A psychophysiological investigation into the emotional effects of pain offset (2012)

Undergraduates: Kent Lee, Joseph C. Franklin

Faculty Advisor: Mitchell Prinstein
Department: Psychology & Neuroscience

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Although pain intuitively increases negative emotion, the effects of pain offset are less clear. Previous studies present contradicting evidence on whether pain offset decreases negative emotion or increases positive emotion. In the current study we examined the emotional changes following pain offset in participants (N = 40) using startle eyeblink and the postauricular reflex as indices of emotion. We also examined the effects of pain intensity and time on pain offset relief. The results provided evidence that pain offset causes increases in positive emotion and decreases in negative emotion. The results also provide evidence that offset from more intense pain leads to greater increases in positive emotion, but leads to less diminished negative emotion. Finally, the results also indicated that the effects of relief on positive and negative emotion are enduring, but these effects do decrease over time. Overall, the findings provide unique insight into the nature of pain offset relief and the implications of the findings for nonsuicidal self-injury research are discussed.