APPEARANCE BASED INFORMATION ABOUT COPING WITH PAIN - VALID OR BIASED

Previous research led to the conclusion that patient characteristics s uch as physical attractiveness and non-verbal expressiveness affected judgements of patient pain and distress. This study investigated wheth er this represents an intrusive bias or whether there indeed are psych ological differences between physically attractive vs physically unatt ractive and expressive vs inexpressive pain patients. The findings led to the conclusion that both variables are related to the types of cop ing strategies pain patients use. Specifically, physically attractive and nonverbally expressive patients were found to be less likely to ut ilize passive coping strategies. Coping style also was found to be rel ated to demographic characteristics of the patients. Theoretical reaso ns for the identified relationships are discussed as are the implicati ons of these findings for the assessment of pain.