psychological research papers

An International Journal of Perception, Attention, Memory, and Action

The contribution of eye gaze and movement kinematics to the expression and identification of social intention in object-directed motor actions

• Maria Francesca Gigliotti
• Laurent Ott
• Yann Coello

Effect of additional tasks on the reaction time of braking responses in simulated car driving: beyond the PRP effect

• Robert Stojan
• Claudia Voelcker-Rehage

The ownership memory self-reference effect shifts recognition criterion but not recognition sensitivity

• S. D. Sparks
• A. Kritikos

Correction to: Executive functioning moderates the decline of retrieval fuency in time

• Drahomír Michalko
• Martin Marko
• Igor Riečanský

How well can young adults and children discriminate between odors?

• E. Leslie Cameron
• Sierra R. Follett
• Autumn S. Rajcevich Schwer

Correction: The role of emotion recognition in reappraisal affordances

• Natali Moyal
• Ilona Glebov-Russinov
• Gideon E. Anholt

Working memory involvement in action planning does not include timing initiation structure

• Stuart T. Klapp
• Dana Maslovat

Positively framing mind wandering does not increase mind wandering in older adults

• Matthew S. Welhaf
• Julie M. Bugg

Decomposing geographical judgments into spatial, temporal and linguistic components

• Daniele Gatti
• Giorgia Anceresi
• Luca Rinaldi

Learning via imagery – merging techniques to improve the outcomes: a commentary on Frank et al. (2023)

• Augusto Fusco

The effect of typicality training on costly safety behavior generalization

• Işık E. Kesim
• Andre Pittig
• Alex H. K. Wong

Children’s metacognition and cognitive offloading in an immediate memory task

• Catriona Iley
• Srdan Medimorec

Arousal, interindividual differences and temporal binding a psychophysiological study

• Anna Render
• Hedwig Eisenbarth
• Petra Jansen

Context-specific adaptation for head fakes in basketball: a study on player-specific fake-frequency schedules

• Iris Güldenpenning
• Nils T. Böer
• Matthias Weigelt

Can an isolated middle-series item make a “Dent” in the bow-shaped serial-position curve of comparative judgments?

• Kaelyn G. Calma

Beyond fixed sets: boundary conditions for obtaining SNARC-like effects with continuous semantic magnitudes

• Craig Leth-Steensen
• Seyed Mohammad Mahdi Moshirian Farahi
• Noora Al-Juboori

Time, valence, and imagination: a comparative study of thoughts in restricted and unrestricted mind wandering

• Halleyson Li
• Thomas Hills

It’s not distance but similarity of distance: changing stimulus relations affect the control of action sequences

• Silvia Selimi
• Christian Frings
• Birte Moeller

The temporal dynamics of task processing and choice in a novel multitasking paradigm

• Victor Mittelstädt
• Ian Grant Mackenzie
• Jeff Miller

Simultaneous but independent spatial associations for pitch and loudness

• Torsten Schubert
• Sven Blankenberger

Lifetime familiarity cue effects for autobiographical memory

• Lauri Gurguryan
• Haopei Yang
• Signy Sheldon

Correction: Uncertainty salience reduces the accessibility of episodic future thoughts

• Marianthi Terpini
• Arnaud D’Argembeau

Music in the eye of the beholder: a pupillometric study on preferred background music, attentional state, and arousal

• Bence Szikora
• Karina J Linnell

Recurrent involuntary memories and mind wandering are related but distinct

• Ryan C. Yeung
• Myra A. Fernandes

Impact of relative and absolute values on orienting attention in time

• Jingjing Zhao

The lack of Aha! experience can be dependent on the problem difficulty

• Gaye Özen-Akın
• Sevtap Cinan

The role of emotion recognition in reappraisal affordances

Interaction of motor practice and memory training in expressive piano performance: expanding the possibilities of improvisation

Unpacking associations among children’s spatial skills, mathematics, and arithmetic strategies: decomposition matters

• Wenke Möhring
• Léonie Moll
• Magdalena Szubielska

Controlling response order without relying on stimulus order – evidence for flexible representations of task order

• Jens Kürten
• Tilo Strobach
• Lynn Huestegge

What makes different number-space mappings interact?

• Arnaud Viarouge
• Maria Dolores de Hevia

An expertise reversal effect of imagination in learning from basketball tactics

• Hajer Mguidich
• Bachir Zoudji
• Aïmen Khacharem

The relationships between urbanicity, general cognitive ability, and susceptibility to the Ebbinghaus illusion

• Serge Caparos
• Esther Boissin

The effect of mood on shaping belief and recollection following false feedback

• Henry Otgaar
• Yikang Zhang

Exorcizing the homunculus from ideomotor/simulation theory: a commentary on Bach et al. (2022), Frank et al. (2023), and Rieger et al. (2023)

• Bernhard Hommel

Resolving the Centipede’s Dilemma: external focus distance and expertise in applied, continuous skills

• Stephen Banks
• Peter Higgins
• Ursula Pool

Retrieving autobiographical memories in autobiographical contexts: are age-related differences in narrated episodic specificity present outside of the laboratory?

• Daniel A. Hernandez
• Christopher X. Griffith
• Matthew D. Grilli

Uncertainty salience reduces the accessibility of episodic future thoughts

Grasping tiny objects

• Martin Giesel
• Federico De Filippi
• Constanze Hesse

Give your ideas a hand: the role of iconic hand gestures in enhancing divergent creative thinking

• Gyulten Hyusein
• Tilbe Göksun

Social excluder’s face reduces gaze-triggered attention orienting

• Jiajia Yang
• Zhonghua Hu

The illusory certainty: Information repetition and impressions of truth enhance subjective confidence in validity judgments independently of the factual truth

• Annika Stump
• Andreas Voss

Theoretical explanations and the availability of information for learning via combined action observation and motor imagery: a commentary on Eaves et al. (2022)

• Stephanie L. Romano Smith
• James W. Roberts
• Caroline J. Wakefield

Task-irrelevant decorative pictures increase cognitive load during text processing but have no effects on learning or working memory performance: an EEG and eye-tracking study

• Christian Scharinger

Picture this! Suggested instructions for guiding the Neuroscience of action imagery: A commentary on Krüger et al. (2022)

• Brian D. Seiler

The role of identity priming on the (unconscious) bodily self-attribution

• Tommaso Ciorli
• Lorenzo Pia

Error modulates categorization of subsecond durations in multitasking contexts

• Maryam Rafiezadeh
• Anahita Tashk
• Sadegh Ghasemian

How does error correction occur during lexical learning?

