Implicit motives and gonadal steroid hormones: effects of menstrual cycle phase,oral contraceptive use,and relationship status

Implicit motives for power and affiliation, salivary levels of testosterone, estradiol, and progesterone, and relationship status were measured in 18 normally cycling (NC) women, 18 women using oral contraceptives (OC), and 18 men at three assessments, corresponding to the menstrual, midcycle, and premenstrual phases of women's menstrual cycle. NC and OC women had elevated levels of affiliation motivation and decreased levels of power motivation at midcycle. Power motive changes were particularly pronounced in NC women across cycle phases. OC women and participants not engaged in an intimate relationship had significantly heightened levels of affiliation motivation, averaged across all cycle phases. Testosterone and power motivation, both averaged across all cycle phases, were positively correlated in men and in single women, but not in women engaged in an intimate relationship. Averaged levels of estradiol and power motivation were positively correlated in engaged women, but not in single women or men. Averaged levels of progesterone and affiliation motivation were negatively correlated in men, and there was evidence for a positive association between luteal affiliation motivation and periovulatory and luteal progesterone in NC women. This study therefore provides evidence that implicit motivational states fluctuate across the menstrual cycle, that the power motive is associated with testosterone and, in women, with estradiol, and that the affiliation motive and progesterone are associated in different ways in men and NC women.