New research uncovers link between perfectionism and pain

Murdoch University

Facebook

XLinkedInWeChatBlueskyMessageWhatsAppEmail

A little self-compassion can go a long way when you have chronic pain, according to a new study out of Murdoch University. 

The research found that psychological factors may play a crucial role in the experience and management of chronic pain. 

Dr Graeme Ditchburn, from Murdoch University’s School of Psychology, said the study showed that chronic pain was associated with significantly higher levels of perfectionism, and reduced levels of self-compassion.  

“We undertook this study because although the association between stress and pain is recognised, little is known about links between chronic pain and stress arising from perfectionist expectations,” Dr Ditchburn said.  

The study took place in two-parts, involving 531 participants aged 18 to 65 years who had reported a chronic pain condition for longer than three months, which was non-cancerous and not the result of a still-healing, recent-wound tissue - and 515 individuals who reported no pain condition.  

The most prevalent pain conditions of study participants were back pain, migraine and arthritis.  

“Chronic pain sufferers may experience frustration with difficulties performing day-to-day activities and push themselves toward unrealistic or unachievable goals,” he said.   

“Furthermore, they may also feel that others have expectations that are difficult to meet. 

“Self-compassion may reflect fear of judgment or self-criticism, perceiving the pain condition and the burden caused by this condition as their own fault. These also have negative implications for perceptions of self-efficacy or self-belief in one’s capacity. 

In turn, these have both direct and indirect associations with stress, which has negative consequences for physical and mental health.” 

“Our findings suggest that interventions aimed at increasing self-compassion and addressing perfectionistic tendencies may be beneficial for individuals experiencing chronic pain.”  

The physical and psychological impact of a condition on an individual may vary depending on the type and number of pain conditions, so researchers suggest future studies explore whether the type of condition and degree of impairment (as perceived by the individual and others) is associated with perfectionism, self-compassion and self-efficacy.  

The full study Perfectionism, self-compassion, and general self-efficacy between those with and without chronic pain, can be found in Psychology and Health journal.    

---

Journal

Psychology and Health

DOI

10.1080/08870446.2025.2552227 

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Perfectionism, self-compassion, and general self-efficacy between those with and without chronic pain

 

Media imagery of home care reinforces the narrative of older adults as a burden

University of Eastern Finland

LinkedInWeChatBlueskyMessageWhatsAppEmail

Home care for older adults has received considerable attention in the Finnish media in recent years. Conducted at the University of Eastern Finland, a recent study found that newspaper images of home care tend to paint a picture of efficient care workers in a hectic work environment, while portraying older clients as passive recipients of care.

“Our observations are highly consistent with previous studies on the everyday realities of home care, and this is why newspaper images can be interpreted as reflecting the current state of home care. However, these images and the perceptions they create also shape people’s behaviour and thinking, which is why it’s important to critically assess them,” University Lecturer Hanna Ristolainen notes.

The study constitutes part of the Old-age Social Exclusion in Home Care – Prevalence, Meanings & Intervention project, SOLDEX, which explored the well-being, daily lives and challenges faced by older home care clients.
 

Newspaper images paint a picture of older adults’ vulnerability and loneliness

The media plays an important role in shaping people’s perceptions of various issues and demographic groups, Associate Professor of Social Psychology Jari Martikainen says and continues:

“The perceptions created by newspaper images can influence what gets get prioritised in policy-making, for example.”

The study examined perceptions created by newspaper images of home care, and of older adults in need of care. Home care was often portrayed as an efficient service and care workers as active people with agency, while older adults were mostly depicted as passive and lonely recipients of care.

Images portraying home care as something that is based on an equal relationship, or showing clients as content and thriving in their own homes, were notably less common in the data.

The data comprised 95 images published in Finnish newspapers in 2022 and 2023. The images were analysed using visual rhetorical analysis.
 

Institutionalised and routine-oriented nature of home care is reflected in the imagery

The findings also reflect a shift in home care and its becoming increasingly institutionalised and routine-oriented, which easily loses sight of the fundamental nature of home care as individual care in a familiar environment.

Professor Elisa Tiilikainen, who led the recently concluded SOLDEX project, notes that a system-first approach has long prevailed in the political discourse around services for older adults, with resources seen as the primary concern.

“Less attention is given to the actual needs of older adults and how best to meet them. The most important thing, i.e., older people, tend to be forgotten.”

According to the researchers, the media imagery surrounding home care and the perceptions it creates can influence decision-making related to the care and services provided to older adults. Problems arise when this imagery reinforces a resource-oriented narrative and sidelines perspectives related to dignified and high-quality care.

Negative perceptions and narratives about home care clients may also affect older adults’ beliefs of how others view them. Many older home care clients have major needs for care, and portraying them as an economic and societal burden may further undermine their chances of receiving adequate assistance in their daily lives.

