Abstract

Pain is often conceptualized as an experience that is both physical and emotional. These two components are often difficult to distinguish, which may contribute to the experience of chronic physical pain without an apparent physical cause. In the current two studies, I sought to examine whether emotional pain is associated with physical pain severity for individuals with chronic pain. Emotional pain and the more specific experiences of psychological and social pain have been defined as the experience of pain affect in response to non-physical stimuli (i.e., thwarted belongingness, loss, social rejection). In Study 1, I found that emotional and psychological pain were significantly positively correlated with physical pain intensity among individuals with chronic pain. In Study 2, I used an idiographic approach to examine whether emotional and physical pain can be conceptualized as distinct constructs that prospectively predict one another for individuals with chronic pain. In two individuals, I found that emotional and physical pain did represent distinct factors; however, neither predicted the other over three-hour lags. Implications for further idiographic and nomothetic research are discussed.

Committee Chair

Thomas Rodebaugh, PhD

Committee Members

Renne Thompson, Brian Carpenter

Comments

Permanent URL: https://doi.org/10.7936/fx22-6717

Degree

Master of Arts (AM/MA)

Author's Department

Psychology

Author's School

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Document Type

Thesis

Date of Award

Spring 5-2019

Language

English (en)

Author's ORCID

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3122-4483

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