Many factors may influence a person’s success with hearing aids, for example, sound processing by the aid and the presence of background noise. However, the factors that underlie the hearing aid wearer’s perception of success and benefit are not fully understood. For example, Hutchinson et al. [
Other research has focused on clinical variables that can be manipulated such as counseling, the fitting process, type of hearing aid, compression circuitry, and other hearing instrument adjustments. While these modifications can help give wearers more objectively measureable benefit with hearing aids, there are still some who feel that they never achieve success with hearing aids [
Relatively little research has been done on personality and audiology and particularly with regard to perceived hearing aid benefit. Cox et al. [
One well-known factor underlying hearing aid rejection is the presence of background noise. Almost half (49%) of those individuals who have rejected and returned their hearing aids cited difficulty hearing in noise as a reason for the return [
ANL is the difference between a person’s most comfortable listening level for speech and the loudest level of background noise that a person is willing to accept without becoming tense or tired while listening to speech. ANL is measured by first finding a person’s most comfortable level (MCL) for speech. Background noise is then added and increased until the person indicates the noise is at the highest tolerable level without becoming tense or tired. The most intense acceptable background noise level (BNL) is then subtracted from MCL to yield the ANL (
Many variables have been demonstrated to have little to no effect on ANL, including gender [
ANL has been shown to be a more accurate measure in predicting hearing aid success than objective measures such as speech understanding in noise or degree of hearing loss, reaching an accuracy of 85% in Nabelek et al. [
Personality has been shown to affect areas of life such as coping with stress, dealing with crises, and job performance [
Many personality tests have been used to assess individuals’ personality. One common test is the Big Five Personality Test. The specific personality areas covered by the “Big Five” are openness to new experiences, conscientious, extraverted, agreeable, and neurotic/high strung, with their respective opposites being closed-minded, disorganized, introverted, disagreeable, and calm/relaxed [
Another common personality test is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). Myers and Briggs added a fourth dimension, judging-perceiving (J-P), to Jung’s [
Since the ANL measure is a predictor as to which individuals will wear hearing aids on a full-time basis, it has been suggested that the ANL test can be used as a counseling tool [
The purpose of this pilot study was to determine if certain personality types or specific dimensions of personality are associated with an individual’s ANL.
Forty young adults (age
Otoscopy was conducted, and middle ear function was tested using 226 Hz tympanometry with a GSI Tympstar. Jerger type A tympanograms were required for each participant to continue in the study. Pure-tone audiometry was performed using a Madsen Astera audiometer. The audiometer was calibrated according to the American National Standards Institute (ANSI S3.6-1996) standards, and the sound treated booth met the requirements for ambient noise levels (ANSI S3.1-1991). Each participant sat three feet in front of a loudspeaker at 0° azimuth. Soundfield thresholds were determined for each participant at 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, and 8 kHz.
Acceptable noise levels (ANL) were determined using the Arizona Travelogue (Cosmos, Inc.) as the primary stimulus and the R-SPIN [
Each participant also completed the Big Five Personality Test and an abbreviated version of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator to assess their personality. The Big Five Personality Test, also known as the Big Five Inventory (BFI), assesses five personality dimensions that are sometimes referred to as the OCEAN model of personality (open to new experiences, conscientious, extraverted, agreeable, and neurotic/high strung). The inverses of these categories are closed-minded, disorganized, introverted, disagreeable, and calm/relaxed. The BFI contains 44 items which contain a short phrase, for example, “Has an assertive personality” and “Is sometimes shy, inhibited.” The participants rate themselves for each item on a 1 (disagree strongly) to 5 (agree strongly) Likert scale. Each dimension receives a rating from 0% to 100%. A higher percent means the person’s personality is more like that particular dimension category, and a lower percent means they are more like the inverse of that particular dimension [
The abbreviated version of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) contains 72 items that assess four personality dimensions: extroversion/introversion (E-I), sensing/intuition (S-N), thinking/feeling (T-F), and judging/perceiving (J-P). The respondent marks “yes” or “no” to a series of statements, for example, “You enjoy having a wide circle of acquaintances,” and is assigned one aspect per dimension along with a measure of strength. The strength measure ranges from 1 to 100, one being very weak and 100 being very strong. For example, one of the personality types could be ESTJ, signifying that the person scored higher on the questions related to extroversion, sensing, thinking, and judging [
For each participant, otoscopy and tympanometry were first conducted to confirm normal middle ear function, and then pure-tone audiometry was carried out to ensure soundfield thresholds ≤25 dB HL. The most comfortable level (MCL) and background noise level (BNL) measures were obtained next. Instructions for the MCL and BNL measures (the appendix) were typed, and each participant could read the instructions while the researcher read them aloud. Any questions were answered prior to testing [
Acceptable noise levels were determined for each participant by finding their individual MCL measures for recorded speech and their acceptable BNL. The BNL was subtracted from the MCL to find their ANL. The participants were told that the goal was to determine the loudest level of background noise that they can accept without becoming tense or tired while listening to the running speech. The participant listened to the primary stimulus and running speech and indicated an increase (thumbs-up) or decrease (thumbs-down) in level. The researcher controlled the stimulus level through the audiometer. Participants indicated their MCL had been reached by raising their hand in the air. Initially, the stimulus was presented in 5 dB steps then was presented in 2 dB steps. Once the MCL was established, the running speech continued at the level indicated by the participant. Next, the speech babble background noise was presented, and the same increase/decrease technique was used to determine the participant’s loudest acceptable background noise level [
After ANL testing, each participant completed the Big Five Inventory (BFI) and the abbreviated Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) online with scoring also completed online. The percent rating for each of the five dimensions of personality (BFI) and the personality types (MBTI) comprised the scores. The participants were classified as one of the 16 possible types in the MBTI, and the strength of each personality dimension was recorded.
