as well as routine clinical practice.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85167368400&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1192655
DO - 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1192655
M3 - Article
SN - 1664-0640
VL - 14
JO - Frontiers in Psychiatry
JF - Frontiers in Psychiatry
M1 - 1192655
ER -