A Motivational Approach to Sexual Desire: A Model for Self-Regulation

Abstract

The main objective in this article was to identify the links between classical theories on motivation and postulates on the nature and workings of erotic desire, capturing these links in a model of the motivational processing of desire. The paper reviews the most relevant motivation theories identifying their links to the nature of erotic desire, relating the main variables of these motivation theories to the concept of desire, identifying the similarities between the elements of these constructs. The outcome was a theoretical model of the motivational processing of sexual desire that also includes processes for regulating desire in which a highlight is the interaction between external and internal factors in its development. We understand that these implications underpin the need to adopt a motivational and affective approach to erotic desire, as a process that can be self-regulated. This approach stress the need to continue analyzing the affective experience and the motivational process encapsulated in desire in order to increase our understanding of its activation and development.