Applications are invited for a full-time University studentship to support and work in the Department of Psychology and Centre for Pain Research.
Background
Pain is a universal index of suffering that produces considerable personal and societal costs. Gender emerges as a vulnerability factor in pain - females report more pain, with greater frequency and severity.
There are also gender differences in pain coping:
- females make greater use of healthcare, consume more analgesics, and use social support
- men tend to use fewer analgesics, and more likely to use distraction.
However, little is known about the choices and decisions around pain control within the context of more frequent, everyday pains.
The project
The primary goal of the current PhD project is to consider choices made to manage everyday pain. It will focus on adult men and women’s pain control decisions, including use of analgesics, within the context of everyday pains (headache, lower back pain). It will adopt qualitative and quantitative methods, through a series of interrelated studies.