Department of Clinical Psychological Science, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Limburg, The Netherlands.
Faculty of Medicine and Life Sciences, Hasselt University, Hasselt, Limburg, Belgium.
J Sex Med. 2021 Feb;18(2):303-314. doi: 10.1016/j.jsxm.2020.11.015. Epub 2020 Dec 30.
Self-regulation is an important process to explain sexual, emotional, and pain-related responses in the context of genital pain. Although highly relevant, self-regulatory focus theory is not well integrated into the literature on genital pain.
This study explored the impact of a promotion and prevention regulatory focus on genital pain responding. Sex would typically endorse a promotion focus, whereas pain during sex is likely to provoke a prevention focus oriented toward harm avoidance and safety.
We induced gradually increasing vaginal pressure in a sample of 56 women using an intra-vaginal balloon that simulated potentially painful vaginal sensations. Women were first primed with a promotion vs prevention focus by making them list their ideals vs responsibilities as a sexual partner. We measured trait regulatory focus, pleasant and painful vaginal pressure sensations, sexual arousal, expectations, and approach-avoidance motivational tendencies.
The effect of trait and state promotion and prevention regulatory focuses on the appraisal of vaginal pressure and sexual arousal.
When primed with a prevention compared with a promotion focus, women with a predominant prevention orientation reported less sexual arousal, less pleasant vaginal pressure appraisals, and lower approach tendencies regarding sexual stimuli. Women who experienced a match between their state and trait promotion focus appraised the vaginal pressure as less painful. No significant effects of regulatory focus were found on the expectancy measures.
We provided first evidence on self-regulatory motivation in the context of genital pain responses using an experimentally controlled laboratory design. Our sample was small and consisted of young students without (a clinical diagnosis of) genital pain, which limits our conclusions on the effect of promotion vs prevention regulation on genital pain responses.
Future research is needed to examine the clinical value of self-regulation and regulatory fit and to identify possible ways to target self-regulatory motivation in clinical interventions of genital pain.
Self-regulatory focus theory has clear potential to explain the sexual and motivational correlates of genital pain. Dewitte M and Kindermans H. Exploring the Effect of a Promotion and Prevention Regulatory Focus on Subjective Responses to Vaginal Sensations in a Laboratory Research Design. J Sex Med 2021;18:303-314.
自我调节是解释性、情感和与疼痛相关的反应的重要过程，尤其是在生殖器疼痛的情况下。尽管自我调节焦点理论非常相关，但它并未很好地融入到生殖器疼痛的文献中。
本研究探讨了促进和预防调节焦点对生殖器疼痛反应的影响。性通常会倾向于促进焦点，而性疼痛可能会引发以避免伤害和安全为导向的预防焦点。
我们使用模拟潜在疼痛阴道感觉的阴道内气球逐渐增加 56 名女性的阴道压力。首先通过让女性列出作为性伴侣的理想和责任来促进或预防关注。我们测量了特质调节焦点、愉快和疼痛的阴道压力感觉、性唤起、期望和接近回避动机倾向。
特质和状态促进和预防调节焦点对阴道压力和性唤起的评估的影响。
与促进焦点相比，当被预防焦点激发时，具有主要预防倾向的女性报告的性唤起较少，对阴道压力的评估较不愉快，对性刺激的接近倾向较低。那些经历了与他们的状态和特质促进焦点相匹配的女性将阴道压力评估为不那么痛苦。调节焦点对期望测量没有显著影响。
我们使用实验控制的实验室设计首次提供了关于生殖器疼痛反应背景下自我调节动机的证据。我们的样本很小，由没有（临床诊断为）生殖器疼痛的年轻学生组成，这限制了我们对促进与预防调节对生殖器疼痛反应的影响的结论。
需要进一步研究自我调节和调节适合度的临床价值，并确定在生殖器疼痛的临床干预中可能的目标自我调节动机的方法。
自我调节焦点理论具有解释生殖器疼痛的性和动机相关性的明显潜力。Dewitte M 和 Kindermans H. 在实验室研究设计中探索促进和预防调节焦点对阴道感觉主观反应的影响。J Sex Med 2021;18:303-314.
