This week’s discussion assignment is about pain. You will be asked to review two videos and an article before writing your post. To earn full credit, you will need to apply content from this course and the relevant material below or from outside sources. Meaning, you need to go beyond giving your opinion and justify your claims with evidence!
Part A: Life with no pain
The following is video is a news segment about a little girl who has a disorder in which she cannot feel pain. Although her parents were initially happy with the diagnosis—after all, who wants to feel pain?—they soon found out how terrifying and debilitating it is. If you can’t view the video here, you can access the YouTube link below in the uploaded files
Part B: Chronic pain
The following video discusses chronic pain. Although the pain addressed in this video can, with time and effort, be cured, many people suffer chronic pain for months or years that has no clearly identifiable cause and few treatment options. Chronic migraines are one common example of a debilitating and difficult to treat pain condition. YouTube link to video here.
Part C: How do we measure pain?
Pain is difficult to study- it’s subjective, difficult to see, and lots of things can be painful- a broken leg, an awful headache, and being socially rejected to name a few.
Using the materials in parts A-C, as well as what you learned in class, answer the following questions for your initial post:
1. What are the pros and cons of being able to feel pain? Said another way, in what way is pain perception beneficial and important to human life (pros) and in what ways, if any, might the ability to feel pain be disadvantageous (cons)? Mention at least two pros and two cons in your response.
2. If you were asked to come up with a single best way to measure pain, what would it be? Explain why your proposed measure is a good one.
After reviewing your classmates posts, respond to at least one of your classmate’s responses to #2. In what ways could the proposed measure would work well, and in what ways (or for whom) might this measure miss certain aspects of pain?
YouTube video PART A
YouTube video PART B
Read article Part C