• Nobuyoshi Iwaki
• Isao Takahashi
• Saeko Kaneko

Emotional cues reduce Pavlovian interference in feedback-based go and nogo learning

• Julian Vahedi
• Annakarina Mundorf
• Jutta Peterburs

Proactive response preparation contributes to contingency learning: novel evidence from force-sensitive keyboards

• Daniel H. Weissman
• James R. Schmidt

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Psychological Science

Prospective submitters of manuscripts are encouraged to read Editor-in-Chief Simine Vazire’s editorial , as well as the editorial by Tom Hardwicke, Senior Editor for Statistics, Transparency, & Rigor, and Simine Vazire.

Psychological Science , the flagship journal of the Association for Psychological Science, is the leading peer-reviewed journal publishing empirical research spanning the entire spectrum of the science of psychology. The journal publishes high quality research articles of general interest and on important topics spanning the entire spectrum of the science of psychology. Replication studies are welcome and evaluated on the same criteria as novel studies. Articles are published in OnlineFirst before they are assigned to an issue. This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) .

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Featured research from psychological science.

Teens Who View Their Homes as More Chaotic Than Their Siblings Have Poorer Mental Health in Adulthood

Many parents ponder why one of their children seems more emotionally troubled than the others. A new study in the United Kingdom reveals a possible basis for those differences.

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Loneliness in adulthood follows a U-shaped pattern: It’s higher in younger and older adulthood, and lowest during middle adulthood, according to new research that examined nine longitudinal studies from around the world.

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50+ Research Topics for Psychology Papers

How to Find Psychology Research Topics for Your Student Paper

Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

Steven Gans, MD is board-certified in psychiatry and is an active supervisor, teacher, and mentor at Massachusetts General Hospital.

• Specific Branches of Psychology
• Topics Involving a Disorder or Type of Therapy
• Human Cognition
• Human Development
• Critique of Publications
• Famous Experiments
• Historical Figures
• Specific Careers
• Case Studies
• Literature Reviews
• Your Own Study/Experiment

Are you searching for a great topic for your psychology paper ? Sometimes it seems like coming up with topics of psychology research is more challenging than the actual research and writing. Fortunately, there are plenty of great places to find inspiration and the following list contains just a few ideas to help get you started.

Finding a solid topic is one of the most important steps when writing any type of paper. It can be particularly important when you are writing a psychology research paper or essay. Psychology is such a broad topic, so you want to find a topic that allows you to adequately cover the subject without becoming overwhelmed with information.

I can always tell when a student really cares about the topic they chose; it comes through in the writing. My advice is to choose a topic that genuinely interests you, so you’ll be more motivated to do thorough research.

In some cases, such as in a general psychology class, you might have the option to select any topic from within psychology's broad reach. Other instances, such as in an  abnormal psychology  course, might require you to write your paper on a specific subject such as a psychological disorder.

As you begin your search for a topic for your psychology paper, it is first important to consider the guidelines established by your instructor.

Research Topics Within Specific Branches of Psychology

The key to selecting a good topic for your psychology paper is to select something that is narrow enough to allow you to really focus on the subject, but not so narrow that it is difficult to find sources or information to write about.

One approach is to narrow your focus down to a subject within a specific branch of psychology. For example, you might start by deciding that you want to write a paper on some sort of social psychology topic. Next, you might narrow your focus down to how persuasion can be used to influence behavior .

Other social psychology topics you might consider include:

• Prejudice and discrimination (i.e., homophobia, sexism, racism)
• Social cognition
• Person perception
• Social control and cults
• Persuasion, propaganda, and marketing
• Attraction, romance, and love
• Nonverbal communication
• Prosocial behavior

Psychology Research Topics Involving a Disorder or Type of Therapy

Exploring a psychological disorder or a specific treatment modality can also be a good topic for a psychology paper. Some potential abnormal psychology topics include specific psychological disorders or particular treatment modalities, including:

• Eating disorders
• Borderline personality disorder
• Seasonal affective disorder
• Schizophrenia
• Antisocial personality disorder
• Profile a  type of therapy  (i.e., cognitive-behavioral therapy, group therapy, psychoanalytic therapy)

Topics of Psychology Research Related to Human Cognition

Some of the possible topics you might explore in this area include thinking, language, intelligence, and decision-making. Other ideas might include:

• False memories
• Speech disorders
• Problem-solving

Topics of Psychology Research Related to Human Development

In this area, you might opt to focus on issues pertinent to  early childhood  such as language development, social learning, or childhood attachment or you might instead opt to concentrate on issues that affect older adults such as dementia or Alzheimer's disease.

Some other topics you might consider include:

• Language acquisition
• Media violence and children
• Learning disabilities
• Gender roles
• Child abuse
• Prenatal development
• Parenting styles
• Aspects of the aging process

Do a Critique of Publications Involving Psychology Research Topics

One option is to consider writing a critique paper of a published psychology book or academic journal article. For example, you might write a critical analysis of Sigmund Freud's Interpretation of Dreams or you might evaluate a more recent book such as Philip Zimbardo's  The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil .

Professional and academic journals are also great places to find materials for a critique paper. Browse through the collection at your university library to find titles devoted to the subject that you are most interested in, then look through recent articles until you find one that grabs your attention.

Topics of Psychology Research Related to Famous Experiments

There have been many fascinating and groundbreaking experiments throughout the history of psychology, providing ample material for students looking for an interesting term paper topic. In your paper, you might choose to summarize the experiment, analyze the ethics of the research, or evaluate the implications of the study. Possible experiments that you might consider include:

• The Milgram Obedience Experiment
• The Stanford Prison Experiment
• The Little Albert Experiment
• Pavlov's Conditioning Experiments
• The Asch Conformity Experiment
• Harlow's Rhesus Monkey Experiments

Topics of Psychology Research About Historical Figures

One of the simplest ways to find a great topic is to choose an interesting person in the  history of psychology  and write a paper about them. Your paper might focus on many different elements of the individual's life, such as their biography, professional history, theories, or influence on psychology.

While this type of paper may be historical in nature, there is no need for this assignment to be dry or boring. Psychology is full of fascinating figures rife with intriguing stories and anecdotes. Consider such famous individuals as Sigmund Freud, B.F. Skinner, Harry Harlow, or one of the many other  eminent psychologists .

Psychology Research Topics About a Specific Career

​Another possible topic, depending on the course in which you are enrolled, is to write about specific career paths within the  field of psychology . This type of paper is especially appropriate if you are exploring different subtopics or considering which area interests you the most.

In your paper, you might opt to explore the typical duties of a psychologist, how much people working in these fields typically earn, and the different employment options that are available.

Topics of Psychology Research Involving Case Studies

One potentially interesting idea is to write a  psychology case study  of a particular individual or group of people. In this type of paper, you will provide an in-depth analysis of your subject, including a thorough biography.

