Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Rochester. Department of Clinical and Social Sciences in Psychology, 2016.
People may be reluctant or unable to report their sexual desire for a partner, due to
concerns over the well-being of their relationships, impression management efforts, or
their own insecurity. The limitations of self-report measures of sexual desire may be
circumvented by use of an indirect measure of implicit desire. The purpose of this
research is to assess the predictive validity of an implicit measure of desire in three
studies. Study 1 examined whether implicit desire predicted sexual content in daydreams.
Implicit desire positively predicted themes of romance in men’s daydreams about their
partners, but it predicted no other daydream themes for either men or women. The goal of
Study 2 was to investigate whether implicit desire inoculates people in romantic
relationships against the allure of attractive non-partner targets. Implicit desire predicted
quicker attentional disengagement from attractive alternatives for women; however,
among men, higher implicit desire was associated with slower attentional disengagement
from attractive alternatives. In Study 3, I used a longitudinal, dyadic design to assess
whether implicit desire predicts various aspects of sexual satisfaction, desire, intimacy,
and orgasm in couples’ sex lives. Results indicated that people with higher implicit desire
experienced less difficulty with orgasm across time, and higher implicit desire was
associated with feeling more desire, arousal and intimacy during sex, and experiencing
less boredom during sex. Implicit desire also positively predicted being more responsive
to one’s partner during sex, perceiving that one’s partner was more responsive towards
one’s self during sex, and perceiving that one’s partner felt more desire and satisfaction
during sex.
