Implicit Attitudes and HIV Risk Behavior in Virtual Environments

描述(由申请人提供)：本提案的主要目的是纠正目前关于HIV性风险的研究中的局限性。以前的研究集中在对性危险行为的深思熟虑、基于信仰的态度上。然而，性环境是一个人对避孕套和艾滋病毒预防态度的系统检索可能往往微乎其微的情况的缩影。最近的研究(Marsh等人，2001,2005；Chuopp等人，2004)表明，在某些性行为背景下，内隐态度可以更好地预测行为。隐含性态度是一种评价性反应，它是由性情境中的暗示自动、毫不费力地唤起的，涉及的是感觉，而不是口头表达的想法。反应潜伏期方法，特别是计算机化的启动类型和隐性联想任务，被用来评估隐性避孕套的态度。隐性措施很有希望，在艾滋病毒风险领域产生了耐人寻味的结果，尽管不一致。这些不一致可能是由于评估行为的局限性造成的。为了解决这些局限性，在当前的研究中，我们使用沉浸式虚拟现实技术(VR)的尖端方法来测试关于隐含避孕套态度和冲动的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，我们建议通过测量人工情境中的内隐态度来解决理论和方法上的问题，并解决先前由“非具体化”的自我报告行为测量产生的矛盾的发现。一项定性研究首先验证了虚拟现实中的行为反应，并深入研究了虚拟现实过程的动态变化，比较了虚拟现实、角色扮演和书面情景引发的行为和心理反应。这项研究将在现场和大学实验室进行，参与者包括两个社区样本，并将包括风险暴露的生物伴随因素以进行验证。在城市、社区卫生服务场所和大学实验室进行的四项实验旨在测试导致冲动行为的个人、社会和环境因素。在每个实验中，都假设了态度的隐性测量，以预测参与者在冲动情况下的艾滋病毒风险相关反应，而不是显性的测量。相比之下，明确的、基于意图的言语态度主要应该解释低冲动情况下的行为。其中一个社会因素实验考察了涉及城市人口中拉美裔女性特有的文化风险因素的社会线索(伴侣动机)；类似的线索也在非拉美裔样本中进行了检验。另外两个实验室和现场实验将检验这一假设，即改变内隐态度将改变虚拟现实中的冲动反应，并验证虚拟现实中的反应预测随后在虚拟现实之外的风险相关行为。 公共卫生相关性：该项目侧重于影响艾滋病毒传播的过程：隐含的态度和冲动的情景线索。使用新颖的、身临其境的和“具体化”的虚拟现实技术，目前的实验试图更好地描绘出隐含的态度作为艾滋病毒风险相关行为的先兆。由于冲动往往与艾滋病毒风险相关行为有关，因此很难使用自我报告措施来评估此类行为。如果成功，开发的方法将提供重要的新方法，评估和减少在影响特别困难的情况下与艾滋病毒风险有关的行为，但对减少艾滋病毒和其他性传播感染的传播却是绝对关键的。

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.