The SOLDEX project was funded by the Research Council of Finland.

---

Journal

International Journal of Ageing and Later Life

DOI

10.3384/ijal.1652-8670.5623 

Article Title

Images of formal home care in Finnish newspapers – a social representations approach.

 

New light on conservation of dark biodiversity in rainforests

University of Turku

Facebook

XLinkedInWeChatBlueskyMessageWhatsAppEmail

 

image: 

Xanthephialtes schoutedeni is a large-sized Afrotropical parasitoid wasp species.

view more 

Credit: Kari Kaunisto, Biodiversity Unit of the University of Turku

Scientists at the Biodiversity Unit of the University of Turku, Finland, looked at the insect biodiversity of Kibale National Park in Uganda. A study based on long-term collecting gives new information that is useful for conserving dark biodiversity, showing how the diversity is distributed in different habitats.

Dark taxa and dark biodiversity refer to biodiversity which is poorly known or unknown, and is thus often hard to take into account in conservation efforts. Most of the Earth's species are still unknown to science, which makes it hard to stop biodiversity loss. Dark taxa are especially common in tropical forests; in habitats whose species diversity, structural diversity and functional diversity are still poorly known.

The Biodiversity Unit of the University of Turku specialises in studying unknown global biodiversity and biodiversity loss. Numerous new species are discovered every year by the unit's scientists, and the unit develops new methods for slowing down the ongoing loss of global biodiversity. Active locations of interest include the tropical forests of Africa and Amazonia, both of which are threatened by human activity. The biodiversity of both areas is still poorly known, making it hard to conserve the species effectively.

A recent study looked at the biodiversity of parasitoid wasps in Kibale National Park in Uganda. Parts of the forest at Kibale have been influenced by human activity during the past decades, while other parts are largely undisturbed.

Ichneumonid wasps are one of the most diverse animal taxa on Earth. They regulate other species by parasitising immature insects and spiders. The study focused on the subfamily Pimplinae.

”Ichneumonids are a very poorly known taxon in Africa – we estimate that over half of the species we found are new to science. Since there was very little known about tropical ichneumonids, we started looking at the conservation of these wasps by looking at how their diversity is distributed in different habitats. Our results clearly show that African forest, including forest that is recovering from logging, maintains a species rich Pimplinae fauna compared to, say, nearby farmland. Species rich habitats can be considered especially valuable in conserving unknown dark biodiversity,” says Doctoral Researcher Emil Österman from the Biodiversity Unit of the University of Turku.

Parasitoid wasps occupy a high position in food webs, which makes them vulnerable to biodiversity loss. Disturbances at lower levels of the food web carry over to parasitoid wasp diversity and threat levels. This makes Pimplinae suitable as indicators of biodiversity; changes in their species richness and abundances reflect those of other taxa.

“Many of our finds weren't unexpected, but we didn't have data based on long-term collecting in the field. Now we can tell in greater detail how many more species there are in natural forest, and to what extent disturbed or logged tropical forest can harbour species. This is useful information for conservation efforts in the Afrotropics,” says Doctor Tapani Hopkins from the Biodiversity Unit of the University of Turku.

The study also looked at how the African biodiversity compares to that of tropical forest in the New World. The Biodiversity Unit's scientists have previously obtained similar material based on long-term collecting in western Amazonia and the coastal forest of Brazil.

“Conserving dark taxa effectively requires a detailed knowledge of how biodiversity is distributed, both locally and at a global scale. Our research suggests that Pimplinae may have the highest species richness in the South American rainforest areas, but African forest also maintains a rich fauna. We will continue our field studies at different tropical forest sites, because that is where biodiversity is disappearing especially quickly. It is a fight against time. When rainforest is destroyed, we loss countless species which we know nothing about,” says Professor Ilari E. Sääksjärvi from the Biodiversity Unit of the University of Turku.

The study was carried out as part of the Sustainability Transformation Doctoral Education Pilot (SusTra), funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture and the Research Council of Finland. The study was also funded by the Alfred Kordelin Foundation, the Entomological Society of Finland, the Finnish Cultural Foundation, Oskar Öflunds Stiftelse, Svensk-Österbottniska Samfundet, and Waldemar von Frenckells stiftelse.

The results were published in the scientific journal Insect Conservation and Diversity. The research article is available at: https://resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/icad.70017

Tropical rain forest in Kibale. The tent-like structure is a Malaise trap, which is used in entomological field research.

