The relationship between personality characteristics and pain response
Buxton, Barton Patterson, Curry School of Education, University of Virginia
Perrin, David H., Curry School of Education, University of Virginia
Gieck, Joseph, Curry School of Education, University of Virginia
McCue, Frank C., University of Virginia
Ball, Donald, University of Virginia
Sowa, Claudia J., Curry School of Education, University of Virginia
The role and responsibilities of the athletic trainer include the care, evaluation, treatment, and subsequent rehabilitation of athletic mJunes. The primary complaint of most athletic injuries is pain. The sensation of pain is basic to all people. It acts as a warning system and alerts a living organism of danger or threat to homeostasis. The onset, duration and amount of pain is of paramount concern to the individual that is experiencing it. Pain theory indicates that an individual's pain perception is associated with "... interrelated biological, psychological, and social factors" (Monks & Taenzer 1983). The purpose of this investigation was to determine the relationship between personality characteristic and an acute pain response. It was hypothesized that a strong relationship would exist between personality characteristics and pain response.
Subjects included 107 (age = 18.60 ± .58 years) male, military school cadets. Each subject performed a Cold Pressor Test (CPT) and was evaluated for pain threshold and pain tolerance times. The subjects were then evaluated for eight personality characteristics, which included extraversion (E), introversion (I), sensing (S), intuition (I), thinking (T), feeling (F), judging (J), and perception (P). The personality characteristics were measured by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) form G.
The results indicated that there was no relationship between the eight personality characteristics measured by the MBTI (form G) and pain threshold or pain tolerance. The findings also indicated that there was a low correlation between pain threshold and pain tolerance (r=.25).
These results suggest that pam response 1s not associated with personality characteristics. Therefore, personality characteristics are not a reliable indicator of an individuals ability to tolerate acute pain. The results also indicate that pain threshold is not strongly related to pain tolerance.
Note: Abstract extracted from PDF file via OCR.
EDD (Doctor of Education)
Pain -- Psychological aspects, Pain -- Physiological aspects, Personality
English
All rights reserved (no additional license for public reuse)
1990
