Cold Pressor Testing: Strengths And Weaknesses

While the experiment was indeed fascinating to watch, several strengths and weaknesses existed in the research. In the beginning of the episode, Adam and Jamie went to Stanford University to look for a suitable measure for pain tolerance. They were introduced to four standard measures of pain, including extreme heat, capsaicin injection, electricity, and cold pressor test by Dr. Chu, who specialize in pain. After testing out themselves, the hosts of the show chose the cold pressor test (Rees, 2010). Thus, the measurement selected for the experiment is reliable, as it is approved by specialist. While Adam and Jamie were operating the experiment, they agreed about the behavior of the participant, such as pulling their hand out, or expressing pain through verbalization; thus, the experiment had interrater reliability (Cozby, & Bates, 2011). …show more content…
Only one item was used; therefore, it was impossible to know if the experiment had internal reliability. Nevertheless, there existed problem with the cold pressor test. A study had shown that due to the differences in the temperature of the ice water, the test lack standardization (Mitchell, 2004). In the MythsBuster experiment, the participants all put their hand in the same ice bowl, and the water was described as slightly above freezing temperature. Since the ice melted in contact with heat from the hands, the people performed the procedure later might experience a higher temperature compare to those prior to them. In order to rule out this explanation, Jamie designed the ice bath to remain a degree of 1