Development and validation of a measure of sexual motivation

该项目的主要目标是发展和验证一套评估性动机的措施。所采用的测量方法根植于性动机的激励理论，强调性激励对激活旨在获得性满足的中心动机状态的效力。它基于一个效度概念，即需要证据来证明属性对其测量的因果关系，并基于对想象图片故事的分析，在动机科学中成功地应用了这一原则。该项目的具体目标是：(1)基于内容编码和自动文本分析开发性需求的图片-故事度量（nSex）；(2)发展一套适合故事情节的图画；(3)确定nSex措施的可靠性（编码间、复测、图片/响应概况）；(4)测试nSex测量对动机核心现象（注意、情感、心理生理和激素、联想学习、工具性学习/行为、日常生活中性活动频率及其与情绪幸福感的关联）的预测效度；(5)检验其收敛效度和判别效度。一项初步实验（研究1）的结果表明，色情刺激的启动导致图片故事中表达的动机意象发生明显变化。在项目的第一阶段，三个实验性唤醒程序——启动、电影和录音——将用于性动机的接近和回避方面的唤醒（研究2-6）。它对故事内容的影响，客观和主观的情感测量，以及生理测量将被检查。在确定所有研究中一致出现的图像和标记词之后，结果的内容编码和文本分析工具将用于项目的第二阶段，该阶段使用图片故事nSex方法来评估性动机的性格方面。研究7将使用眼动追踪来检验非性行为和对色情刺激的注意导向之间的关系。研究8将研究中性刺激和情色刺激之间的关联形成过程中nSex的作用。研究9着眼于非性在性刺激的行为偏好和性刺激不同强化的刺激-反应序列的内隐学习中的作用。研究10是一项纵向设计的实地研究（1个月），参与者被给予两次图片故事性测量（女性：一次在卵泡期，一次在黄体期），提供三份唾液样本用于评估性腺激素，并每两天报告一次他们的情绪健康和性活动。新的nSex测量的收敛效度和判别效度将通过与性动机的自我报告测量、人格特征测量和其他动机的内容编码测量的比较来确定。

The main goal of this project is the development and validation of a set of measures for the assessment of sexual motivation. The measurement approach employed is rooted in incentive-theory accounts of sexual motivation that emphasize the potency of sexual incentives for activating a central motive state aimed at obtaining sexual satisfaction. It is based on a concept of validity that requires evidence for a causal effect of an attribute on its measure and successful applications of this principle in motivation science based on the analysis of imaginative picture stories. The specific objectives of the project are: (1) Development of picture-story measures of the need for sex (nSex) based on content-coding and automated text analysis; (2) development of a suitable picture set for eliciting stories; (3) determination of the reliability (inter-coder, retest, picture/response profile) of the nSex measures; (4) testing the predictive validity of the nSex measures for core phenomena of motivation (attention, affect, psychophysiology and hormones, associative learning, instrumental learning/behavior, frequency of sexual activity in daily life and its association with emotional well-being); (5) examining its convergent and discriminant validity. Findings from a pilot experiment (Study 1) show that priming with erotic stimuli leads to distinct changes in motivational imagery expressed in picture stories. In a first phase of the project, three experimental arousal procedures - priming, movies, and audio recordings - will be used for the arousal of approach and avoidance aspects of sexual motivation (Studies 2-6). Its effects on story content, objective and subjective measures of affect, and measures of physiology will be examined. After identifying imagery and marker words that emerge consistently across all studies, the resulting content-coding and text analysis tools will be used in the second phase of the project, which uses picture-story nSex measures to assess dispositional aspects of sexual motivation. Study 7 will use eye tracking to examine the association between nSex and attentional orienting to erotic stimuli. Study 8 will examine the role of nSex in the forming of associations between neutral stimuli and erotic stimuli. Study 9 looks at the role of nSex in behavioral preferences for erotic stimuli and implicit learning of stimulus-response sequences differentially reinforced by erotic stimuli. Study 10 is a field study with a longitudinal design (1 month) in which participants are administered the picture-story nSex measures twice (women: once in follicular, once in luteal phase), provide three saliva samples for the assessment of gonadal steroids, and report every two days on their emotional well-being and sexual activity. Convergent and discriminant validity of the new nSex measures will be determined via comparison to self-report measures of sexual motivation, measures of personality traits, and content-coding measures of other motives.