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Noise annoyance with regard to neurophysiological sensitivity, subjective noise sensitivity and personality variables

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

Evy Öhrström ,
Martin Björkman  and
Ragnar Rylander
Evy Öhrström*
Affiliation:
Department of Environmental Hygiene, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
Martin Björkman
Affiliation:
Department of Environmental Hygiene, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
Ragnar Rylander
Affiliation:
Department of Environmental Hygiene, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr E. Öhrström, Department of Environmental Hygiene, University of Gothenburg, Box 33031, S–400 33 Gothenburg, Sweden.
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Synopsis

To evaluate the relation between annoyance to environmental noise, general neurophysiological sensitivity, subjective noise sensitivity and other individual characteristics, experiments were undertaken in which 93 subjects assessed their subjective annoyance after exposure to noise under laboratory conditions. Evaluations were made of the discomfort threshold for pulsating sound, the light discomfort, and heat and cold discomfort. The heart rate and discomfort after exposure to a series of impulse noises was also determined. Subjective noise sensitivity, attitudes to noise, mood and personality characteristics of the subjects were evaluated using questionnaires.

The results show that the annoyance after exposure to noise was not closely related to the general neurophysiological sensitivity, measured as discomfort threshold for noise, heat, cold and light; or to the heart rate reaction or discomfort after exposure to impulse noise. The annoyance was highly correlated with subjectively reported noise sensitivity and with the attitude to noise. There was also a relationship with neuroticism, measured with the EPI scale.

It is suggested that the subjective noise sensitivity, attitude and neuroticism for the definition of noise sensitivity be defined in future studies of long term effects of noise exposure.

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 18 , Issue 3 , August 1988 , pp. 605 - 613
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988

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