The MMPI profiles of 123 male and 221 female patients with multiple pain complaints referred for psychological evaluation over a three-year period were examined using a multivariate clustering technique. Replicable subgroups were found in the patient cohorts in both the male and female samples. Multiple discriminant analysis and analysis of variance showed that the subgroups differed significantly from one another and within subgroup variation was small relative to between subgroup variation. It is suggested that pain patients are characterized by a variety of personality styles; subgroup membership may be an indication of behavior and personality dynamics which may have implications for treatment selection. Inferences as to possible treatment responses based on subgroup membership are made.

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The nature of elevations on the Hysteria scale of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory in low back pain patients was examined by comparing Harris and Lingoes subscale elevation patterns in 53 female and 40 male low back pain patients and 61 female and 41 male normal controls. Subscales reflecting somatic complaints were more powerful predictors of diagnostic status than subscales with nonsomatic content. Overlap between items on the Hysteria and Hypochondriasis scales was also investigated, and both overlapping and nonoverlapping items were found to contribute significantly to the discrimination between patients and controls. However, nonoverlapping items were less notable contributors to the discriminant function in women than in men. The data suggest that more evidence than a "Conversion V" profile is required for the diagnosis of hysterical dynamics in association with somatic complaints.The frequency of the diagnosis of conversion disorder in individuals who experience chronic pain has received increasing scrutiny with the accumulation of psychological evaluation data concerning the chronic pain population. In initial research on mean Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) profiles of chronic low back pain patients (Gentry, Shows, and Thomas, 1974;Hanvik, 1951) "Conversion V" profiles with Hypochondriasis (Hs) and Hysteria (Hy) scale scores elevated and higher than Depression (D) scale scores were found to be characteristic oflow back pain patient groups. This profile is commonly interpreted as indicating that physical symptoms provide a patient a way to cope with psychological distress that he or she is unwilling or unable to acknowledge or confront, although physical dysfunction may indeed be documentable by medical examination (Greene, 1980). The psychological distress is often assumed to be kept out of the patient's awareness by means of denial and/or repression mechanisms, and thus hysterical or histrionic personality traits are inferred to be present.

The methodology and results of a recent investigation by Louks, Freeman, and Calsyn (1978) are reviewed. It is demonstrated that the results may have been confounded by inappropriate experimental procedures. Regardless of the methodological deficiencies associated with the experimental procedures, the results do not provide adequate support for the continued differentiation of individual low back pain patients with respect to the etiology of their pain. It is suggested that psychologists may best contribute to the assessment and treatment of individual pain patients by developing actuarial rules regarding the pain-related behavioral characteristics shared by members of various patient subgroups and the specific treatments to which subgroup members best respond.

Two videotapes designed to present varying levels of interpersonal confrontation potential were viewed by 48 student volunteer subjects. Verbal responses to the tapes were recorded, and state anxiety in response to each tape was assessed by the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. Subjects' experience balances were computed based on the ratio of human movement responses to color responses on the Holtzman Inkblot Technique. It was found that introversive individuals showed increased response latency and state anxiety in response to the increase in interpersonal confrontation, whereas extratensive and ambiequal individuals showed only increased response latency or state anxiety, respectively. Implications are discussed in terms of interpretation of the experience balance itself and more generally in terms of personality-situation interactions and personality assessment research strategies.