Generally, you will also assess the person, often using a major psychological theory such as  Piaget's stages of cognitive development  or  Erikson's eight-stage theory of human development . It is also important to note that your paper doesn't necessarily have to be about someone you know personally.

In fact, many professors encourage students to write case studies on historical figures or fictional characters from books, television programs, or films.

Psychology Research Topics Involving Literature Reviews

Another possibility that would work well for a number of psychology courses is to do a literature review of a specific topic within psychology. A literature review involves finding a variety of sources on a particular subject, then summarizing and reporting on what these sources have to say about the topic.

Literature reviews are generally found in the  introduction  of journal articles and other  psychology papers , but this type of analysis also works well for a full-scale psychology term paper.

Topics of Psychology Research Based on Your Own Study or Experiment

Many psychology courses require students to design an actual psychological study or perform some type of experiment. In some cases, students simply devise the study and then imagine the possible results that might occur. In other situations, you may actually have the opportunity to collect data, analyze your findings, and write up your results.

Finding a topic for your study can be difficult, but there are plenty of great ways to come up with intriguing ideas. Start by considering your own interests as well as subjects you have studied in the past.

Online sources, newspaper articles, books , journal articles, and even your own class textbook are all great places to start searching for topics for your experiments and psychology term papers. Before you begin, learn more about  how to conduct a psychology experiment .

What This Means For You

After looking at this brief list of possible topics for psychology papers, it is easy to see that psychology is a very broad and diverse subject. While this variety makes it possible to find a topic that really catches your interest, it can sometimes make it very difficult for some students to select a good topic.

If you are still stumped by your assignment, ask your instructor for suggestions and consider a few from this list for inspiration.

• Hockenbury, SE & Nolan, SA. Psychology. New York: Worth Publishers; 2014.
• Santrock, JW. A Topical Approach to Lifespan Development. New York: McGraw-Hill Education; 2016.

By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

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Psychology is the science of mind and behavior. Contemporary psychology research strives to answer questions about human thinking and interaction in a wide variety of settings. The Psychology Research Network on SSRN is an open access preprint server that provides a venue for authors to showcase their research papers in our digital library, speeding up the dissemination and providing the scholarly community access to groundbreaking working papers, early stage research and even peer reviewed or published journal articles. SSRN provides the opportunity to share different outputs of research such as preliminary or exploratory investigations, book chapters, PhD dissertations, course and teaching materials, presentations, and posters among others. SSRN also helps psychology scholars discover the latest research in their own and other fields of interest, while providing a platform for the early sharing of their own work, making it available for subsequent work to be built upon more quickly.

Given the breadth and depth of psychological research, as well as its cross and interdisciplinary nature, SSRN provides important and organized categorical links between psychological research and other research areas including anthropology, arts, cognitive science, economics, education, law, linguistics, medical sciences, philosophy, and technology. Thus, SSRN provides a unique opportunity for researchers to submit early and novel work for review, feedback, and use by researchers within and beyond psychology.

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Psychology is a scientific discipline that focuses on understanding mental functions and the behaviour of individuals and groups.

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Measuring neural activity in moving humans has been a longstanding challenge in neuroscience, which limits what we know about our navigational neural codes. Leveraging mobile EEG and motion capture, Griffiths et al. overcome this challenge to elucidate neural representations of direction and highlight key cross-species similarities.

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Boosting children’s cognitive control does not result in behavioral or neural changes

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• DOI: 10.1007/s12124-024-09852-w
• Corpus ID: 270285154

Mindfulness, Buddhist Modernity and Cultural Psychology.

• Bo Allesøe Christensen
• Published in Integrative Psychological and… 6 June 2024
• Psychology, Philosophy

6 References

Understanding the process of taoistic-informed mindfulness from a meadian perspective, buddhist modernism and the rhetoric of meditative experience, mcmindfulness in the era of accelerated life, mindfulness, phenomenology, and psychological science., songs of experience, related papers.

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• Introduction
• Conclusions
• Article Information

MRI indicates magnetic resonance imaging.

A, Shading indicates standard error. B, Dots represent individual participants; thick lines represent the group mean. C, Percentage of patients reporting pain scores of 0 or 1 of 10 (ie, pain-free or nearly pain-free) at posttreatment and at 1-year follow-up. PRT indicates pain reprocessing therapy.

A, Error bars show standard error. B, Coordinates and statistics for activations provided in eTable 7 in Supplement 2 ; analyses conducted within a mask of regions of interest; eFigure 1 in Supplement 2 . C, Decreased evoked pain-related activity was observed in anterior midcingulate (aMCC) and anterior prefrontal regions for PRT vs placebo and left anterior insula for PRT vs usual care. D, Error bars show standard error. E, PRT vs control conditions increased aPFC-seeded (red clusters) and aIns-seeded (green clusters) connectivity with primary somatosensory cortex (permutation test, P  < .05). Inset shows seed regions, derived from evoked pain analyses; magenta outlines, PRT vs placebo; black outlines, PRT vs usual care. F, PRT vs usual care increased connectivity between an aMCC seed (yellow; derived from evoked back pain analyses) and the precuneus (orange). Connectivity analyses were conducted within primary somatosensory cortex and medial default mode network masks.

a P  < .001.

b P  < .05.

Trial protocol

eDiscussion

eTable 1. Spinal anomalies among participants randomized to PRT

eTable 2. Treatment response rates

eTable 3. Secondary clinical outcomes measured only at pretreatment and posttreatment

eTable 4. Treatment satisfaction and patient global impression of change

eTable 5. Mediation results

eTable 6. Values for mediators at each timepoint

eTable 7. Evoked back pain localizer results

eTable 8. Regions showing pretreatment to posttreatment connectivity changes for PRT vs placebo or PRT vs usual care

eFigure 1. Evoked back pain localizer

eFigure 2. Target masks for seed connectivity analyses

eFigure 3. Individual trajectories of pain intensity for participants in the PRT, placebo and usual care groups

eFigure 4. Effects of PRT on pain-related fear and avoidance and beliefs that pain indicates injury

eFigure 5. Evoked back pain at pretreatment

eFigure 6. High vs low thumb pressure stimulation

eFigure 7. Histogram of quality control-functional connectivity correlations for spontaneous pain scans

eFigure 8. Continuous pain regressors for 4 randomly chosen sample individuals

eAppendix 1. Initial medical pain assessment and education session

eAppendix 2. Pain reprocessing therapy description

eAppendix 3. PRT treatment fidelity checklist

eReferences

Data sharing statement.

