The Role of Shame in Psychotic Experiences
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Shame, Dissociation and Voice-Hearing: differences in trait shame between voice-hearers and non-Voice-hearers in a group of individuals endorsing psychotic experiences.
IRAS ID
266163
Contact name
Georgina Geddes
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Oxford, Clinical Trials and Reseach Governance
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 9 months, 1 days
Research summary
In research carried out with people with lived experience of hearing voices it has been found that many people feel that their voices are misunderstood messengers who are actually trying to protect the voice hearer. In line with this, some researchers suggest that hearing voices may play a role in encouraging people who have experienced trauma to use self-protective behaviours. They argue that in certain circumstances these behaviours may have helped survival. A model has been put forward which suggests that trauma can lead to shame which, in turn, can result in the voice hearing experience. This study wants to test this model and see if people who hear voices have different levels of trait shame than those who do not hear voices. This study will recruit around 70 individuals with lived experience of psychotic experiences. These participants will complete a number of online questionnaires that ask about their different psychotic experiences and measure their levels of shame and dissociation. The results of those individuals who have lived experience of psychotic experiences and hear voices will be compared with those individuals who have psychotic experiences and do not hear voices. This study will also look at whether dissociation might be one way that shame could result in hearing voices by testing whether levels of dissociation have any impact on the relationship between trait shame and voice-hearing.
REC name
South Central - Berkshire Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/SC/0577
Date of REC Opinion
1 Nov 2019
REC opinion
Unfavourable Opinion