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Project

Avoiding the unknown: Pain-uncertainty as a pathway to generalized avoidance behavior

Chronic pain is one of the main causes of disability worldwide, with pain-related avoidance behavior being a main contributor. Although a certain degree of avoidance is protective, definitely in the acute pain stage, when it spreads to safe movements, avoidance can culminate into a crippling disease. In my PhD project, costly pain-related avoidance in healthy people generalized only when avoidance was learned under conditions of pain-uncertainty. Furthermore, this effect seemed to be driven by decreased (learning from) exploratory behavior. In the current plan, I propose to further investigate the effect of pain-uncertainty, as well as costs associated/rewards competing with avoidance, on exploration and avoidance-generalization, including studies with healthy people, as well as people with chronic pain. Thus, I aim to further validate my previous findings in a clinical sample, while also attempting to directly investigate the underlying mechanisms of excessive avoidance generalization.
Date:1 Jan 2022 →  31 Oct 2022
Keywords:Avoidance behavior, Fear generalization, Avoidance generalization, Chronic pain, Operant conditioning
Disciplines:Health psychology