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Ashar YK , Gordon A , Schubiner H, et al. Effect of Pain Reprocessing Therapy vs Placebo and Usual Care for Patients With Chronic Back Pain : A Randomized Clinical Trial . JAMA Psychiatry. 2022;79(1):13–23. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2021.2669

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Effect of Pain Reprocessing Therapy vs Placebo and Usual Care for Patients With Chronic Back Pain : A Randomized Clinical Trial

• 1 Department of Psychiatry, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York City, New York
• 2 Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado, Boulder
• 3 Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Colorado, Boulder
• 4 Pain Psychology Center, Los Angeles, California
• 5 Ascension Providence Hospital, Southfield, Michigan
• 6 Michigan State University College of Human Medicine, East Lansing
• 7 Panorama Orthopedics and Spine Center, Golden, Colorado
• 8 Department of Psychology, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois
• 9 Department of Philosophy, Washington University in Saint Louis, Saint Louis, Missouri
• 10 Johns Hopkins University Department of Biostatistics, Baltimore, Maryland
• 11 Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts
• 12 Department of Psychology, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia
• 13 Renée Crown Wellness Institute, University of Colorado, Boulder
• 14 Department of Psychology, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan
• 15 Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire

Question   Can a psychological treatment based on the reappraisal of primary chronic back pain as due to nondangerous central nervous system processes provide substantial and durable pain relief?

Findings   In this randomized clinical trial, 33 of 50 participants (66%) randomized to 4 weeks of pain reprocessing therapy were pain-free or nearly pain-free at posttreatment, compared with 10 of 51 participants (20%) randomized to placebo and 5 of 50 participants (10%) randomized to usual care, with gains largely maintained through 1-year follow-up. Treatment effects on pain were mediated by reduced beliefs that pain indicates tissue damage, and longitudinal functional magnetic resonance imaging showed reduced prefrontal responses to evoked back pain and increased resting prefrontal-somatosensory connectivity in patients randomized to treatment relative to patients randomized to placebo or usual care.

Meaning   Psychological treatment focused on changing beliefs about the causes and threat value of primary chronic back pain may provide substantial and durable pain relief.

Importance   Chronic back pain (CBP) is a leading cause of disability, and treatment is often ineffective. Approximately 85% of cases are primary CBP, for which peripheral etiology cannot be identified, and maintenance factors include fear, avoidance, and beliefs that pain indicates injury.

Objective   To test whether a psychological treatment (pain reprocessing therapy [PRT]) aiming to shift patients’ beliefs about the causes and threat value of pain provides substantial and durable pain relief from primary CBP and to investigate treatment mechanisms.

Design, Setting, and Participants   This randomized clinical trial with longitudinal functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and 1-year follow-up assessment was conducted in a university research setting from November 2017 to August 2018, with 1-year follow-up completed by November 2019. Clinical and fMRI data were analyzed from January 2019 to August 2020. The study compared PRT with an open-label placebo treatment and with usual care in a community sample.

Interventions   Participants randomized to PRT participated in 1 telehealth session with a physician and 8 psychological treatment sessions over 4 weeks. Treatment aimed to help patients reconceptualize their pain as due to nondangerous brain activity rather than peripheral tissue injury, using a combination of cognitive, somatic, and exposure-based techniques. Participants randomized to placebo received an open-label subcutaneous saline injection in the back; participants randomized to usual care continued their routine, ongoing care.

Main Outcomes and Measures   One-week mean back pain intensity score (0 to 10) at posttreatment, pain beliefs, and fMRI measures of evoked pain and resting connectivity.

Results   At baseline, 151 adults (54% female; mean [SD] age, 41.1 [15.6] years) reported mean (SD) pain of low to moderate severity (mean [SD] pain intensity, 4.10 [1.26] of 10; mean [SD] disability, 23.34 [10.12] of 100) and mean (SD) pain duration of 10.0 (8.9) years. Large group differences in pain were observed at posttreatment, with a mean (SD) pain score of 1.18 (1.24) in the PRT group, 2.84 (1.64) in the placebo group, and 3.13 (1.45) in the usual care group. Hedges g was −1.14 for PRT vs placebo and −1.74 for PRT vs usual care ( P  < .001). Of 151 total participants, 33 of 50 participants (66%) randomized to PRT were pain-free or nearly pain-free at posttreatment (reporting a pain intensity score of 0 or 1 of 10), compared with 10 of 51 participants (20%) randomized to placebo and 5 of 50 participants (10%) randomized to usual care. Treatment effects were maintained at 1-year follow-up, with a mean (SD) pain score of 1.51 (1.59) in the PRT group, 2.79 (1.78) in the placebo group, and 3.00 (1.77) in the usual care group. Hedges g was −0.70 for PRT vs placebo ( P  = .001) and −1.05 for PRT vs usual care ( P  < .001) at 1-year follow-up. Longitudinal fMRI showed (1) reduced responses to evoked back pain in the anterior midcingulate and the anterior prefrontal cortex for PRT vs placebo; (2) reduced responses in the anterior insula for PRT vs usual care; (3) increased resting connectivity from the anterior prefrontal cortex and the anterior insula to the primary somatosensory cortex for PRT vs both control groups; and (4) increased connectivity from the anterior midcingulate to the precuneus for PRT vs usual care.

Conclusions and Relevance   Psychological treatment centered on changing patients’ beliefs about the causes and threat value of pain may provide substantial and durable pain relief for people with CBP.

Trial Registration   ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03294148 .

Chronic pain affects 20% of people in the US, with an estimated annual cost of more than $600 billion. 1 , 2 The most common type is chronic back pain (CBP). In approximately 85% of cases, definitive peripheral causes of CBP cannot be identified, and central nervous system processes are thought to maintain pain. 3 - 7 For people with this type of CBP— often referred to as primary, nonspecific, nociplastic, or centralized pain—psychological and behavioral treatments are recommended. 8 - 10 Although these treatments can improve functioning, reductions in pain intensity are limited 11 , 12 and better treatments are needed.

Quiz Ref ID Advances in the neuroscience of pain 13 - 17 and interoception 18 - 21 suggest new directions for treatment development. In constructionist and active inference models, pain is a prediction about bodily harm, shaped by sensory input and context-based predictions. 18 , 19 , 22 - 26 Fearful appraisals of tissue damage can cause innocuous somatosensory input to be interpreted and experienced as painful. 22 , 24 , 27 , 28 Such constructed perceptions can become self-reinforcing: threat appraisals enhance pain, which is in turn threatening, creating positive feedback loops that maintain pain after initial injuries have healed. 27 , 29 - 31

As pain becomes chronic, it is increasingly associated with activity in the affective and motivational systems tied to avoidance and less closely tied to systems encoding nociceptive input. 14 , 32 - 34 Accordingly, brain regions serving allostasis and predictive control 18 , 23 —including the default mode network, somatosensory and insular cortices, amygdala, and nucleus accumbens—have been implicated in animal models 13 - 17 and human studies of chronic pain 22 , 25 , 32 , 33 , 35 , 36 and pain modulation. 24 , 25 , 28 , 37 - 39

We developed pain reprocessing therapy (PRT) based on this understanding of primary chronic pain. Leading psychological interventions for pain typically present the causes of pain as multifaceted and aim primarily to improve functioning and secondarily to reduce pain. PRT emphasizes that the brain actively constructs primary chronic pain in the absence of tissue damage and that reappraising the causes and threat value of pain can reduce or eliminate it.

