Date of Award
12-1-2017
Degree Name
Master of Science
Department
Behavior Analysis and Therapy
First Advisor
Dixon, Mark
Abstract
The study examined how individuals make decisions on hypothetical sexual partners and hypothetical monetary rewards in delay and probability discounting. The participants (N-75, males=42 (M=34) and females=33(M=39)) completed an electronic survey via Qualtrics. The survey consisted of 6 tasks: 1. Multiple Stimulus without Replacement Preference Assessment that consisted of pictures of potential sex partners based on the individual’s gender preference (male, female, or both); 2. Sexual Risk Survey; 3. Monetary delay discounting task; 4. Monetary probability discounting task; 5. Delay discounting of hypothetical sexual partners; and 6. Probability discounting of hypothetical sexual partners. An analysis of area under the curve (AUC) were done for the discounting tasks. The results showed that males devalued delayed sexual partner choice rank higher rates than females (t (7.97) = 2.85, p<0.05). This was also observed in females with higher scores of the Sexual Risk Survey than the lower scorers (t (10.95) = 2.35, p<0.05). AUC reflected on the scores of the SRS and with measures of sexual risk behaviours. However, there were no significant difference in discounting monetary rewards between the genders (t (11.96) = 0.1623, p>0.05).
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