Who is the “Self” in Self Reports of Sexual Satisfaction? Research and Policy Implications

Federal policies that guide clinical trial design exert an often unseen influence in people’s lives. Taking a closer look
at the US Food and Drug Administration’s guidance in the field of female sexual dysfunction, this paper examines how sexual
satisfaction is increasingly used to guide clinical interventions; however, questions remain about the social psychological
qualities of this appraisal. The current mixed methods study pairs interview data with close-ended measures of sexual satisfaction
in order to examine the cognitive and interpersonal strategies individuals used when they were asked to assess their own sexual
satisfaction (N = 41). While researchers often assume that responses in self-report measures are reflections of an intra-individual reflective
process, findings demonstrated that women and sexual minority men often reported on their partner’s sexual satisfaction instead
of their own. Taking up the question of who is the “self” in self-reports of sexual satisfaction, this study explores the
clinical, research, and policy implications of relying on sexual satisfaction as a meaningful indicator of change or well-being
in an individual’s life.