In this study, we conducted the first test of PRT. In a randomized clinical trial with 1-year follow-up, we compared PRT with both open-label placebo and usual care control conditions. We tested hypothesized mechanisms of PRT with mediation analyses and longitudinal functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during spontaneously occurring and evoked back pain. fMRI provided objective correlates of treatment effects and identified potential neurobiological treatment mechanisms.

The trial was preregistered on ClinicalTrials.gov (Identifier: NCT03294148 ) and conducted from August 2017 to November 2018, with 1-year follow-up completed by November 2019. Clinical and fMRI data were analyzed from January 2019 to August 2020, after data collection at each follow-up timepoint was complete. Participants aged 21 to 70 years with back pain for at least half the days of the last 6 months and 1-week average pain intensity score of 4 of 10 or greater at screening were recruited from the community in Boulder, Colorado. We targeted primary CBP, excluding patients with leg pain worse than back pain (eMethods in Supplement 2 ). Power analysis targeted 80% power (α = .05) to detect a medium effect ( d  = 0.62) on pain intensity at the primary end point (eMethods in Supplement 2). Participants provided written informed consent as approved by the University of Colorado Institutional Review Board. The study followed the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials ( CONSORT ) reporting guideline for social and psychological intervention trials.

Participants completed an eligibility and consent session, followed by a baseline assessment session with fMRI. They were subsequently randomized to PRT, placebo, or usual care with equal probability, balancing on age, sex, baseline pain, and opioid use using an imbalance-minimization algorithm 40 (eMethods in Supplement  2 ). The primary end point (posttreatment fMRI session) occurred 1 month after the baseline fMRI. Participants completed online follow-up assessments at 1, 2, 3, 6, and 12 months after the primary end point ( Figure 1 ).

PRT seeks to promote patients’ reconceptualization of primary (nociplastic) chronic pain as a brain-generated false alarm. PRT shares some concepts and techniques with existing treatments for pain 41 - 48 and with the cognitive behavioral treatment of panic disorder. 66

Participants completed a 1-hour telehealth evaluation and education session with a physician (H.S.) assessing likely centralized vs peripheral contributions to pain, including a review of available preexisting spinal imaging. Assessment findings and centralized pain education were shared with the patient (eAppendix 1 in Supplement 2 ).

Quiz Ref ID Participants then completed 8 individual 1-hour therapy sessions with a therapist with extensive PRT experience (A.G. or C.U.) twice weekly for 4 weeks. Techniques included (1) providing personalized evidence for centralized pain; (2) guided reappraisal of pain sensations while seated and while engaging in feared postures or movements; (3) techniques addressing psychosocial threats (eg, difficult emotions) potentially amplifying pain; and (4) techniques to increase positive emotions and self-compassion. PRT followed the treatment protocol found in eAppendix 2 in Supplement 2 .

Treatment fidelity was assessed by independent raters coding audiorecordings of PRT sessions (eMethods and eAppendix 3 in Supplement 2 ). A mean (SD) of 4.93 (0.87) of 6 PRT elements were present in each session, and all sessions included at least 3 elements, indicating high treatment fidelity.

Participants watched 2 videos describing how placebo treatments can powerfully relieve pain even when known to be inert (eg, they can automatically trigger the body’s natural healing response). 49 A subcutaneous injection described as saline was administered by a physician (K.K.) at the site of greatest back pain during an empathic, validating clinical encounter at an orthopedic medical center. Open-label placebo treatments are as effective or nearly as effective as traditional (deceptive) placebos for CBP and other chronic symptoms when administered in this manner (eMethods in Supplement 2 ). 50 - 52 Participants in this group were also asked to continue their ongoing care as usual and not start other new treatments until after the study period.

Participants in this group were given no additional treatment. They agreed to continue their ongoing care as usual and not start new treatments before the posttreatment assessment. After the posttreatment assessment, they were given a chronic pain workbook 53 and access to http://www.unlearnyourpain.com .

The primary outcome was average pain over the last week on a numerical rating scale from 0 to 10 from the Brief Pain Inventory Short Form, assessed at the 1-month postbaseline session. We also calculated the proportion of participants reporting pain reduction of 30% or more, pain reduction of 50% or more, and a pain score of 0 or 1, indicating a pain-free or nearly pain-free state. Secondary outcomes included pain interference (Oswestry Disability Index); Patient-Reported Outcome Measurement Information System (PROMIS) short forms for depression, anxiety, anger, and sleep quality; and the Positive and Negative Affect Scale (measure details in the eMethods in Supplement 2 ).

We considered 3 measures of pain beliefs as potential mediators: (1) the Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia (TSK-11), assessing belief that pain indicates injury and fear of movement; (2) the Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS); and (3) the Survey of Pain Attitudes Emotion subscale (SOPA-Emotion), assessing beliefs that stress and negative emotion increase pain. Adverse events were recorded when participants spontaneously reported them to study personnel. Baseline pain was computed as the average score from 2 prerandomization assessments (eligibility session and pretreatment fMRI session).

Structural T1 and multiband blood oxygenation level–dependent functional imaging was conducted on a 3-T Siemens Prisma Fit MRI scanner with standard fMRI preprocessing (eMethods in Supplement 2 ). During fMRI, participants completed (1) an evoked back pain task with a series of randomly ordered trials distending the back to 1 of 4 intensity levels and (2) a spontaneous pain scan in which participants rested and rated ongoing pain once per minute (design details in the eMethods in Supplement 2 ; fMRI data quality measures shown in eFigures 6 and 7 in Supplement 2 ). Participants rated pain during scanning on a visual analog scale from 0 (no pain) to 100 (worst pain imaginable).

Intent-to-treat analyses (including all randomized patients) were performed for the primary outcome with a mixed-effects model ( fitlme , MATLAB 2020a), including 2 group × time interactions (PRT vs placebo × posttreatment vs pretreatment and PRT vs usual care × posttreatment vs pretreatment), covariates for age and sex, and a random intercept per participant. Treatment response rates for 30% or greater reduction in pain, 50% or greater reduction in pain, and a pain-free or nearly pain-free state at posttreatment and 1-year follow-up were based on all randomized patients; those missing data were considered nonresponders. For follow-up time points and secondary outcomes, we calculated Hedges g for the PRT vs placebo and PRT vs usual care comparisons. Follow-up time points were analyzed individually, testing group differences in change from baseline to each time points. The placebo vs usual care comparison will be reported elsewhere.

