Honors Theses

Date of Award

Spring 5-10-2023

Document Type

Undergraduate Thesis

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Laura J. Dixon

Second Advisor

Stefan Schulenberg

Third Advisor

Hannah Allen

Relational Format

Dissertation/Thesis

Abstract

Because research on misophonia is in its early stages, few studies have examined correlations with other disorders. Misophonia has been shown to co-occur with a variety of anxiety-related and mood disorders. Understanding the link between depression and misophonia is important because both disorders contribute to significant impairment in daily work, social, and role functioning. This study aims to examine the relation between misophonia and depression in a community sample, which would expand knowledge demonstrated by previous studies using clinical and college samples. We hypothesized that misophonia and depression would have a positive correlation and that women would experience higher levels of misophonia and depression severity than men. A community sample from the Lafayette-Oxford-University and surrounding areas (N = 66) completed self-report measures of demographic characteristics, misophonia severity (Amsterdam Misophonia Scale), depression severity (Patient Health Questionnaire-9) and overall impairment (Work and Social Adjustment Scale). This sample identified as 83.3% female and 78.8% white, with a mean age of 28 (SD = 11.8). A large portion of participants reported moderate misophonia severity (n = 29, 43.9%), minimal depression severity (n = 22, 33.3%), and clinical levels of impairment in social, work, and role functioning (n = 31, 47.0%). Bivariate correlations indicated non-significant correlations between misophonia and depression (r = 0.219, p < 0.87). Further analysis revealed significant correlation between misophonia severity and depressed mood (r = .235, p < .05), sleep difficulties (r = .262, p < .05), eating difficulties (r = .253 p < .05), and worthlessness (r =.272, p < .05) on the PHQ-9. An independent samples T-Test was conducted to determine whether or not women reported higher levels of depression and misophonia than men. The results indicated that this hypothesis was not supported as there was no significant difference between men and women in misophonia (M = 11.6, SD = 2.4; t [60] = .11, p = .915) and depression (M = 9.3, SD = 5.6, t [63] = .58, p = .562). Inconsistent with prior work, findings indicate that misophonia and depression severity did not have a positive correlation, which does not support hypothesis one. Hypothesis two was also not supported by the data. However, nearly 40% this sample of individuals with misophonia endorsed clinical levels of depression, suggesting that while misophonia and depression severity were not significantly associated, there is a high level of depression among individuals with misophonia. The lack of support for hypothesis two may be attributed to the uneven distribution of gender in the sample. Given the limitations of this study, further examination of the relationship between misophonia and depression, and how gender may influence these correlations is needed.

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