The Use of Acoustical Analysis for Identification of Client Stress Within the Counseling Session (open access)

The Use of Acoustical Analysis for Identification of Client Stress Within the Counseling Session

The problem of the study was to identify stress arising in psychological counseling by identifying variations in the vocal pitch (fundamental frequency level) of clients' voices. Hypotheses were established to (1) determine the number of categories describing acoustically similar clients' responses within the counseling session and compare these categories with ratings of client stress, (2) determine the relationship between ratings of client stress and different fundamental frequency characteristics, and (3) compare fundamental frequency characteristics of in-session and repeated client verbalizations. Recommendations included (1) considering an improved acoustical analysis method capable of providing immediate feedback which could be used to study both moment-to-moment and longitudinal stress changes, (2) correlating vocal pitch variations with other physiological manifestations indicative of stress, (3) applying acoustical analysis to aid in counselor training, and (4) using acoustical analysis to study different specific types of populations.
Date: August 1975
Creator: Hauser, Kirk O.
System: The UNT Digital Library