Grace Kim joined Professor Pressman’s Lab in 2017. There, she developed a passion for psychology research aimed at developing novel intervention techniques to be used in clinical settings. She believes that the results of this project can help open the way for future pain management and personalized interventions. Grace credits her experience with helping her grow as a lifelong learner with boundless curiosity and has particularly enjoyed the opportunities she has had to bond with her fellow researchers. After graduation, Grace plans to attend medical school and become a physician.

This study examined the connections between the Big Five personality traits, pain threshold, and pain tolerance during acute stress induced by standardized laboratory stressors. The correlations between the Big Five personality traits and pain threshold, the point at which an individual first begins to feel pain, and pain tolerance, the maximum level of pain that an individual is able to tolerate, were studied to investigate how personality can influence the pain experience. In this study, 78 participants engaged in two acute pain tasks during which pain threshold and tolerance were measured. Participants also completed a questionnaire to assess the Big Five personality traits (agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion, openness, and neuroticism). Results indicated that the Big Five personality traits were not correlated with either pain threshold or pain tolerance during either the pressure algometer or cold pressor tasks. This study reveals that there may not be connections between the Big Five personality traits and the threshold and tolerance aspects of the individual pain experience. Understanding the effect of personality on pain responses is important so that interventions and therapy for pain can be further personalized based on these characteristics. Further research on the relationship between personality traits and the pain experience could be useful in potentially improving pain therapy.

This project investigates an important question regarding whether our personalities can affect the pain experience. Both acute pain and chronic pain conditions are exceedingly common in the U.S., so it is necessary that we further our understanding of factors that contribute to these symptoms and conditions. Faculty-mentored undergraduate research is vital to the education of our students. By helping them to engage in the research process, we can teach them to be discerning consumers of science. The opportunity to learn about research methods in a more hands-on way can give our students a deeper appreciation for the intricacies of the process that go on behind the scenes.