Implicit Attitudes and HIV Risk Behavior in Virtual Environments

描述（由申请人提供）：本提案的总体目的是纠正目前对艾滋病毒性风险研究的局限性。以前的研究集中在审议，信仰为基础的态度，对性风险行为。然而，在性环境中，系统地恢复一个人对避孕套和艾滋病毒预防的态度往往是最小的。最近的研究（Marsh等人，2001，2005; Czopp等人，2004）表明，在某些性环境中，行为更好地预测了内隐态度。内隐性态度是一种评价性的反应，它是在性情境中由线索自动地、毫不费力地唤起的，涉及感觉而不是口头表达的想法。反应潜伏期方法，特别是计算机启动型和内隐联想任务，用于评估内隐安全套态度。隐性措施有很大的希望，并在艾滋病毒风险领域产生了有趣但不一致的结果。这些不一致可能是评估行为的局限性造成的。为了解决这些局限性，在目前的研究中，我们使用沉浸式虚拟现实技术（VR）的尖端方法来测试关于内隐安全套态度与冲动的HIV风险相关性行为之间关系的关键理论预测。在这样做的过程中，我们建议解决理论和方法上的问题，测量内隐态度在人为的背景下，并解决以前的矛盾结果所造成的“非体现”的自我报告行为的措施。一项定性研究首先验证VR中的行为反应，并深入研究VR过程的障碍，比较VR，角色扮演和书面场景引起的行为和心理反应。该研究将在实地和大学实验室进行，参与者包括两个社区样本，并将包括用于验证的风险暴露的生物伴随物。在城市，社区卫生服务网站和大学实验室进行了四个实验，旨在测试个人，社会和环境因素，提示冲动行为。在每一个实验中，假设态度的内隐测量可以预测参与者在冲动情况下的HIV风险相关反应，而不是外显测量。相反，外显的、基于意图的可言语表达的态度主要应该解释在低冲动情况下的行为.社会因素的实验之一，探讨社会线索，涉及文化风险因素独特的拉丁美洲妇女在城市人口（合作伙伴的动机）;类似的线索，在非拉丁裔样本进行了检查。另外两个实验室和现场实验将测试假设，即改变内隐态度将改变虚拟现实中的冲动反应，并验证VR中的反应预测VR之外的后续风险相关行为。 公共卫生相关性：该项目侧重于影响艾滋病毒传播的过程：内隐态度和冲动的情境线索。使用新颖的，沉浸式的和“体现”的虚拟现实技术，目前的实验试图更好地描绘内隐态度作为艾滋病毒风险相关行为的前兆。由于冲动往往与艾滋病毒风险相关的行为有关，这种行为很难用自我报告的方法进行评估。如果成功的话，所开发的方法将提供重要的新方法来评估和减少艾滋病毒风险相关的行为，特别是在具有挑战性的影响，但绝对是至关重要的减少艾滋病毒和其他性传播感染的传播。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The overarching purpose of this proposal is to redress limitations in current research on HIV sexual risk. Previous research focuses on deliberative, belief-based attitudes toward sexual risk behaviors. Sexual contexts, however, epitomize situations in which systematic retrieval of one's attitudes toward condoms and HIV prevention might often be minimal. Recent research (Marsh et al., 2001, 2005; Czopp et al., 2004) suggests that in some sexual contexts behavior is better predicted by implicit attitudes. Implicit sexual attitudes are evaluative responses that are automatically and effortlessly evoked by cues in a sexual situation and involve feelings rather than verbally articulated thoughts. Response latency methods, specifically computerized priming-type and implicit association tasks, are used to assess implicit condom attitudes. Implicit measures have great promise and have yielded intriguing, though inconsistent, results in the area of HIV risk. These inconsistencies may be a result of limitations in assessing behavior. To address these limitations, in the current research, we use cutting-edge methods of immersive virtual reality technology (VR) to test key theoretical predictions about the relation between implicit condom attitudes and impulsive HIV risk-related sexual behavior. In doing so, we propose to resolve theoretical and methodological problems with measuring implicit attitudes in artificial contexts and resolve previous contradictory findings resulting from "unembodied" self- report behavior measures. One qualitative study serves to first validate behavioral responses in VR and examine the dyamics of VR processes in-depth, comparing behavioral and psychological responses elicited by VR, role-playing, and written scenarios. The study will be conducted at field sites and in university laboratories with participants that include two community samples, and will include biological concomitants of risk exposure included for validation. Four experiments conducted at an urban, community health service site and in university laboratories are designed to test the personal, social, and environmental factors that cue impulsive behavior. In each experiment, implicit measures of attitudes are hypothesized to predict participants' HIV risk- related responses in impulsive situations over and above explicit measures. In contrast, explicit, intention- based verbalizable attitudes predominantly should explain behavior in low impulsivity situations. One of the social factors experiments examines social cues involving cultural risk factors unique to Latina women in an urban population (partner motives); similar cues are examined in a non-Latina sample. Two additional laboratory and field experiments will test the hypothesis that changing implicit attitudes will change impulsive responses in virtual reality, and validate that responses in VR predict subsequent risk-related behavior outside of VR. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This project focuses on processes that impact the spread of HIV: implicit attitudes, and situational cues to impulsivity. Using novel, immersive and "embodied" virtual reality technology, the current experiments attempt to better delineate implicit attitudes as precursors to HIV risk-related behavior. Because of the impulsivity that is often linked to HIV risk-related behavior, such behavior can be difficult to assess with self-report measures. If successful, the methods developed would offer important new ways of assessing and reducing HIV risk-related behavior in contexts that are particularly challenging to impact, and yet absolutely crucial for reducing the spread of HIV and other STIs.