Self-referred personal behavior profile of university professors: Association with communicative and vocal self-evaluation

Abstract

Purpose: Describe the self-referred personal behavior profiles of university professors and verify the association of these profiles with the self-assessment of communicative aspects and vocal symptoms. Methods: Study conducted with 334 professors at a public university who responded to an online questionnaire regarding voice use in teaching practice. Personal behavior profile classification was the response variable, which was divided into four types: pragmatic, analytical, expressive and affable. Explanatory variables were vocal self-perception, vocal resources, and communicative aspects. Descriptive data analysis was performed with application of the Pearson's Chi-squared and Fisher's Exact tests. Results: University professors identified themselves more with the affable and expressive personal behavior profiles. Overall, professors presented good self-perception about vocal and communicative aspects, in addition to having reported few vocal symptoms. Profiles differed for some of the assessed variables, namely, pragmatic professors reported high speech velocity and sporadic eye contact; expressive professors demonstrated self-perception about their voice and strong voice intensity; those in the analytical profile self-reported negative perception about vocal quality, weak voice intensity, poor articulation and rapid speaking rate; the other professors mostly reported voice tiredness symptoms and difficulty projecting the voice. Conclusion: University professors identify themselves mostly with the affable and expressive profiles. Self-perception analysis of the personal behavior profile in university professors showed the influence of self-reported personality characteristics on communicative skills in the classroom.