Under the dominant biopsychosocial model, we understand pain as multidimensional and created by the confluence of biological, psychological, and social factors. Unfortunately, however, despite what the term "biopsychosocial" implies, our understanding of pain has in practice been disproportionately biological or physiological, with comparatively little understanding of the psychological and especially social or sociological factors that shape physical pain. In my dissertation, I use quantitative and computational methods to investigate psychosocial factors that create pain, addressing the role of mental health in the translation of pain stimuli into the lived experience of pain; using pain as a case study to understand how perceptions and internalizations of socioeconomic status, however divorced they are from reality, have real consequences for our health; and using interpersonal conflicts to understand how gender stereotypes and the sick role are mobilized to (de)legitimize pain within social relationships. Together, these papers advance a sociology of pain, contributing to our theoretical and empirical understanding of pain as a highly contextual phenomenon that extends far beyond the individual, reaching deep into every aspect of our everyday lives.
