Choice of Injection Site, Locus of Control, and the Perception of Momentary Pain: Does the choice of site for an injection and locus of control affect the perception of pain?

A sample of 138 preoperative, adult patients were randomly assigned choice and no choice conditions. The in the choice condition were asked decide in which of two locations t preferred to receive their preoperative injections. Pain of injection was sessed using the Pilowsky and Kaufman visual analog scale and a verbal and numerical descriptive scale. Locus control was measured by Rotter's Scale on the night before surgery. Analysis of the data showed a lack support for hypotheses predicting a difference in pain perception on the basis of decision‐making and locus of control. However, when preoperative injection ratings were compared with past ratings of intramuscular injections, those patients in the no choice condition perceived significantly less pain from the former, Additional analyses revealed that age, sex, and nurse variation had significant effects on the perception of pain.