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Pain and pleasure: Alternative interpretations for identical stimulation

Pain and pleasure: Alternative interpretations for identical stimulation The University of Virginia JAMES W. PENNEBAKER The University of Virginia INTRODUCTION Several social psychological and perceptual factors are involved in the evaluation and interpretation of sensory stimuli. For example, immersion of one’s hand in cold water may be experienced as varying in its coolness or unpleasantness depending on the social milieu in which we are touching it (Buss and Portnoy, 1967), individual or cultural differences (Sternbach and Tursky, 1965; Zborowski, 1952). expectations, sets or schemas (Blitz and Dinnerstein, 1971; Pennebaker and Skelton, 1978), our body temperature (Cabanac, 1971), or attentional focus (Kanfer and Goldfoot, 1966; Leventhal er al., 1979). Virtually no research has been conducted on the perception of pleasureable sensations with the exception of tickling-i.e. a feather tickles less if the person strokes him/herself than if another is stroking (Weiskrantz, Elliot and Darlington, 1971). The present work addresses how the schemas or sets we adopt can cause a given stimulus to be perceived as either painful or pleasureable. The encoding and organization of stimulus information is far from a random process. Rather than passively accumulating all potentional sensory data, individuals selectively encode information based on the schemas, sets, or tentative hypotheses they have adopted. Once the http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png European Journal of Social Psychology Wiley

Pain and pleasure: Alternative interpretations for identical stimulation

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References (23)

Publisher
Wiley
Copyright
Copyright © 1980 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
ISSN
0046-2772
eISSN
1099-0992
DOI
10.1002/ejsp.2420100208
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

The University of Virginia JAMES W. PENNEBAKER The University of Virginia INTRODUCTION Several social psychological and perceptual factors are involved in the evaluation and interpretation of sensory stimuli. For example, immersion of one’s hand in cold water may be experienced as varying in its coolness or unpleasantness depending on the social milieu in which we are touching it (Buss and Portnoy, 1967), individual or cultural differences (Sternbach and Tursky, 1965; Zborowski, 1952). expectations, sets or schemas (Blitz and Dinnerstein, 1971; Pennebaker and Skelton, 1978), our body temperature (Cabanac, 1971), or attentional focus (Kanfer and Goldfoot, 1966; Leventhal er al., 1979). Virtually no research has been conducted on the perception of pleasureable sensations with the exception of tickling-i.e. a feather tickles less if the person strokes him/herself than if another is stroking (Weiskrantz, Elliot and Darlington, 1971). The present work addresses how the schemas or sets we adopt can cause a given stimulus to be perceived as either painful or pleasureable. The encoding and organization of stimulus information is far from a random process. Rather than passively accumulating all potentional sensory data, individuals selectively encode information based on the schemas, sets, or tentative hypotheses they have adopted. Once the

Journal

European Journal of Social Psychology – Wiley

Published: Apr 1, 1980

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