Perspectives on Psychological Science

The Measurement of Pleasure and Pain

Linda Bartoshuk

Volume 9, Issue 1 | January 2014

https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691613512660

Abstract

Pleasure and pain are among our most salient experiences, and we want to know how our pleasures and pains stack up against those of others. Older psychophysical methods fail to provide valid comparisons of pleasure and pain across individuals or groups. We are making progress in measurement, but we still have a ways to go.

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