The effects of severity of hearing impairment and locus of control on the denial of hearing impairment in the aged.

This is a pilot study exploring the effects of locus of control and severity of hearing impairment on the amount of denial manifested by older people with hearing losses. Forty-one participants from a geriatric clinic were given questionnaires to determine their locus of control on a I-E scale. In addition, they were given a questionnaire that measured self-reported hearing losses. A pure tone audiometric test was given each participant in order to ascertain actual hearing thresholds. This study predicted that the less severe the impairment, the greater the denial that would be manifested. Also, it was predicted that the greater the degree of internal control of a respondent, the greater the denial that would be manifested. Neither hypothesis was fully supported, but increasing results were obtained concerning the denial that the participants exhibited, warranting further investigation.