PSYC 302 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: The Problem Of Pain, Back Pain, Richard Dawkins

• School: McGill University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 302
• Professor: Jeffrey Mogil

Document Summary

Pain is an emotion: the evidence for this is just as strong or stronger than evidence that it is the perception. Pain is a subjective state and is pretty psychological the link between the state of pain and the seriousness of injury is weak due to modulation by psychology. The psychological aspect of pain does not mean that it"s all in your head you modulate it but it doesn"t mean that the pain does not exist. Mogil thinks that this is an example of stress-induced analgesia. There might also be peer-pressure to be stoic. The osteoarthritis vs knee pain example: meta-study shows that not all oa patients develop knee pain and that not all knee pain patients have oa, with a very low correlation between oa and knee pain. One of the conclusions of the study is that x-rays should not be used alone to diagnose for knee pain. Pain is the #1: reason to seek healthcare.