Other: Influence of response bias on self-reported pain in response to the cold pressor test in college men and women

Abstract

Despite our reliance on self-reported pain in experimental and clinical settings, little is known about the influence of response bias on self-reported pain. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between socially desirable responding (SDR) and self-report pain measures in an experimental setting. The participants were 18 male and 22 female undergraduate students (mean age = 20.50 years). SDR was assessed using the Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding. The participants underwent a 3-minute cold pressor test (CP) on the non-dominant hand. Pain threshold and tolerance were determined during CP. Pain intensity, quality, and affect were assessed with a Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) and the Short Form-McGill Pain Questionnaire (MPQ-Sen, and MPQ-Aff, respectively) following CP. Pearson's correlation analyses were performed with the overall data, and by gender. The overall analyses revealed that SDR correlated negatively with MPQ-Aff (r = -.416, p < .01), but not with the other pain measures (pg .05). The analyses by gender revealed that SDR did not correlate significantly with any of the pain measures (pg .05) in men. SDR correlated negatively with MPQ-Aff (r = -.681, p < .01), but not with the other pain measures (pg .05) in women. It is concluded that pain threshold, tolerance, intensity, and quality were not associated with response bias, while pain affect was found to be negatively biased in this study. Furthermore, self-report pain measures were not associated with response bias in men, however, pain affect was found to be negatively biased in women in this study.