List the psychological factors associated with our experience of pain. Describe how knowledge of these factors can be used to reduce the experience of pain.
What will be an ideal response?
There are three psychological factors associated with pain:
1. Anxiety: The amount of pain felt is directly related to the amount of pain you are expecting. High levels of anxiety increase the release of neurotransmitters, which in turn enhance the experience of pain. By keeping yourself calm, and enlisting the help of others to keep you calm, you can reduce the amount of pain experienced.
2. Attention: The amount of attention you allocate to the source of the pain, the greater amount of pain you will feel. You should find something with which to distract yourself, or have someone else distract you, so your attention is no longer focused on the pain.
3. Interpretation: This is your interpretation of the role your pain sensations play in your pain. An example is if you are voluntarily doing something that is painful. If you choose to run a marathon, you may view your ability to run through the pain as an example of your excellent conditioning, whereas a person being forced to run as part of gym class may view the pain associated with running as more severe because they believe the pain indicates they are out of shape, and possibly damaging their body. By changing your viewpoint, or interpretation of the situation, you can change your experience of pain.
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The Stanford University prison simulation teaches us that
a. sentencing disparity is much more pervasive than was previously believed. b. the conditions at privately-run prisons are far superior to those at state-run prisons. c. demographic profiles play a very important role in determining the degree to which the prisoners will use theirprison time in a constructive manner d. even normal people can be dehumanized by institutional roles and practices.
The most common psychotic hallucination is
a. seeing visions. b. exaggerated sensitivity to heat and cold. c. feeling strange bodily sensations. d. hearing voices.
Which of the following is NOT a likely factor in the development of schizophrenia?
a. taking phenothiazines b. the father's age at the time of conception c. biochemical abnormalities d. complications at birth
A young woman returns from a day at the beach to find she has developed severe sunburn. Which neurons are sending the messages from her burned skin to her central nervous system, informing her of the pain from the burn?
a. Sensory neurons b. Motor neurons c. Synaptic neurons d. Association neurons