The Influence Of Social Comparison On Self-efficacy And Pain Tolerance

Pain is primarily a psychological experience. It is the most pervasive and universal form of human distress and it often contributes to dramatic reductions in the quality of life.In the study, the authors explored the relation between self-efficacy and the experience of pain under social comparison. The cold-pressor task (CPT) was used with 100 female undergraduates. In the study, participants completed the first cold-pressor task and then were exposed to social comparison. At last, they completed the second cold-pressor task. The results shows that downwards comparison could be considered boosted to self-efficacy, pain tolerance increased consistently. Under upward comparison, however, reduced self-efficacy could augment pain tolerance. For this result, two possibilities might explain this. First, there may be different attributions for performing at the cold pressor test. The subjects who performed well may attribute performing well to unstable aspects (effort), sometimes to stable characteristics (skills). Second, it is possible that mood will also play an important role. After receiving the upward comparison, negative affect of the subjects may be aroused, so subjects would upgrade pain tolerance to reduce the negative feelings.In study 2, we will try to re-examine the first experiment in a 3 X 3 (trials X postive, control, negative social comparison feedback) design. It was hypothesized that people who do better after getting negative social comparison feedback should rated effort and skill as more important and genetics and task features (water temperature) as less important.To test the negative affect reduction hypothesis in Experiment 2, subjects will complete ratings of general affect a) before the first trial, b) after receiving performance feedback but before trial 2, c) after trial 2 and d) after trial 3. we hypothesized that people given negative social comparison feedback should have an increase in more negative mood ratings from a) to b), but then an increase in positive mood rating in c) and d). People in the positive performance feedback group should experience an increase in positive mood from a) to b) and maintain positive mood in c) and d)-it's assumed this group will be motivated to continue to perform well to maintain a positive mood. The results re-examine the first experiment. The results showed that people rated effort and skill as more important and genetics and task features as less important.The main innovation of this study is found in the context of Chinese culture, self-efficacy does not exist mediation between social comparison and pain, which is inconsistent with Western studies. In the upward comparison, the self-efficacy of Chinese subjects decreased, not decreased in pain tolerance, but rather increased their pain tolerance. The further explore found that attributed to effort increased pain tolerance. The study did not find any effect on emotional state.