Psychology ETDs

Publication Date

Spring 2-1-2024

Abstract

This study compared various mindfulness meditators with a meditation-naïve control group on various measures of pain tolerance and response. My primary hypothesis was that meditators would show greater pain tolerance than non-meditators and that they would also show greater parasympathetic nervous system activation in response to experimentally induced pain. The results were mixed, with meditators showing no greater increase in pain tolerance post-baseline. Differences in nervous system function between the two groups were also difficult to interpret.

Another component of the study was to explore the phenomenological reports and to compare and contrast those of the meditators and non-meditators using the qualitative method of Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis. This exploration revealed several differences in the responses to the pain tasks between the two groups and also revealed somatosensory phenomena that may be of interest to researchers investigating the response of meditators to painful stimuli and its application in pain management therapies.

Degree Name

Psychology

Level of Degree

Masters

Department Name

Psychology

First Committee Member (Chair)

David Witherington

Second Committee Member

Bruce Smith

Third Committee Member

Claudia Tesche

Language

English

Keywords

Meditation, Pain, Phenomenology

Document Type

Thesis

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