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Psychological Tests on Stress & Pain

Testing stress and pain is notoriously difficult for psychologists. This is because reporting pain and stress is a subjective matter and can vary widely from person to person.

  1. Stress

    • To understand how stress is measured, it must first be defined. The American Psychological Association says stress can be a long- or short-term reaction to situations that can interfere with an individual's ability to lead a normal life.

    Pain

    • According to the the International Association for the Study of Pain, pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage.

    Methods for Testing Stress

    • Stress levels can be determined by changes in heart rate.

      Stress produces a change in a person's physiological state by increasing heart rate and blood pressure, causing perspiration and numbness or chills in the hands and feet. Psychologists test stress by analyzing changes in these physiological states.

    Electromyography

    • Electromyography is a test used to measure pain in an individual. It works by recording and analyzing electrical activities across muscle cells to find sites of muscle damage and assess pain disorders.

    Magnetic Resonance Imaging

    • An MRI allows doctors to see damage without inflicting any on the patient.

      Magnetic resonance imaging creates high-quality pictures of the inside of the body by bouncing magnetic waves off tissues and recording the echo they produce. This method is used to test for chronic pain because it can locate tissue or nerve damage.

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