Miller and Bowers in 1986 examined the effects of hypnotic analgesia and stress inoculation on reported pain and concluded that their findings provided stronger support for a dissociation formulation of hypnotic analgesia than for a social psychological formulation. However, Miller and Bowers misdescribed both theoretical formulations, breached a number of methodological requirements and, most important, did not conduct statistical analyses to test the rival hypotheses. Careful examination of the pain-rating data they present, along with findings from related studies, provides stronger support for the social psychological than the dissociation formulation.
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