The relationship of voice stress, anxiety, and depression to life events and personal style variables

Two studies of the relationships between environmental events, personal style variables, and reaction states were described. In study 1 the correlations between life events, state anxiety, trait anxiety, and voice stress were measured in 32 males and 32 females. For males there was a significant correlation between life stress scores and state anxiety. For females there was a significant correlation between voice stress scores and state anxiety. The implications of these findings for a model of the human stress paradigm were discussed, and improvements in measures were proposed. A second study employed improved measures of life events and voice stress and adding the variables of Type A/ B personal style and depression was done with 24 females and 21 males. More than a dozen significant correlations were found and discussed. Regression analyses indicated that the best predictor of voice stress was negative life events. The best predictor of depression was trait anxiety with gender adding significantly to the prediction equation. The best predictor of state anxiety was negative life events with trait anxiety adding significantly to the equation. The implications of these findings were discussed.