Theories

Examples of Psychoemotional theories

-stuttering is a symptom of repressed unconscious conflicts or urges

-stuttering is a symptom of a personality disorder or neurosis

-stuttering is a symptom maladjustment following psychological trauma

Early psychoemotional theories were based on _________, originally offered by _______

psychoanalytic theory; Sigmund Freud

Behaviors and actions can be triggered by _____ to a persons _____

earlier traumas; psyche

Freud conceived the psyche had 3 parts:

id – unconscious instinctual drives

Ego – conscious decisions

Super ego – moral conscious judging the good/bad of decisions

Common themes in early psychoemotional theories

Stuttering is a deep seated neurosis involving a conversion reaction

The unconscious mind converts hidden urges into more acceptable form in the way of stuttering.

What evidence would support a psychoemotional cause?

1) Onset coincide with traumatic events

2) Sudden onsets far more frequent than gradual onsets

3) Recovery coincides with improved emotional adjustment

4) Onset age evenly distributed across the lifespan

Note: none of these are supported facts for every person who stutters

Weaknesses and clinical implications of psychoemotional theories

Research designs of studies with little reported data

Anecdotal success was minimal

If stuttering is psychoemotional in nature, psychotherapy is the therapy of choice; bring unconscious awareness to the surface so it can be dealt with in a healthier manner

Adult Personality and Stuttering (temperament and anxiety)

Inconsistent findings across studies – PWS exhibit the same variation in their personality traits as NFS. Pg. 138

Personality characteristics of PWS likely reflecting the impact of stuttering, not its cause

Trait anxiety may be a contributing predisposing factor (but not, by itself, a cause)

Examples of Psychobehavioral Theory

-by a child who tries to avoid unacceptable speech behavior

-when a child has learned to be anxious and tense about speaking

-after environmental stimuli have reinforced the behavior

-when environmental demands exceed the speaker's capacities for fluent speech

Diagnosogenic Theory

the diagnosis causes the problem

ex. Parents disapprove and show concern over disfluency, and then the child struggles to avoid it

Stuttering occurs when a speaker tries to avoid normally disfluent speech events

Diagnosogenic Theory

How to negate Johnson's Theory

-notable differences do exist in the speech of CWS. Parents are not reacting to normal disfluency

-improvements occur in some cases despite calling attention to stuttering

-stuttering improves when aversive stimuli (e.g. electric shock) were the consequence of stuttering

what is stuttering like?

If you don’t stutter, you don’t know, BUT it has been described as…

Intermittently losing balance while walking a tightrope in the circus?

Being unable to insert key to unlock or start the car when upset or in a hurry?

In both conditions, skills disintegrate as a function of anxiety and reduced attention to the complex motor task

classical conditioning

If a neutral stimulus (bell) is paired with a naturally-occurring stimulus (food) it can develop the power to trigger the same response (saliva)

Example: Pavlov’s dog salivates when a bell rings

Operant Conditioning

the consequence of a response change the response frequency

Example: When the rat stands up, food is delivered. Because the behavior was positively reinforced, the rat stands up more times.

Stuttering as a Conditioned Anxiety Response

Expressions of parental disapproval to a childs normal disfluency create anxiety

This anxiety about parent disapproval motivates the child to avoid the disapproval and try to change the disfluent behaviors, built up anxiety leads to with tension, after the stutter is over a person is relieved (that relief is greater than then socialstuttering consequences of the stuttering) consequently a cyclical stuttering behavior pattern has emerged

the conflict theory

A combination of Johnson and Wischner’s theory: underlying cause of stuttering stems from fears of saying certain words, certain speaking situations – conflict between the drive to speak and the drive to not stutter so the person freezes (a block) a moment of stuttering

Stuttering is self reinforced and a learned behavior

Two Factor Theory

-stuttering results from conditioned negative emotion

-two factors, classical and operant conditioning play a role

Factor 1) various cues evoke feelings that disrupt speech movements

Factor 2) secondary behaviors are reinforced because they deter stuttering

Anticipatory Struggle hypothesis

• A child struggles to speak and finds it difficult

• Frustration and repeated failure lead to a belief that talking is hard to do

• Believing speech is difficult, the child adds undue tension to the act

• talking triggers the anticipation of stuttering and struggle (tension) reaction

Demands-Capacities Model

Stutter events arise when various demands exceed the speakers capacities for fluent speech

differ across children (cognitive, linguistic, motor, etc.)

capacities vs demands

A child may have no deficits, but ______ still exceed _____

demands; capacities

An advanced capacity may be a demand For example:

new vocabulary knowledge (demand) may exceed oral motor abilities (capacity) for producing the words

In the psycholinguistic theory, you may have breakdowns in these areas

1. Conceptualization

2. Formulation (gramamtical or phonological)

3. Articulation

Examples of Psycholinguistic Theories

-An effort to correct a speech planning error before it surfaces

-A defect in central processes responsible for uniting sound elements into syllables

A mis-timed arrival of either the ______ or the _____ essential to execution of speech

sound fillers or the syllable frames

Psycholinguistic theories are not concerned with _________ or _______

environmental factors or emotional responses

What makes psycholinguistic than the others?

Psycholinguistic theory is not concerned with environmental factors or emotional responses