Credit

Tapani Hopkins, Biodiversity Unit of the University of Turku

Journal

Insect Conservation and Diversity

DOI

10.1111/icad.70017 

Article Title

Local species richness of parasitoid wasps (Ichneumonidae: Pimplinae) in Afrotropical forest: Conservation perspectives

Article Publication Date

8-Sep-2025

 

Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT launches project with Global Methane Hub to develop a decision support tool for grazing management to cut livestock emissions

The Time2Graze project will develop and equip farmers in Latin America with tools that assess pasture availability to identify the optimal time to graze livestock

The Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture

Facebook

XLinkedInWeChat
WhatsAppEmail

 

image: 

The Time2Graze project will develop and equip farmers in Latin America with tools that assess pasture availability to identify the optimal time to graze livestock 

view more 

Credit: CIAT/Isabela Salazar

Palmira, Valle del Cauca, September 10, 2025. The livestock sector is a critical component of global agriculture, supporting the livelihoods of millions of people and contributing to food and nutrition security. However, it is also a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, particularly methane, which has a global warming potential significantly higher than carbon dioxide. A promising nature-based solution lies in forages, which, in addition to being the primary source of livestock feed, have the potential to attain substantial reductions in methane emissions per kilogram of protein produced when sustainable grazing management practices are applied.  

To harness this opportunity, the initiative Time2Graze has been launched. Supported by the Global Methane Hub, the project aims to co-develop seven country-specific decision support systems (DSS) for grazing management in the American tropics. In Colombia and Brazil, this tool is going to be developed by the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, to improve access to timely and reliable pasture information, enabling farmers to make better grazing decisions, increase livestock productivity, and reduce methane emissions intensity.  

"With Time2Graze, we are bringing together Earth Observation data, pasture models, and producer knowledge into one decision support system. This means providing real-time alerts and predictive forecasts that help livestock producers manage grazing intensity more effectively,”

said Dr. Juan Andrés Cardoso, Plant eco-physiologist with expertise in remote sensing and human centered design at the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT. 

In its initial phase, the DSS will focus on two key tropical forages for the region: Urochloa (syn. Brachiaria) and Megathyrsus (syn. Panicum) grasses. To ensure the tool is effective in guiding the management of these forages and recognizing the diversity of livestock systems across the Global South, the DSS will be co-designed with end users through a process that engages local public and private organizations representing producers in each country. This participatory approach will help make the tool practical and accessible for a wide range of users, from smallholders to large-scale ranchers.  

By combining local partnerships with innovative technologies, the project aims to accelerate the adoption of sustainable grazing practices across Latin America’s tropical regions. Decision-support tools, together with multistakeholder platforms, will not only close critical data gaps at the farm level but also align global agendas and investments around a shared pathway toward more resilient and climate-smart livestock systems. 

 

Researchers pinpoint exact pace that helps nightingales on long journey

Lund University

Facebook

XLinkedInWeChatBlueskyMessageWhatsAppEmail

 

image: 

The bird in the wind tunnel at Lund University

view more 

Credit: Animal Flight Lab, Lund University

A new study from Lund University in Sweden shows that migratory birds fly at peak efficiency at a medium pace – precisely the speed they use during their long journeys across the continents.

Now, at the end of the summer, when the thrush nightingales leave Europe for southern Africa, they do not fly at full speed. Instead they maintain an even pace – and according to a new study from Lund University, this is no coincidence.

Migratory birds spend hundreds of hours in the air. Up to now, the researchers have assumed that the efficiency of converting energy into flight power was constant regardless of the speed. Using wind tunnel experiments involving nightingales, the researchers have now shown that this is not the case.

“We have discovered that the nightingales are not equally efficient at all speeds. Their efficiency is highest at an intermediate flying speed – approximately 7-8 metres per second – thus neither at very low nor very high speeds,” says Pablo Macías Torres, biology researcher at Lund University.

Previous models suggested that birds convert approximately 23 per cent of their metabolic energy – the energy the body releases from nutrients through the metabolic process – into flight. The new results show that the maximum value is closer to 15 per cent, and above all it depends on how fast the bird flies.

“Our study shows that the energy efficiency varies and reaches a maximum at an intermediate speed – so all speeds are quite simply not equally efficient,” says Pablo Macías Torres.

The new results not only give the researchers the best estimates yet of birds’ flight energetics but also help the researchers to construct more exact models of bird flight and explain how small birds are able to make their transcontinental journeys.

“Understanding birds’ flight efficiency helps us to assess the remarkable physiological adaptations that make it possible for birds to conquer the air and complete extraordinary long-distance flights, such as the nightingales’ impressive flight south,” says Pablo Macías Torres.

---

Journal

Current Biology

DOI

10.1016/j.cub.2025.05.025 

Article Title

Energy conversion efficiency peaks at intermediate flight speed in a migratory songbird

The wind tunnel

The nightingale

Credit

Animal Flight Lab, Lund University