Dr. de Jong,
RE: https://wcu.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_8jnilpePcTAv6Ml
I have deep reservations about your questionnaire, which was also posted on reddit/pornfree, and perhaps other porn-recovery forums. The first problem is that all the questions about porn use assume the person is currently using porn:
- When was the last time you intentionally viewed online pornography?
- How many times per month do you use online pornography, on average? For example: A person who uses online pornography once a day would enter 30.
- Approximately how much time do you spend using online pornography on the typical day? Please enter number of minutes (per day).
- When was the last time you intentionally viewed online pornography?
Asking about current use is completely inappropriate for a porn-recovery forum where many have stopped using or have drastically reduced their their porn use. The correlations between "levels of porn use" and any of your other questions or the CPUI-9 (which you used for some of your questions) must be considered invalid.
For example, many of Reboot Nation's members will score very low on "current levels of porn use," yet almost all will score very high on the CPUI-9 (which is below). This will be the same for many on porn-recovery forums.
If you use data taken from porn-recovery forums, your study will predictably "reveal" that those trying to quit only "believe they have a porn problem, but they really don't." Why is that? Because the subjects who use very little porn (on average) will score very high on the Grubbs CPUI-9 (on average - because many are recovering addicts). Simple: Low porn use will correlate with high "perceived addiction," permitting distorted results and misleading headlines - as the CPUI-9 typically does.
Such findings will likely be "spun" as, "People struggling with porn addiction only
believe they are addicted, but they really aren't - because, golly, look at my results. They hardly ever use porn. How can you be addicted to porn if you hardly ever use it... right?" As guys here are recovering compulsive users, however, "low use" data will entirely misrepresent their circumstances.
Why will it be spun as "belief in porn addiction" or "perceived porn addiction"? Because Josh Grubbs renamed his CPUI-9 "perceived addiction." Whenever any study uses the phrase "perceived addiction" it really means nothing more than the total score on the CPUI-9 questionnaire. That's it. But the CPUI-9 cannot differentiate between an actual porn addiction and a mere belief in porn addiction ("perceived addiction"). No questionnaire can. And writing such conclusions and related headlines merely adds to the murk of sexology porn research.
I have written extensively about the flaws of the CPUI-9 and how the results from studies using it have been deceptively used to "debunk porn addiction." Two such articles:
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Is Joshua Grubbs pulling the wool over our eyes with his "perceived porn addiction" research?
https://www.yourbrainonporn.com/built-false-premise-grubbs-does-not-assess-perceived-addiction
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Study invalidates the CPUI-9 as an instrument to assess either ?perceived pornography addiction? or actual pornography addiction https://www.yourbrainonporn.com/study-invalidates-cpui-9-instrument-assess-either-%E2%80%9Cperceived-pornography-addiction%E2%80%9D-or-actual
CPUI-9
Perceived Compulsivity Section
1) I believe I am addicted to Internet pornography.
2) I feel unable to stop my use of online pornography.
3) Even when I do not want to view pornography online, I feel drawn to it
Access Efforts Section
4) At times, I try to arrange my schedule so that I will be able to be alone in order to view pornography.
5) I have refused to go out with friends or attend certain social functions to have the opportunity to view pornography.
6) I have put off important priorities to view pornography.
Emotional Distress Section
7) I feel ashamed after viewing pornography online.
8- I feel depressed after viewing pornography online.
9) I feel sick after viewing pornography online.
Dr. de Jong - I strongly urge you to discard all data collected of porn recovery forums.
In my view you would have to do a few thing to achieve valid results:
1) All individuals who are trying to quit must be omitted from the data pool. That may mean using some other sampling technique of current users.
2) Omit the CPUI-9, or only use questions 4-6, as all the CPUI-9 studies reveal that questions 4-6 are very strongly correlated with levels of porn use, thus more accurately assess actual porn addiction/compulsive use.
Note: even Grubbs's new study strongly hinted that the CPUI-9 leads to skewed results. See - https://www.yourbrainonporn.com/religious-users-use-less-porn-and-are-no-more-likely-believe-they-are-addicted