Abstract
The effects of instructing subjects to tolerate pain for a fixed amount of time (15 min) versus an unspecified amount of time (“last as long as you can”) was tested using an ischemic pain test. Subjects' latencies to terminate the painful stimulus and their perceived pain intensity ratings were recorded, both before and after cognitive strategy training. Strategy training helped subjects given fixed-time instructions decrease pain ratings and subjects given open-time instructions increase tolerance times. Nevertheless, subjects given specific time goals for tolerating the pain had lower absolute pain ratings and higher tolerance times than subjects given nonspecific goals, whether given strategy training or not. These results suggest that instructional set in and of itself can be therapeutic or deleterious in helping subjects cope with pain.
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This study was the basis for an undergraduate honors thesis by the second author, Department of Psychology, Ohio State University.
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Thorn, B.E., Williams, G.A. Goal specification alters perceived pain intensity and tolerance latency. Cogn Ther Res 13, 171–183 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01173271
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01173271