Descriptive statistics were calculated for the MCL, BNL, BFI, and MBTI. Regression analyses were run between each of the Big Five Inventory dimensions and ANL as well as each pair of personality traits in the Myers-Briggs test and the ANL.
The values reported were averaged across all 40 participants. The data on MCL, BNL, and ANL are listed in Table
Most comfortable levels (MCL) for speech in dB HL, background noise levels (BNL) in dB HL, and acceptable noise levels (ANL) in dB.
Mean | Standard deviation | Range | |
---|---|---|---|
MCL | 41.7 | 7.6 | 30–63 |
BNL | 34.7 | 9.1 | 22–63 |
Resulting ANL | 7.0 | 5.0 | −2–18 |
Means for personality types and regression statistics for ANL and personality types/categories.
Category | Mean |
|
|
Significance |
---|---|---|---|---|
Openness | 27.3 | 0.326 | 0.106 | 0.040* |
Conscientious | 74.9 | 0.344 | 0.119 | 0.030* |
Extraverted | 55.4 | 0.208 | 0.043 | 0.198 |
Agreeable | 68.4 | 0.194 | 0.038 | 0.231 |
Neurotic/high strung | 37.5 | 0.128 | 0.016 | 0.431 |
Extraverted/introverted | 8.9 | 0.197 | 0.039 | 0.224 |
Sensing/intuition | −7.4 | 0.038 | 0.001 | 0.817 |
Thinking/feeling | −20.9 | 0.127 | 0.016 | 0.433 |
Judging/perceiving | 46.4 | 0.239 | 0.057 | 0.137 |
Pearson product correlations were used to determine whether a relationship existed between any of the personality dimensions and ANL. These data are listed in Table
Regression analysis showing the relationship between ANL and the openness category from the Big Five Inventory.
Regression analysis showing the relationship between ANL and the conscientious category of the Big Five Inventory.
The purpose of this pilot study was to determine if certain personality types or specific dimensions of personality contribute to acceptable noise levels. Each participant’s five personality dimensions from the Big Five Inventory and their personality type from the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator were compared to their individual ANL score. Regression analysis including a Pearson product correlation was used to determine if there is a relationship between any of the personality types and ANL.
It was found that the openness and conscientious personality dimensions from the Big Five Inventory have a small effect on acceptable noise levels. The participants who were more open to new experiences had lower ANLs, suggesting they were more willing to accept higher levels of background noise. The participants who were more conscientious had larger ANLs, suggesting they were less willing to accept the presence of background noise.
People who are open to new experiences tend to be tolerant, imaginative, artistic, and cultured [
Alworth et al. [
Results of the current study support the hypothesis that at least some dimensions of personality type, as measured by the Big Five Inventory, are related to the acceptance of background noise.
If the relationships between personality type and ANL hold true for listeners with hearing loss, then knowing something about a person’s personality type may help audiologists determine if that client will most likely be a good candidate for hearing aids. Since low ANLs are correlated with full-time use of hearing aids and the openness personality dimension, it can be concluded that those who are more open to new experiences may have a predisposition to accepting more noise and possibly be better hearing aid candidates. Because high ANLs are correlated with part-time or nonuse of hearing aids and the conscientious personality dimension, we might conclude that those who are more conscientious may have a predisposition to accepting less noise and possibly reject hearing aids based on their lack of willingness to accept background noise.
Future research should examine the relationship between personality type and acceptance of background noise in impaired hearing listeners. Also, the use of the Keirsey Temperament Sorter to determine individual Myers-Briggs personality types may provide additional significant information instead of using the online abbreviated Myers-Briggs Type Indicator used in the present study. Future research should also focus on incorporating the Big Five Inventory into other areas of audiology such as aural rehabilitation and creating an abbreviated measure of personality that would be more time-sensitive to use in a clinical setting.
Portions of this paper were presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Audiology, Anaheim, CA, April 3–6.
The authors declare they have no conflict of interests related to the subject matter in this paper.