ordering by Melzack (1975) of the words as valid, then significant

findings here are especially meaningful. Further research in this area

with a larger sample may yield an acceptable explanation for this

finding or show another variable intervening.


The Hand Rehabilitation Group


 Subjects in this group were surgical patients receiving physical

therapy for postoperative hand pain. Their average age was 43, and

there were 7 females and 4 males. Type distribution indicates that over

55% were sensing dominant, 18% thinking dominant, 18% feeling dominant,

and less than 10% were intuition dominant. None of the predicted

associations of type and pain response with this group were significant.

As with the group of hand surgery patients, this finding may mean that

the MBTI is not an appropriate instrument for a medical setting or

simply that the power was too low to show anything.

 The Millon coping styles have some significant associations with

pain response in the hand rehabilitation group. Subjects with

introversive coping styles had higher scores on the miscellaneous pain

rating index scale (PRIM). Million describes the introversive style as

passive and dependent. Melzack added the miscellaneous category to the

McGill Pain Questionnaire at the suggestion of patients. It consists of

four groups of words. One group is reported to be particular to dental

pain. Future research will no doubt yield a theoretical base for this

category. Until then, I do not have any explanation for the high

scorers on the miscellaneous scale.