Does personality type influence attentional bias?
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Does personality type influence attentional bias in individuals with low back pain?
IRAS ID
150631
Contact name
Zoe Franklin
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Manchester Metropolitan University
Research summary
Theories of attention and pain predict that individuals with chronic pain will focus on pain-related information. Research has shown that personality type, assessed by trait anxiety and defensiveness, can affect whether an individual is more likely to attend to or avoid threat related images, e.g. those containing fear evoking movements such as bending or twisting. There is considerable evidence that high-anxious individuals attend to threat-related information, whereas, repressors avoid threat-related information. There is limited research investigating the way defensive high-anxious individuals attend to threatening information within either the general or clinical populations. Research has revealed a greater proportion (39-46%) of patients within a chronic back pain population as defensive high-anxious compared to individuals without pain (17%). Due to the prevalence of this personality type within chronic back pain patients, this study aims to investigate the attentional biases of defensive high-anxious individuals to threatening information, to compare these to other personality groups and determine if they differ in a population with chronic low back pain. Approximately 100 individuals will be recruited for the chronic low back pain group from Stockport General Hospital. The way these individuals attend to or avoid threatening information may help explain the differences in treatment outcome.
REC name
North West - Greater Manchester Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/NW/0220
Date of REC Opinion
28 May 2014
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion