Browsing by Subject "Cooperativeness -- Psychological aspects"
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- ItemCompetition, Cooperation, and Pain Sensitivity(2012) Xiang, William W.; Sternberg, WendyPain is often associated with athletic competition. Studies have shown that competition produced an analgesic effect in male and female athletes. However, analgesic effects in athletes and non-athletes in different levels of competition have not yet been systematically investigated. This experiment evaluated pain sensitivity on several different measures in athletes and non-athletes before and after participating in one of four conditions: completing a puzzle, cycling on a stationary bicycle alone, cooperatively cycling alongside a confederate, or competitively cycling alongside a confederate. The study did not find significant results regarding different levels of competition and analgesia. Although no significant results were found, some interesting patterns were observed with the gender-specific cooperative condition. Women in the cooperative condition demonstrated increase in pain sensitivity, unlike results found in previous studies on exercise and competition. Possible reasons for this increase in pain sensitivity could be due to personality trait differences in cooperation compared to competition or participants empathizing for his or her partner's physical pain while cycling. Our findings suggest that the nature of cooperation causes different analgesic responses from interpersonal competition.
- ItemCompetition, Cooperation, and Pain Sensitivity(2012) Ferri, Josie; Sternberg, WendyThe sharp decrease in pain sensitivity during and immediately following competition experienced by athletes is a quintessential example of stress-induced analgesia. While anecdotal evidence exists regarding this phenomenon, research has yet to methodically investigate responses to painful stimuli during stressful competitive scenarios. The present study aimed to determine the competitive psychological scenario that would induce the greatest stress response and effort exerted, and therefore the greatest analgesic response. The results demonstrate that our scenarios induced a mild analgesic effect in cold pressor and thermal pain testing as well as a physiological change, particularly heart rate, proportional to the level of competition. Our experiment contributes to the current research data identifying the relationship between competition, gender, athletic status, and stress-induced analgesia.
- ItemCompetition, Cooperation, and Pain Sensitivity(2012) Selsor, Margaret; Sternberg, WendyPrior research has shown how competition and exercise increase pain tolerance. However, the specific effects of cooperation in competition on pain sensitivity have not been thoroughly examined. In our study, we had 80 subjects (40 males, 40 females; 40 athletes, 40 non-athletes) randomly assigned to one of four conditions: a control task, biking in isolation, biking cooperatively with a confederate, and biking competitively against a confederate, and they completed pre- and post-test pain measures (cold pressor test, thermal scaling, and thermal pain threshold). We had three main hypotheses: (I) subjects in the competitive condition will elicit the greatest analgesic response (followed by cooperative, isolated, and control), (2) athletes will have higher pain tolerances, a greater analgesic response to the exercise conditions, and a larger rate of RPE, and (3) females will have a greater analgesic response to the exercise condition, and males would have a greater pain tolerance overall. Although most of our hypotheses were not supported, we discuss the implications and ideas for future research.
- ItemThe Effects of Athletic Competition and Cooperation on Analgesia(2012) Hammerschlag, Leah; Sternberg, WendyThere are robust findings that the biological phenomenon of analgesia, induced by stress, is activated during athletic competition. The purpose of the current study was to examine which aspects of athletic competition induce the greatest analgesic response. Experimental conditions included a head-to-head competitive exercise, a cooperative exercise, an isolated exercise, and a control condition. Subjects' pain sensitivities were tested prior to and post manipulation, using cold pressor and thermal scaling. Additionally, heart rate, blood pressure and cortisol levels were measured prior to and post manipulation to assess stress response activation. We hypothesized the competitive condition would elicit the greatest analgesic response, followed by the isolated, and cooperative conditions. Although we did not find a significant effect of condition on analgesic responses, replicating this study with altered primes for manipulations should reveal competitive conditions have more pronounced analgesic responses.