Voice and silence behaviors in the formative process of psychology students
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17267/2317-3394rpds.2026.e6333Keywords:
Students, Professional Training, Universities, VoiceAbstract
INTRODUCTION: Voice and silence behaviors are phenomena traditionally analyzed among workers in organizational environments. By investigating university students, this study emphasizes such phenomena in academic settings, aiming to understand voice and silence during undergraduate training in Psychology. METHOD: This is a field study with a qualitative approach, conducted with 10 interns from a public university. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews focusing on situations involving voice and silence behaviors experienced in different educational settings. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed based on categories grounded in the field’s literature. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: A total of 33 situations were reported and distributed across three types of behaviors: pro-social voice (17 situations), when students sought to contribute to the activity through cooperation; pro-individual voice (five situations), in which students expressed themselves for self-protection or resignation; and pro-individual silence (11 situations), the absence of expression for reasons such as fear. Voice behaviors resulted in strengthened confidence, development of communication skills, and improvements in work procedures, although they also generated feelings of shame and withdrawal from academic activities. Silence, in turn, led to distress, stress, and disorganization in the work environment. Although expressing or withholding ideas, concerns, or opinions can lead to both positive and negative outcomes, there is a tendency toward positive experiences associated with voice behaviors and negative experiences associated with silence. CONCLUSION: The knowledge produced helps to understand the factors that motivate students’ voice and silence, as well as the outcomes of these behaviors for professional training.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Gabriela Costa Oliveira Coelho, Fabíola Marinho Costa, Roberval Passos de Oliveira
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
