Functional Speech Disorders and Personality: A Decade of Research

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Abstract
This paper summarizes and evaluates the research literature published between 1958 and 1968, relating measured personality and adjustment to the functional (non-organic) speech problems of articulation, delayed speech, voice, and stuttering. For each of these disorders, a review and evaluation of the research is presented on the personality and adjustment of (1) children suffering from that disorder; (2) their parents; and, where appropriate, (3) adults with that disorder. Methodological and conceptual problems are discussed in the context of the studies. The literature reviewed has yielded few conclusive findings and few new perspectives regarding the role of personality variables in the four major functional speech disorders. The methodological and conceptual inadequacies of most studies have been striking, and steady research efforts have yielded no firm evidence that differentiates speech-defective persons and their parents from normal speakers and their parents in terms of general adjustment or broadly identifiable personality patterns. It would be profitable to concentrate future research on specific within-group variables, such as improvement in therapy, rather than to continue the present focus.

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