Morris, Catherine (2010) An Investigation into the Effects of Anger and Optimism on Chronic Pain. Honours thesis, University of Southern Queensland. (Unpublished)
Abstract
The aim of this research study is to investigate whether a relationship exists between anger management styles and chronic pain in arthritis sufferers and further, to ascertain whether this relationship is moderated in any way by the sufferer’s dispositional optimism. The investigation of this possible relationship is advantageous to examine as it may contribute to future cognitive therapy offered to arthritis sufferers. If a relationship between these factors is established, a cognitive reframing technique may be formulated to assist arthritis sufferers early in the diagnosis.
Three hypotheses were investigated in this present study, to see whether a relationship exists between anger management styles and levels of optimism and pain severity in arthritis sufferers.
This study used archival data obtained as part of a prior study (Coates 2003). The participants were 62 arthritis sufferers (18 male and 44 female, mean age = 63.2 years, SD = 10.4), who had volunteered to participate. Participants self-reported as suffering from chronic pain, and as such, completed a protocol that included a demographic questionnaire, the Resilience Scale (Wagner and Young, 1987), the short form of the AIMS 2 (AIMS 2-SF, Guillemin et al 1997), the revised Life Orientation Test (LOT-R, Scheier, Carver, & Bridges, 1994) the Lifestyle Defence Mechanisms Inventory (Spielberger and Reheiser, 2003) and the full version of the STAXI-2 (STAXI-2, Spielberger, 1999).
Key findings suggest that the for this sample, there was no significant relationship between anger (as reflected in the set of seven sub-scales of the STAXI 2) and the impact of arthritis. However, two of the sub-scales (Anger Expression Out and Anger Control Out) did have a positive relationship with AIMS 2 total scores.
Further analysis showed that there was a significant, if weak, relationship (R2 = .147) between dispositional optimism, Anger expression Out and Anger Control Out and the impact of arthritis. Moreover, this effect was significantly moderated by dispositional optimism which interacted with each of the two anger sub-scales in a similar manner. This interaction indicated that at low anger levels, the effect of optimism was to reduce the severity of the impact of arthritis but that at high levels of anger, optimism had little or no differential effect on the experience of sufferers.
This study has suggested that dispositional optimism plays an important role in mitigating the adverse effects of expressed anger and that this is particularly salient when anger levels are low. This finding is worthy of replication in a larger study possibly involving a wider range of sufferers.
|
Statistics for this ePrint Item |
| Item Type: | Thesis (Non-Research) (Honours) |
|---|---|
| Item Status: | Live Archive |
| Additional Information: | Current UniSQ staff and students can request access to this thesis. Please email research.repository@unisq.edu.au with a subject line of SEAR thesis request and provide: Name of the thesis requested and Your name and UniSQ email address |
| Faculty/School / Institute/Centre: | Historic - Faculty of Sciences - Department of Psychology (Up to 30 Jun 2013) |
| Supervisors: | Coates, Des |
| Qualification: | Bachelor of Science (Honours) |
| Date Deposited: | 08 Jan 2026 06:53 |
| Last Modified: | 08 Jan 2026 06:53 |
| Fields of Research (2008): | 17 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 1799 Other Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 179999 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences not elsewhere classified |
| Fields of Research (2020): | 52 PSYCHOLOGY > 5299 Other psychology > 529999 Other psychology not elsewhere classified |
| URI: | https://sear.unisq.edu.au/id/eprint/52596 |
Actions (login required)
 |
Archive Repository Staff Only |
