The effectiveness of a hope intervention in coping with cold pressor pain

The Gate Control Model posits that cognitions and affect play a critical role in the experience of pain. Thus, research has been aimed at illuminating psychological factors that impact pain experience and targeting psychological processes that may alleviate suffering associated with pain. Hope is one individual difference construct that has been found to be related to better pain coping, specifically longer pain tolerance, higher pain thresholds, and less reported pain severity (Snyder, Berg et al., 2005). Given these relationships, the present study sought to capitalize on the propensities of high-hope people by designing and testing the effectiveness of a hope-based intervention aimed at enhancing pain coping skills. This study used an experimental pain induction method, namely the cold pressor task, and a college-aged sample. A two (Condition: Hope Intervention vs. Control) x two (Gender: Male vs. Female) factorial design was used to evaluate this multi-component intervention, involving a guided imagery segment, dialogue, skills enhancement, and a practice worksheet. Results indicated that the intervention was successful in significantly increasing hope from pre- to post-intervention, particularly among females. Furthermore, those in the intervention condition demonstrated greater pain tolerance. Yet, those in the intervention condition also reported greater pain severity and more sensory and effective characteristics of the pain. However, further examination of this data suggest that this relationship should be interpreted with caution, as both the hope intervention group and control group showed increased error in pain severity ratings at the extreme ends of the pain tolerance distribution. Nonetheless, we can speculate about some possible reasons that this may have occurred. For example, this intervention may have involved processes related to mindfulness. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Kansas

Year dc:date.issued

2007

Author dc:creator

• Berg, Carla J.

• Psychology
• Cold pressor
• Coping
• Guided imagery
• Hope
• Hope intervention
• Pain
• Pain tolerance
• Positive psychology
• Relaxation training

Statement dc:rights

• This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1808/31957

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/31957