Judgments of vulnerability to pregnancy: The role of risk factors
and individual differences.
Meg Gerrard, C. A. Elizabeth Luus
(1995) Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 21,
160-171.
This study explored women’s integration of information in making
judgments about vulnerability to pregnancy and examined the influence of
personality characteristics on these judgments. Female participants made
judgments of the likelihood of pregnancy for each of 24 scenarios created by
within-subjects factorial manipulation of three variables: frequency of
intercourse, method of contraception, and target (self vs. the average woman
their age). Their judgments reflected knowledge of the effect of frequency of
intercourse and efficacy of birth control on the likelihood of pregnancy and an
understanding of the interaction of these two factors. The results also
indicate that two personality characteristics, erotophobia and locus of
control, moderate judgments of the likelihood of pregnancy.