To investigate psychological treatment mechanisms, we (1) correlated pretreatment to posttreatment changes in pain intensity with pretreatment to posttreatment changes in pain beliefs (TSK-11, PCS, and SOPA-Emotion) within each group and (2) tested pretreatment to posttreatment changes in pain beliefs as mediators of treatment effects on pain at follow-up timepoints (1 through 12 months posttreatment), controlling for baseline pain. PRT vs placebo and PRT vs usual care were tested in separate models. We also tested the reverse: whether pretreatment to posttreatment pain reductions mediated treatment effects on pain beliefs at follow-up, controlling for baseline pain beliefs (eMethods in Supplement 2 ). Correlational and mediation analyses were not prespecified in the trial protocol.

An evoked back pain localizer identified brain regions positively associated with evoked back pain intensity at baseline. The localizer was conducted within a mask of regions of interest (medial prefrontal, posteromedial, insula, cingulate, and somatosensory cortices; amygdala; and nucleus accumbens; eMethods and eFigure 1 in Supplement 2 ; localizer task design in eFigure 8 in Supplement 2 ). We tested for treatment effects (group × time interactions) in the average activity of clusters positively associated with evoked back pain using a mixed-effects (random-effects) model, applying a 1-tailed threshold of P  < .05 owing to directional hypotheses that PRT would reduce activity in pain-positive clusters.

Evoked pain analyses identified group × time interactions in the anterior insula, anterior midcingulate (aMCC), and a prefrontal region. We submitted these 3 regions as seeds to connectivity analyses in the spontaneous pain scan. We conducted permutation tests (threshold-free cluster-enhancement; eMethods in Supplement 2 ) testing for group × time interactions in connectivity between these seed regions and 2 areas most often demonstrating altered connectivity in chronic pain: (1) the midline default mode network, including the medial prefrontal and posteromedial cortex, and (2) primary somatosensory cortex (S1) 36 , 54 - 59 (masks in eFigure 2 in Supplement 2 ).

We randomized 151 participants (54% female; mean [SD] age, 41.1 [15.6] years; mean [SD] CBP duration, 10.0 [8.9] years). At baseline, patients reported low to moderate pain intensity scores (mean [SD], 4.10 [1.26]) to 4.41 [1.29]) and disability (mean [SD], 23.34 [10.12] on the Oswestry Disability Index), with similar pain and demographic characteristics across groups ( Table 1 ).

Of 50 participants randomized to PRT, 44 (88%) completed all treatment sessions and the posttreatment assessment. Five participants dropped out prior to initiating PRT and 1 had an unrelated medical emergency. Of 51 participants randomized to placebo, 44 (86%) received the treatment, all of whom completed the posttreatment assessment. Of the 50 participants randomized to usual care, 47 (94%) completed the posttreatment assessment ( Figure 1 ).

Twenty patients in the PRT group had preexisting spinal imaging, all of which showed at least 1 spinal anomaly (median of 4 findings per patient; eTable 1 in Supplement 2 ) assessed by a physician (H.S.) as not causal of pain (eMethods and eAppendix 1 in Supplement 2 ). 61

Quiz Ref ID Patients randomized to PRT reported substantial reductions in pain intensity at posttreatment compared with both control groups, with a mean (SD) pain score of 1.18 (1.24) in the PRT group, 2.84 (1.64) in the placebo group, and 3.13 (1.45) in the usual care group ( Figure 2 ; Table 2 ). Patients in the PRT group reported a pain reduction of 1.79 (on the 0 to 10 numerical rating scale) relative to placebo ( t 137.63  = 6.06; P  <  . 001; g , −1.14; 95% CI, −1.65 to −0.71) and reported a pain reduction of 2.40 relative to the usual care group ( t 135.69  = 8.13; P  <  . 001; g , −1.74; 95% CI, −2.28 to −1.32). A total of 33 of 50 patients randomized to PRT (66%), corresponding to 73% of the 45 patients who initiated PRT, were pain-free or nearly pain-free at posttreatment, compared with 10 of 51 patients (20%) in the placebo group and 5 of 50 patients (10%) in the usual care group. At 1-year follow-up, effects of PRT on pain remained large relative to both control groups, with a mean (SD) pain score of 1.51 (1.59) in the PRT group, 2.79 (1.78) in the placebo group, and 3.00 (1.77) in the usual care group. Hedges g was −0.70 for PRT vs placebo ( P  = .001) and −1.05 for PRT vs usual care ( P  < .001) ( Table 2 ; treatment response rates in eTable 2 in Supplement 2 ; individual patient pain trajectories in eFigure 3 in Supplement 2 ).

Analyses of secondary outcomes at posttreatment revealed significant reductions in disability and anger for PRT vs both controls ( g , −0.62 to −1.7; P  < .005) and improvements in sleep ( g , −0.56; P  = .009) and depression ( g , −0.63; P  = .003) relative to usual care ( Table 2 ). Treatment gains on secondary outcomes were largely maintained at 1-year follow-up ( Table 2 ). Significant PRT vs control effects were observed at posttreatment for positive affect (Positive and Negative Affect Schedule; g for PRT vs placebo, 0.63, g for PRT vs usual care, 0.59; P  < .005; eTable 3 in Supplement 2 ) but not for negative affect or alcohol, cannabis, or opioid use (eTable 3 in Supplement 2 ). Treatment satisfaction was high among participants in the PRT group (eTable 4 in Supplement 2 ).

Pretreatment to posttreatment reductions in TSK-11 and pain intensity scores were correlated among participants in the PRT group ( r 42  = 0.44; P  = .003; eFigure 4 in Supplement 2 ). This correlation was not significant for the placebo condition ( r 42  = 0.16; P  = .29) or usual care condition ( r 45  = 0.27; P  = .07). Pretreatment to posttreatment changes in PCS and SOPA-Emotion scores did not correlate with pain reductions within any group.

Pretreatment to posttreatment reductions in TSK-11 scores mediated PRT vs placebo and PRT vs usual care effects on pain intensity at most follow-up time points (eFigure 4 and eTables 5 and 6 in Supplement 2 ). The reverse was also true: pretreatment to posttreatment pain reductions mediated PRT vs placebo and PRT vs usual care effects on TSK-11 at follow-up. Pretreatment to posttreatment changes in PCS and SOPA-Emotion did not mediate PRT vs control effects at any follow-up time point. Treatment effects on TSK-11 were very large at posttreatment ( g for PRT vs placebo, −1.90; g for PRT vs usual care,−1.67; P  < .001).

Neither age nor sex moderated the treatment effect on pain intensity (eMethods in Supplement 2 ). No adverse events were reported for PRT.

