The Differential Ability of Athletes and Nonathletes to Cope With Two Types of Pain: A Radical Behavioral Model

Abstract

A radical behavioral model of pain is described in which pain is seen as the verbal description of the effects of a punisher. The verbal description behavior is learned when differential reinforcement is presented for certain kinds of self-talk about the effects of punishers. Depending on an individual’s history of experience, the verbal description may or may not have been learned to a particular kind of aversive stimulation. Pain response, thus, is expected to differ from person to person and punisher to punisher. In order to test these two notions, athletes and nonathletes were tested twice on two types of pain stimulation, cold pressor and ischemia. Between tests, participants were instructed in the use of a cognitive coping strategy in order to test if different coping abilities existed between groups. Results supported the radical behavioral model in that there was very little correlation between response to cold pressor and ischemia, and that different groups showed different tolerance and coping abilities. In general, female athletes had the highest pain tolerance and threshold on pretest and were able to use the coping strategy more effectively than the other groups. Discussion centers on further research designed to support the proposed model.