The relationship of extraversion to self-efficacy and chronic pain management in women
Date
2008
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Abstract
Chronic pain is a silent health epidemic that afflicts millions of Americans each year and the majority of them are women. Researchers continue to try and identify causes of chronic pain and treatment strategies. One treatment strategy has been to evaluate how personality traits impact the experience of chronic pain. The purpose of this project was to assess the relationship of extraversion to self-efficacy, selection of wellness strategies, overall perception of pain disability, and number of pain days reported among a group of individuals with chronic pain. Thirty-five women between 40-65 years of age with chronic pain conditions of arthritis, fibromyalgia, or back problems completed a series of surveys over several waves of data. Results indicated that extraversion was significantly and positively correlated with self-efficacy. This is an important link because previous studies have identified self-efficacy as an essential factor for proactive pain management. However, the personality traits of agreeableness and openness were also significantly and positively correlated with self-efficacy. Extraversion was not found to be significantly correlated with selection of wellness strategies. This might be due to the possibility that the wellness strategies included in this study require special knowledge or training. Although no significant correlation was found between extraversion and overall perception of pain disability and number of pain days reported, potential relationships trended in the inverse direction. A larger sample would help clarify whether a meaningful relationship exists between those variables. Furthermore, it was hypothesized that self-efficacy would be a moderator and/or mediator variable between extraversion and the other three dependent variables. This was not found. The overall conclusion of this study is that the relationship of personality traits to aspects of chronic pain is complex. However, it is worth continuing to explore these relationships so that professionals can teach chronic pain patients how to use or modify their behavioral tendencies for effective pain management.
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Subject
chronic pain
extraversion
pain management
self-efficacy
women
behavioral psychology
social psychology
personality psychology