At baseline, increased back distention led to increased pain (mean [SD] for distention level 1, 32.15 [18.57]; distention level 2, 37.91 [20.30]; distention level 3, 46.70 [21.71]; distention level 4, 52.73 [21.78]). There was a significant effect of distention level on pain (mean [SD] β for inflation, 7.05 [5.06]; t 95  = 13.64; P  < .001. Individual patient-evoked pain data are shown in eFigure 5 in Supplement 2 .

Patients receiving PRT reported significant pretreatment to posttreatment reductions in evoked back pain relative to placebo (β, −13.05 on a 101-point visual analog scale; t 122.85  = −2.82; P  = .006; g , −0.60; 95% CI, −1.06 to −0.16) and relative to usual care (β, −19.61; t 79.52  = −4.03; P  < .001; g , −0.99; 95% CI, −1.50 to −0.55; Figure 3 A). Among patients in the PRT group, pretreatment to posttreatment reductions in evoked back pain and 1-week average back pain intensity were correlated ( r 32  = 0.47; P  = .005).

Quiz Ref ID Localizer analyses identified 16 regions within the mask of interest positively associated with evoked pain intensity, including bilateral insula, cingulate, bilateral somatotopic back areas S1 and secondary somatosensory cortex, and prefrontal regions ( Figure 3 B; eFigure 1 and eTable 7 in Supplement 2 ). Relative to placebo, PRT reduced pain-related activity in aMCC ( t 133.48  = −1.73; P  = .04) and the anterior prefrontal cortex (aPFC; t 133.48  = −1.85; P  = .03). Relative to usual care, PRT reduced pain-related activity in the left anterior insula (aIns; t 120.1  = −2.34; P  = .01; Figure 3 C).

Patients receiving PRT reported reductions in spontaneous pain relative to placebo (β, −18.24 on a 101-point visual analog scale; t 140.66  = −4.59; P  < .001; g , −0.92; 95% CI, −1.44 to −0.47) and relative to usual care (β, −21.53; t 79  = −5.26; P  < .001; g , −1.11; 95% CI, −1.66 to −0.66; Figure 3 D).

We submitted the aMCC, aPFC, and aIns regions exhibiting treatment effects in evoked pain analyses as connectivity seed regions in the spontaneous pain task. Within S1, PRT vs placebo and PRT vs usual care led to increased aPFC- and aIns-seeded connectivity to 4 distinct S1 subregions (permutation test COPE-MAX, 3.55-3.91; P  < .05). Within the medial default mode network, PRT vs usual care increased aMCC-precuneus connectivity (permutation test COPE-MAX, 4.23; P  = .01; Figure 3 E; cluster coordinates and statistics in eTable 8 in Supplement 2 ). No group × time interactions were found for aPFC- or aIns-seeded connectivity to default mode network regions or for aMCC-seeded connectivity to S1.

PRT yielded large reductions in CBP intensity relative to open-label placebo and usual care control conditions in a community sample, with nearly two-thirds of randomized patients and 73% of those initiating PRT reporting they were pain-free or nearly pain-free at posttreatment. Large effects of PRT on pain continued at 1-year follow-up. PRT also reduced experimentally evoked back pain and spontaneous pain during fMRI with large effect sizes, and several secondary outcomes (eg, disability and anger) also improved for PRT relative to the control groups.

PRT targets primary (nociplastic) pain by shifting patients’ beliefs about the causes and threat value of pain. It presents pain as a reversible, brain-generated phenomenon not indicative of peripheral pathology, consistent with active inference and constructionist accounts of interoception and pain. 18 , 19 , 22 - 27 PRT builds on and extends existing psychological treatment models. Cognitive-behavioral, acceptance-based, and mindfulness-based interventions typically aim to improve functioning by decreasing pain catastrophizing, enhancing pain coping or acceptance, and promoting engagement in valued life activities. 41 , 44 , 46 , 48 , 62 Exposure-based treatments share with PRT an emphasis that painful activities are not injurious, 42 , 63 - 65 but do not emphasize reappraising pain sensations and reattributing the causes of pain. Some pain neuroscience education interventions present pain in a similar way as PRT, 43 though they typically lack guided exposure and reappraisal exercises.

Large reductions in pain are rarely observed in CBP psychological treatment trials. 11 , 12 Relatively unique components of PRT potentially contributing to the observed effects include (1) an in-depth medical and psychological assessment generating personalized evidence for centralized pain; (2) reattribution of pain to reversible learning- and affect-related brain processes rather than bodily injury; and (3) a unique combination of cognitive, somatic, and exposure-based techniques supporting pain reappraisal (eDiscussion in Supplement 2 ).

Correlational and mediational analysis results support changes in fear-inducing pain beliefs as a potential PRT mechanism. Effects of PRT on pain beliefs were also mediated by pain intensity reductions, perhaps because pain reductions promote beliefs in pain modifiability (eDiscussion in Supplement 2 ). Changes in pain beliefs are not unique to PRT, but PRT may more strongly change these beliefs compared with existing therapies (eTable 6 in Supplement 2 ).

These hypothesized mechanisms are consistent with extinction-based treatment approaches to anxiety disorders. 42 , 65 For example, 85% of patients became free of panic symptoms following treatment focused on reappraising somatic symptoms as caused by nondangerous central nervous system processes (eg, false alarms). 66

PRT reduced evoked pain-related activity in aPFC, aMCC, and aIns. The aPFC and adjacent dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) are implicated in the detection and inhibition of pain. 67 aPFC reductions following PRT suggest a potential reduction of pain-related signals or decreased prioritization of pain control. The aMCC and aIns are cortical convergence zones in the construction of negative affect in pain and other domains. 20 , 68 - 70 Cognitive pain regulation strategies, including mindful acceptance 38 , 39 and placebo analgesia, 24 , 25 , 28 have been found to reduce aMCC and aIns responses to pain, demonstrating parallels between experimental findings and our clinical findings. The aIns reductions in our study were not specific to PRT vs placebo and may reflect processes common to both these interventions.

PRT also increased aPFC and aIns connectivity to S1, aligning with previous findings that cognitive behavioral therapy for fibromyalgia 57 and acupuncture for CBP 55 increased aIns-S1 connectivity. Increased aPFC and aIns connectivity to S1 may reflect increased attention to somatosensory input in constructing pain. 71 This is congruent with mindfulness-based treatments promoting nonreactive attention to bodily sensations, reducing catastrophizing. 38 , 39 , 48 , 71 Yet, increased S1 connectivity has also been associated with increased clinical pain, 72 and the role of S1 connectivity remains unclear. 55 PRT vs usual care also increased aMCC-precuneus connectivity, with intermediate effects observed in participants receiving placebo treatment. Altered default mode connectivity has often been reported in chronic pain, although typically with heightened connectivity for patients vs controls (eDiscussion in Supplement 2 ). 36 , 54 , 56 , 58 , 59

Quiz Ref ID This study has limitations. The study sample was relatively well educated and active and reported long-standing low to moderate pain and disability at baseline. The physician and therapists were experts in the treatment model. Future studies should test generalizability to other patient populations, therapists, and treatment contexts (eDiscussion in Supplement 2 ). The fMRI effect sizes were modest, with some results not surviving whole-brain correction (eMethods in Supplement 2 ). Future trials should test PRT efficacy relative to leading psychological and medical treatments (eDiscussion in Supplement 2 ).

