Emotional Contagion: The effect of group dynamics on chronic pain 1.0
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Emotional Contagion: Investigating the effect of conversations and group dynamics on chronic pain in pain management services
IRAS ID
128084
Contact name
Katherine A. Finlay
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Buckingham
Research summary
This research aims to investigate the effect of group dynamics on chronic pain within pain management (PM) services. Chronic pain is a widespread problem affecting around13% of the UK population (Breivik et al.,2006). Chronic pain severely impairs patients functioning in everyday life, and many sufferers seek help from PM services. As these usually take place within group settings there is a need to investigate how group-dynamics influence pain. This study will examine Emotional Contagion (EC), a tendency to feel, express and be affected by emotions experienced within a group. Groups in PM clinics may be reinforcing pain in patients, rather than resolving it as patients become competitive in exaggerating their pain when meeting other sufferers. By investigating potential group risks factors PM services may be improved to increase the positive outcomes for patients.
The study is a mixed method, within-subjects qualitative and quantitative design, using Conversation Analysis (CA). CA is the study of recorded, naturally occurring talk-in-interaction to discover how participants understand and respond to one another, with a central focus on how actions are generated (Hutchby & Wooffitt,2008). Social interactions will be audio/video recorded and conversations will be analysed. CA examines how groups talk together, rather then what they talk about. This study is expected to last one year.
After receiving ethical approval, participants from MK pain management services will be recruited on a voluntary basis and asked to fill out questionnaires on pain and empathy. PM session then will take place and will be recorded. Follow-up questionnaires will be completed after the session. The discussions that took place during PM sessions will be the subject of CA. If participants are interested in further research they will be invited to take part in focus groups, which will provide further information on their conversational structures and interactions. The data will be used to investigate Emotional Contagion in PM services.
REC name
West Midlands - Black Country Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
13/WM/0214
Date of REC Opinion
26 Jun 2013
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion