Ted.......
Loudness is the quality of a sound that is the primary physiological correlate of physical strength (amplitude) as sensed by the individual. Therefore, unlike sound levels that can be objectively and accurately measured in physical terms expressed in decibels (dB), as a sensory input perceived by an individual’s ears, loudness is a subjective measure!
Pain is somewhat the same as
loudness, a very
subjective sensation.
Pain, in the sense of physical pain is a typical sensory experience that may be described as the unpleasant awareness of a potentially harmful stimulus such as heat, cold, pressure, etc.
Individuals perceive and express pain differently, so it to is a highly subjective measure.
A definition that is widely used was first given as early as 1968 by Margo McCaffery to describe pain in the following:
"Pain is whatever the person experiencing it says it is, existing whenever he says it does".
Bob Kipple went to a lot of effort and was very clever in the way he developed the Kip Scale. He developed it as a method of describing cluster headache pain levels that expresses the magnitude of the physical “stimulus” and “quantity” of pain in terms relative to a reaction to the pain rather than it’s specific acuteness and intensity or it’s exact location. He did this because he knew we each experience pain differently.
In a way, pain levels are almost logarithmic nature ( like the Richter scale) that enables a very large range of ratios to be represented by a convenient number in a manner similar to scientific notation. This allows one to clearly visualize huge changes of some quantity.
Now to the
CHANGES you have put in..... or to your subjective interpretation of the scale and pain, carving your experience onto stone.....
Original example from
Kip Scale
“Time to scream, yell, curse, head bang, rock, whatever work's”your interpretation and change
“Time to scream, yell, curse, head bang, rock, whatever work's
Pain is reaching an unbearable plateau. The burning sensation continues to intensify, and now feels as if the eye-ball is being pushed out from its socket. The pain to the cheek and jaw area now feels like a severe toothache!”you have taken the paradigm and put your experience to explain the “formula” and with that you have
limited the ability to adjust the scale to the individual perception….. I never experience toothache! or any cheek pain! but I do rock….. and I curse….. and
“HUG” MY O2 TANK……
with your “expansion” you try to
frame and
explain the level as seen trough your “glasses”
ignoring the possibility that for the same level some might experience
different sensations……..
And that is a change…. that is reinventing….. that is rewriting!!
I believe Bob Kipple was very claver and thoughtful by
staying away from
explaining pain or describing it, he rather used the
reaction to the pain.... in terms we all understand and can relate to.
Now to your some what questionable or poor use of words……
“Pain - relative? Please, give me a break here, huh?”
Pain is relative! you might possess some knowledge that most, or all of us
have missed, and I would love to get some insight to that knowledge…….
but until then pain is still very individual and very subjective, and there for
relative…….
In closing, I'd say the Kip-scale as Bob Kipple developed it is just fine and good enough. I say that because in many cases, better is the evil of good enough...
in trying to make it better, you may have fallen short.Michael
Home
Pages: 
