Implicit and explicit mechanisms in crack cocaine and sex trade association

描述(由申请人提供)：以前的研究表明，强效可卡因依赖经常与参与毒品和/或金钱的性交易有关。文化、社会和经济因素使女性强效可卡因吸毒者特别容易受到这种做法的影响，因此，感染艾滋病毒的风险增加。强效可卡因滥用妇女中艾滋病流行的升级证明有必要进行研究，以更好地了解强效可卡因滥用与性交易之间的关系的机制。 这种联系引发了自愿自我毁灭、甚至危及生命的行为的悖论。挑战在于理解为什么人们继续从事他们知道会伤害他们的行为，尽管他们试图不这样做。这项拟议的研究表明，造成这种悖论的一个机制是，在毒品使用的背景下，关于参与性交易的显性和隐性评估与行为意图之间的分离。具体地说，虽然强效可卡因吸毒者可能会报告对性交易的负面感受和未来避免它的行为意图，但在隐性层面上，这种做法仍然与获得毒品的目标呈正相关。因此，一旦这样的目标被语境因素激活(通过线索条件的渴望)，这种激活将自动激活行为表征和结果行动(参与性交易的倾向)，使目标导向的行为在缺乏有意识的意图和控制的情况下发生。建议的研究目标 以120名目前正在接受住宅药物滥用治疗的强效可卡因吸毒者为样本，研究这一机制的运作与性别(女性与男性)、既往参与性行为交换(存在与不参与)和认知诱导的药物渴求(存在与不参与)的关系。本研究采用理论和方法相结合的研究方法，强调动机作为认知及其内隐本质。这种方法提供了一个概念背景和具体的调查技术，以评估可卡因/可卡因滥用和危险性行为之间潜在的关系，这些性行为可能 很容易被有意识的内省捕获，或者不容易被控制，但它们仍然影响着行为。对这种机制的经验支持可以为现有的干预措施提供信息，从而有助于缓和这些自动机制。此外，旨在直接修改内隐认知过程的新技术(例如，通过评价性条件作用)可以发展成物质滥用。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Previous research has showed that crack cocaine dependencies frequently associated with engagement in sex exchange for drugs and/or money. Cultural, social and economical factors make female crack cocaine users particularly vulnerable to such practices and, as a consequence, to increased risk for HIV. The escalation of the AIDS epidemic among crack cocaine abusing women justifies the need for research to better understand the mechanism underlying the relationship between crack cocaine abuse and sex trade. This association raises the paradox of voluntarily self-destructive, even life-threatening behaviors. The challenge is to understand why people continue to engage in such behaviors that they know will harm them, despite their attempts not to do so. The proposed research suggests that one mechanism responsible for such paradox is the dissociation between the explicit and implicit evaluations and behavioral intentions regarding engagement in sex trade in the context of drug use. Specifically, while crack cocaine users may report negative feelings toward sex trade and behavioral intentions to avoid it in the future, on the implicit level, such practice remains positively related to the goal of obtaining the drug. Consequently, once such goal is activated by contextual factors (though a cue-conditioned craving), this activation will automatically activate behavioral representations and resultant action (tendency to engage in sex trade) enabling the goal directed behavior to occur in the absence of conscious intentions and control. The proposed research aims to investigate the operation of such mechanism in a sample of 120 crack cocaine users currently enrolled in residential substance abuse treatment as a function of gender (female vs. male), previous involvement in sex exchange (present vs. absent) and cognitively induced drug craving (present vs. absent). The research adopts a theoretical and methodological approach that emphasizes motivation as cognition and its implicit nature. Such approach offers a conceptual background and specific investigation techniques to asses those processes underlying the relationship between crack/cocaine abuse and risky sexual behavior that may not be readily captured by conscious introspection or cannot easily be controlled, but they nevertheless influence behavior. Empirical support for such mechanism may inform existing interventions which could help to moderate these automatic mechanisms. In addition, new techniques aimed directly at modifying implicit cognitive processes (e .g. through evaluative conditioning) in substance abuse may be developed.