Expiation through psychogenic pain

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Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Fen Edebiyat Fakültesi, Psikoloji Bölümü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2017

Öğrenci: KUTLU KAĞAN TÜRKARSLAN

Danışman: DENİZ CANEL ÇINARBAŞ

Özet:

Psychodynamically, chronic pain problems with no organic cause have been considered as a way of punishment through physical pain for aggressive and sexual feelings producing guilt. The purpose of the present study was to examine effect of guilt feelings on nocebo pain responses and the effect of psychologically induced nocebo pain on guilt feelings. The participants were 100 students from Middle East Technical University. There were two independent variables which were guilt induction (guilt-no guilt) and nocebo manipulation (nocebo-no nocebo). Guilt feeling was induced by asking participants to write guilt evoking memories for 10 minutes. Nocebo manipulation was done by telling the participants that they will receive electricity from an EEG cap. In addition, they watched a video in which a confederate imitates having pain during the procedure. Guilt feelings were measured with PANAS twice, once after guilt induction and once after nocebo pain manipulation. Pain was measured using a basic 0 to 10 visual pain scale. Independent t-tests, chi square test, two way Factorial ANOVA, and two way Mixed ANOVA were conducted on the data. The resutls revealed effects of manipulations, but no significant interactions and increased likelihood of pain reporting frequency due to guilt induction. Although insignificant, guilt induction had an inhibition effect on reporting nocebo pain and subjective pain severity. Findings, limitations and clinical implications of the study were discussed.