Name:_______________________
Activity #4a – Study guide questions
Understanding and Managing Pain
With this chapter you should be able to discuss pain and the nervous system,
along with the meaning, measurement, and managing of pain.
Study Guides:
#1 Discuss the problems with chronic insensitivity to pain.
#2 Discuss the somatosensory cortex and how it contains a representation of the
skin's surface.
#3 Discuss the definition of pain and how it is related to both a sensory and an
emotional experience.
#4 Discuss the distinction between chronic and acute pain, and how culture can
influence the expression of pain.
#5 Discuss the specificity theory of pain along with some of the problems with
this theory.
#6 Discuss the gate control theory of pain and its assumptions.
#7 Discuss the various methods used to measure pain such as self-reports,
behavioral assessment, and physiological measures.
#8 Discuss phantom limb pain, what it is, when it occurs, and its progress over
time.
#9 Discuss the self paced administration of analgesic (pain killer) drugs, and
some of the problems this can overcome.
#10 Discuss relaxation training and the items it has been most successfully used
to help.
#11 Discuss behavior modification techniques including the types of problems
they are most apt be used with, and the basic underlying conditioning principles.
#12 Discuss cognitive therapy and what it attempts to change.