Overall, our findings raise key possibilities about the nature and treatment of primary CBP. Changing fear- and avoidance-inducing beliefs about the causes and threat value of pain may provide substantial, durable pain relief for people with primary CBP.

Accepted for Publication: July 27, 2021.

Published Online: September 29, 2021. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2021.2669

Open Access: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC-BY License . © 2021 Ashar YK et al. JAMA Psychiatry .

Corresponding Author: Tor D. Wager, PhD, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, 352 Moore Hall, HB 6207, Hanover, New Hampshire 03755 ( [email protected] ); Yoni K. Ashar, PhD, Department of Psychiatry, Weill Cornell Medical College, 1300 York Ave, New York, NY 10065 ( [email protected] ).

Author Contributions : Drs Ashar and Wager had full access to all the data in the study and take responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.

Concept and design : Ashar, Gordon, Schubiner, Uipi, Knight, Geuter, Dimidjian, Wager.

Acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data : Ashar, Gordon, Schubiner, Uipi, Knight, Anderson, Carlisle, Polisky, Geuter, Flood, Kragel, Lumley, Wager.

Drafting of the manuscript : Ashar, Gordon, Schubiner, Polisky, Lumley, Wager.

Critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content : All authors.

Statistical analysis : Ashar, Polisky, Geuter, Lumley, Wager.

Obtained funding : Gordon, Schubiner, Flood, Wager.

Administrative, technical, or material support : Ashar, Uipi, Knight, Anderson, Carlisle, Polisky, Kragel, Dimidjian, Lumley, Wager.

Supervision : Ashar, Gordon, Wager.

Conflict of Interest Disclosures: Dr Ashar reports grants from the National Institutes of Health during the conduct of the study and personal fees from UnitedHealth Group, Lin Health, Inc, Pain Reprocessing Therapy Center, Inc, and Mental Health Partners of Boulder County outside the submitted work. Mr Gordon is a consultant with UnitedHealth Group, director of the Pain Psychology Center and the Pain Reprocessing Therapy Center, and is the author of the book The Way Out . Dr Schubiner is the co-owner of Freedom From Chronic Pain, Inc, earns book royalties for Unlearn Your Pain, Unlearn Your Anxiety and Depression and Hidden From View ; serves as a consultant with UnitedHealth Group, Karuna Labs, and Curable Health; and receives personal fees from OVID Dx outside the submitted work. Mrs Uipi serves as a consultant for UnitedHealth Group. Dr Dimidjian reports being a co-founder of Mindful Noggin, Inc, and received royalties from Guilford Press and Wolters Kluwer as well as funding from The National Institutes of Health. Dr Lumley reports personal fees from CognifiSense, Inc, outside the submitted work. Dr Wager reports grants from the National Institutes of Health and the Foundation for the Study of the Therapeutic Encounter, and funding to support trainees from the Radiological Society of North America and the German Research Foundation; he is on the Scientific Advisory Board of Curable Health. No other disclosures were reported.

Funding and Support: This study was funded by National Institutes of Health grants R01 DA035484 (Dr Wager), R01 MH076136 (Dr Wager), National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences grant TL1-TR-002386 (Dr Ashar), Radiological Society of North America (Dr Flood), German Research Foundation grant GE 2774/1-1 (Dr Geuter), the Psychophysiologic Disorders Association, the Foundation for the Study of the Therapeutic Encounter, and community donations.

Role of the Funder/Sponsor: The funders had no role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript; and decision to submit the manuscript for publication.

Data Sharing Statement: See Supplement 3 .

Additional Information: Deidentified demographic and clinical outcomes data and subject-level functional magnetic resonance imaging statistical parameter maps for evoked pain and seed connectivity are provided here: https://figshare.com/s/1840dc4c0e236a7072ca

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Writing Your Psychology Research Paper

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This primer explains how to write clear, compelling, well-organized research papers.

From picking a promising topic, to finding and digesting the pertinent literature, to developing a thesis, to outlining and presenting ideas, to editing for clarity and concision — each step is broken down and illustrated with examples.

In addition, a bonus chapter discusses how to combat procrastination. You will learn that the best writing is done in chunks over long periods of time and that writing is a skill that improves with practice.

By following the advice in this book, you can not only get through dreaded writing assignments, but also become a more proficient writer.

This book is part of APA's Concise Guides to Conducting Behavioral, Health, and Social Science Research series. Aimed at undergraduate students in research methods courses or others with a lab or research project, each book describes a key stage in the research process. Collectively, these books provide a solid grounding in research from start to finish.

Series Foreword

Acknowledgments

Introduction

I. Preparing to Write

• Developing an Idea
• Finding Background Information and Literature

II. Writing

• Organizing Your Ideas and Creating a Thesis
• Structuring and Drafting Your Paper
• Revising Your Paper
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III. Staying on Task

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Scott A. Baldwin, PhD, received his doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Memphis in 2006. He completed his predoctoral clinical internship at the University of Wisconsin–Madison Department of Psychiatry.

He's an associate professor of psychology at Brigham Young University and a licensed psychologist in Utah.

Dr. Baldwin's research focuses on research design, statistical, and measurement issues in psychotherapy and health research. He has published more than 50 articles and has focused his recent efforts on demonstrating the use of advanced statistical methods in psychological research. He teaches courses on statistics, measurement, research design, and psychotherapy.

When not doing data analysis or writing, he likes to spend time with his family, swim, bike, run, and play classic video games.

A useful addition to the array of volumes on improving student writing. The strength of this brief book is that it encourages students to develop the mind-set necessary for competent writing. Rather than focusing on technical aspects of writing, the author emphasizes the crucial preparatory work that writers need to complete before they can establish the messages they want to convey. – Choice

Baldwin's talent as a teacher of writing shines through in Writing Your Psychology Research Paper . This crisp, practical book should be the first stop for students new to writing about the science of psychology. —Paul J. Silvia, PhD University of North Carolina at Greensboro

From research-based class papers to manuscripts for professional journals — this easy-to-read book provides a clear guide for any student (undergraduate or graduate) who wants to improve the quality of his or her writing and save time in the writing process. —Joshua K. Swift, PhD Idaho State University, Pocatello

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