Policy capturing methodology in sexuality research

Many research questions in sexuality involve assessing the stimuli that inf luence peoples' decisions and judgments. Typically, such research relies on self-reports of these influences, although it appears that humans have lit tle or no insight into their own mental processes. Policy capturing is a mo re direct method for quantifying the factors influencing respondents' judgm ents, and this approach allows for assessment of the degree to which indivi duals have insight into their own cognitive policies. In this article, poli cy capturing methodology is reviewed, a recent application of the methodolo gy is summarized as an illustration of the method as it may be used in sexu ality research, and the strengths and weaknesses of the approach are discus sed.