A self-regulatory perspective on human motivation and its implications for understanding adaptation to chronic pain

Abstract

Although a growing body of research and theory has sought to advance a motivational perspective on chronic pain, the precise meaning of motivation as a concept and the nature and functional characteristics of its component mechanisms remain controversial and articulated from diverse analytic perspectives. This paper has three main objectives: (1) to offer a detailed examination of directional motivation and the nature of motivational mechanisms and motivational contexts, (2) to summarize the structural and functional characteristics of goals and self-regulatory processes as viewed from a control theoretic framework, and (3) to address how an account of human motivation built upon the active pursuit of goals aided by self-regulatory support mechanisms can illuminate some of the core aspects of chronic pain adaptation and the processes underlying the acute to chronic pain transition.