Theoretical Assumptions on Pornography Problems Due to Moral Incongruence and Mechanisms of Addictive or Compulsive Use of Pornography: Are the Two “Conditions” as Theoretically Distinct as Suggested?

Evaluating Pornography Problems Due to Moral Incongruence Model

“…However, as a consequence, the current conceptualization of the PPMI model places all dysregulation-related factors (such as emotion dysregulation, impulsivity, coping, compulsivity) into one general and unspecified category and abstains from depicting mechanisms of influence between these variables, ascribing them differential degrees of importance or depicting relations between dysregulation-related variables and moral incongruenceerelated variables. Such relations have been proposed by others 16,22 and are also visible in our analysis, as avoidant coping was connected to moral incongruenceerelated distress (r ¼ 0.21, P < .001) possibly indicating that avoidant coping strategies can serve as a way of dealing with moral incongruence. As the PPMI model was initially validated in the present study, we postulate that it should be extended and possibly reshaped into an even more ambitious, general model in which dysregulation-related variables will be treated with the same degree of carefulness as morality-related ones.…”

“…However, such self-labels are important as they may lead to self-stigmatization, 32 distress, or treatment seeking. 3,25 As the way in which "self-perceived addiction" is operationalized has generated some controversy (for a discussion, refer to the study by Brand et al, 16 Grubbs et al, 26,31 and Fernandez et al 33 ), we propose that it is most clearly operationalized as we have described previously. That is, selfperceived addiction is best described as a mental act of self-inclusion within a group of addicts, the measurement of which is not necessarily based on quantitative self-description of behavioral symptoms (such as frequency of use, difficulty abstaining, emotional distress, using pornography as a coping mechanism, or craving).…”

“…This has also been pointed out by other researchers. 16 This path should be delineated with more detail and extended. In their initial proposition of the model, Grubbs et al 3 focused on moral incongruenceerelated factors describing the dysregulation path with less detail.…”

“…These 2 branches of research should not and cannot develop separately because of their possible mutual influence. 16,22 Because of this interdependence, the shape of the moral incongruence path cannot be definitively established when the dysregulation-related side of the model is underdeveloped.…”

Self-identification as a pornography addict: examining the roles of pornography use, religiousness, and moral incongruence

“…This stands somewhat in contrast to prior works in clinical samples have found that time spent viewing pornography is not often a driving factor in seeking help for pornography-related problems (Kraus et al, 2016). As such, the results of our analyses suggest that clinical encounters with self-identified pornography addicts should be approached with a careful examination of both objective behavior patterns (i.e., use, disruption, consequences) and subjective experiences of one's own use (i.e., moral incongruence, guilt, shame), in order to help determine the proper focus and direction of clinical care (for further recommendations, see: Brand, Antons, Wegmann, & Potenza, 2018;Grubbs, Perry, et al, 2018;Kraus & Sweeney, 2018) Just emotional distress?…”