How is one’s experience of self-directed disgust influenced when their values are violated?

Beck, Bibi (2023) How is one’s experience of self-directed disgust influenced when their values are violated? Master thesis, Psychology.

Text Master Thesis_Bibi Beck_S3573044_How is one�s experience of self-directed disgust influenced when their values are violated.pdf Download (821kB)

Abstract

Earlier research has found that the presence of self-directed disgust may result in adverse outcomes for both one’s mental health and sexual functioning. Brouwer et al. (2023) found that various sex-related scenarios elicited pathogen, moral, and sexual self-directed disgust in female participants as measured by subjective self-disgust measures and urge to wash. The current study serves as a replication and expansion of this research, aiming to address some of its limitations and also garner new perspectives. A notable expansion of this study is the inclusion of males, and the investigation into whether transgression of one’s personal values and moral systems induces moral self-directed disgust. It is theorised that the three disgust pathways will elicit self-directed disgust, and that one will experience heightened moral self- directed disgust when their values are violated somehow. A cross-sectional within-subjects mixed gender sample (N = 72) was employed. Participants imagined themselves in eleven experimental sex-related moral, sexual, and pathogen scenarios, and imagined others in eleven matching control scenarios. Following each scenario, participants were asked to rate their subjective self-directed disgust level, urge to wash, and ability to imagine and relate to the presented scenarios. Personal values were assessed using a self-report questionnaire. A two-way repeated measures of variance and correlational analysis were conducted for each gender. The results demonstrated that the sex-related scenarios elicited all three types of self- directed disgust in both genders. A moderate to low ability to imagine and relate to the scenarios was reported. Additionally, transgression of one’s moral values led to a significant increase in moral self-directed disgust among female participants, while this effect was not observed among male participants. These results provide support for previous research, and present implications for related interventions targeting adverse sexual functioning.

Item Type:	Thesis (Master)
Supervisor name:	Borg, C. and Frey, M.I.
Degree programme:	Psychology
Differentiation route:	Clinical Forensic Psychology and Victimology (FP) [Master Psychology]
Date Deposited:	16 Jan 2024 15:36
Last Modified:	16 Jan 2024 15:36
URI:	http://gmwpublic.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/2983

Actions (login required)

View Item