Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Should Investigators Introspect on Their Own Pain Experiences as Study Co-Participants?

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Meanings of Pain

  • 1277 Accesses

Abstract

The question of investigators introspecting on their own personal pain experiences in pain studies has received little attention in the literature. Study of this question may reflect ethical reservations about the many points at which self-interest may lead us to introspect on personal experiences through personal biases that in turn impair professional decision-making and perception. Despite this valid concern about research co-participation, we offer three reasons why investigators can introspect on personal pain as co-participants in their own pain studies. First, there is historical precedent for investigator participation and co-participation in scientific pain research using introspection as a study method. Second, general concerns about variability in self-report based on introspection on pain experience partly derive from true fluctuations in personal pain experience and perceived interests in self-reporting pain, not simply error in its scientific measurement. Third, the availability of the experiential–phenomenological method, a mixed research method for the study of human experiences, allows investigators to co-participate with naïve participants in their own studies by encouraging passive introspection on personal pain experiences.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 149.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 199.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 199.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Section 1 of this chapter is adapted from von Baeyer CL. Sensitization and catastrophizing: Introspection confirmed experimentally. Pain Research Forum, 25 February 2014. Accessed from http://painresearchforum.org/forums/discussion/37588-sensitization-and-catastrophizing-introspection-confirmed-experimentally on September 15, 2016. The material is shared under a Creative Commons License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).

References

  • Apkarian AV, Hashmi JA, Baliki MN (2011) Pain and the brain: specificity and plasticity of the brain in clinical chronic pain. Pain 152:S49–S64

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Barrell JJ, Barrell JE (1975) A self-directed approach for a science of human experience. J Phenomenol Psychol 6(1):63–73

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boring EG (1953) A history of introspection. Psychol Bull 50(3):169–189

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bushnell CM, Taylor MB, Duncan GH, Dubner R (1983) Discrimination of innocuous and noxious thermal stimuli applied to the face in human and monkey. Somatosens Mot Res 1(2):119–129

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Chalmers DJ (1996) The conscious mind: in search of a fundamental theory. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Coghill RC, McHaffie JG, Yen YF (2003) Neural correlates of interindividual differences in the subjective experience of pain. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 100:8538–8542

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Craig KD (2006) Emergent pain language communication competence in infants and children. Enfance 58(1):52–71

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Craig KD (2009) The social communication model of pain. Can Psychol 50(1):22–32

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davis KD, Racine E, Collett B (2012) Neuroethical issues related to the use of brain imaging: can we and should we use brain imaging as a biomarker to diagnose chronic pain? Pain 153(8):1555–1559

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • deCharms RC, Maeda F, Glover GH, Ludlow D, Pauly JM, Soneji D, Gabreli JDE, Mackey SC (2005) Control over brain activation and pain learned by using real-time functional MRI. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 102(51):18626–18631

    Google Scholar 

  • Dresser R (2013) Personal knowledge and study participation. J Med Ethics. doi:10.1136/medethics-2013-101390

    Google Scholar 

  • Elander J, Robinson G, Mitchell K, Morris J (2009) An assessment of the relative influence of pain coping, negative thoughts about pain, and pain acceptance on health-related quality of life among people with hemophilia. Pain 145(1):169–175

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Flor H, Fydrich T, Turk DC (1992) Efficacy of multidisciplinary pain treatment centers: a meta-analytic review. Pain 49:221–230

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gallagher S, Sørensen JB (2006) Experimenting with phenomenology. Conscious Cog15(1):119–134

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hadjistavropoulos T, Craig KD, Duck S, Cano A, Goubert L, Jackson PL, Mogil JS, Rainville P, Sullivan MJL, de C Williams A, Vervoort T, Fitzgerald TD (2011) A biopsychosocial formulation of pain communication. Psychol Bull 137(6):910–939

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hardy JD, Wolff HG, Goodell H (1940) Studies on pain: a new method for measuring pain threshold: observations on spatial summation of pain. J Clin Investig 19(4):649–657

    Google Scholar 

  • Head H (1920) Studies in neurology. Oxford University Press, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoffman BM, Papas RK, Chatkoff DK, Kerns RD (2007) Meta-analysis of psychological interventions for chronic low back pain. Health Psychol 26:1–9

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Jensen MP, Turner JA, Romano JM (2001) Changes in beliefs, catastrophizing, and coping are associated with improvement in multidisciplinary pain treatment. J Consult Clin Psychol 69(4):655

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Landau W, Bishop GH (1953) Pain from dermal, periosteal, and fascial endings and from inflammation: electrophysiological study employing differential nerve blocks. AMA Arch Neurol Psychiatry 69(4):490–504

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Letzen JE, Boissoneault J, Sevel LS, Robinson ME (2016) Test–retest reliability of pain-related functional brain connectivity compared with pain self-report. Pain 157(3):546–551

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • McCrystal KN, Craig KD, Versloot J, Fashler SR, Jones DN (2011) Perceiving pain in others: validation of a dual processing model. Pain 152(5):1083–1089

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Melzack R (1984) Neuropsychological basis of pain measurement. Adv Pain Res Ther 6:323–339

