Abstract
A number of researchers have suggested that voluntary participation in pain studies is a function of psychopathology. The present investigation tested the hypothesis that high-tolerance volunteers for painful experiments would be psychologically stable individuals. After performing a series of painful psychomotor performance exercises, 30 adult males completed four personality questionnaires. In terms of temperament, volunteers were found to be more intelligent, realistic, happy, energetic, and optimistic than a matched group of control subjects. The role of extraversion in explaining the hedonistic motives of volunteers was explored.
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Klapper, J. A., McColloch, M. W., & Merkey, R. P. The relationship of personality to tolerance of an irritant compound (Tech. Rep. 4577). Edgewood, Md: Department of the Army, 1971.
Gray, A. Personal communication, July 1976.
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Personality data were collected while the author was a Visiting Psychologist at Defence Research Establishment Suffield, Ralston, Alberta, Canada. Preparation of the manuscript was supported by a King’s College Research Grants Committee award to the author.
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Skinner, N.F. Personality characteristics of volunteers for painful experiments. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 20, 299–300 (1982). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03330107
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03330107