    Google Scholar 

  • Mountcastle VB (1974) Pain and temperature sensibilities. Med Physiol 13(1):348–391

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Leart H, Smart KM, Moloney NA, Doody CM (2016) Nervous system sensitization as a predictor of outcome in the treatment of peripheral musculoskeletal conditions: a systematic review. Pain Pract doi:10.1111/papr.12484

    Google Scholar 

  • Perls F, Hefferline RF, Goodman P (1951) Gestalt Therapy. Dell, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Price DD (1972) Characteristics of second pain and flexion reflexes indicative of prolonged central summation. Exp Neurol 37(2):371–387

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Price DD, Barrell J (1980) An experiential approach with quantitative methods—a research paradigm. J Hum Psych 20(3):75–95

    Google Scholar 

  • Price DD (2000) Psychological and neural mechanisms of the affective dimension of pain. Science 288(5472):1769–1772

    Google Scholar 

  • Price DD, Aydede M (2006) The experimental use of introspection in the scientific study of pain and its integration with third-person methodologies: the experiential–phenomenological approach. In: Aydede M (ed) Pain: new essays on its nature and the methodology of its study. MIT Press, Cambridge, pp 243–273

    Google Scholar 

  • Price DD, Barrell JJ (2012) Inner experiences and neuroscience. Merging the two perspectives. MIT Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Price DD, Hu JW, Dubner R, Gracely RH (1977) Peripheral suppression of first pain and central summation of second pain evoked by noxious heat pulses. Pain 3(1):57–68

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Price DD, Barrell JJ, Rainville P (2002) Integrating experiential–phenomenological methods and neuroscience to study neural mechanisms of pain and consciousness. Conscious Cog 11(4):593–608

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Robinson ME, Staud R, Price DD (2013) Pain measurement and brain activity: will neuroimages replace pain ratings? J Pain 14(4):323–327

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Rosier EM, Iadarola MJ, Coghill RC (2002) Reproducibility of pain measurement and pain perception. Pain 98:205–216

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Salomons TV, Moayedi M, Erpelding N, Davis KD (2014) A brief cognitive-behavioural intervention for pain reduces secondary hyperalgesia. Pain 155(8):1446–1452

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schiavenato M, Craig KD (2010) Pain assessment as a social transaction: beyond the “gold standard”. Clin J Pain 26(8):667–676

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Stanford EA, Chambers CT, Craig KD (2005) A normative analysis of the development of pain-related vocabulary in children. Pain 114(1):278–284

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Staud R, Vierck CJ, Cannon RL, Mauderli AP, Price DD (2001) Abnormal sensitization and temporal summation of second pain (wind-up) in patients with fibromyalgia syndrome. Pain 91(1):165–175

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Staud R, Robinson ME, Vierck CJ Jr, Cannon RC, Mauderli AP, Price DD (2003) Ratings of experimental pain and pain-related negative affect predict clinical pain in patients with fibromyalgia syndrome. Pain 105:215–222

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Staud R, Craggs JG, Perlstein WM, Robinson ME, Price DD (2008) Brain activity associated with slow temporal summation of C-fiber evoked pain in fibromyalgia patients and healthy controls. Eur J Pain 12(8):1078–1089

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Sternbach RA (1968) Pain: a psychophysiological analysis. Academic Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Sullivan MJ, Bishop SR, Pivik J (1995) The pain catastrophizing scale: development and validation. Psychol Assess 7(4):524

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van Rysewyk S (2014) Objective knowledge of subjective pain? Towards a subjective-neuroscience of pain. Ngau Mamae 10–20

    Google Scholar 

  • von Baeyer CL (2006) Children’s self-reports of pain intensity: scale selection, limitations and interpretation. Pain Res Manag 11:157

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Woo CW, Wager TD (2016) What reliability can and cannot tell us about pain report and pain neuroimaging. Pain 157(3):511–513

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Woolf SH, Zimmerman E, Haley A, Krist AH (2016) Authentic engagement of patients and communities can transform research, practice, and policy. Health Aff 35(4):590–594

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Woollard HH, Carmichael EA (1933) The testis and referred pain. Brain 56(3):293–303

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wortolowska K (2011) How neuroimaging can help us to visualise and quantify pain? Eur J Pain 5:323–327

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Humanities, Department of Philosophy and Gender Studies, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 41, Hobart, 7001, Australia

    Simon van Rysewyk

  2. Department of Clinical Health Psychology, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada

    Carl L. von Baeyer

  3. Department of Pediatrics and Child Health, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada

    Carl L. von Baeyer

Authors
  1. Simon van Rysewyk
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Carl L. von Baeyer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Simon van Rysewyk .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Humanities, Department of Philosophy and Gender Studies, University of Tasmania, Tasmania, Australia

    Simon van Rysewyk

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 Springer International Publishing AG

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

van Rysewyk, S., von Baeyer, C.L. (2016). Should Investigators Introspect on Their Own Pain Experiences as Study Co-Participants?. In: van Rysewyk, S. (eds) Meanings of Pain. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49022-9_11

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation