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Measuring female intrasexual competition by the scale for intrasexual competition: a validation of the German version

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Abstract

Competitive behaviour amongst members of the same sex is termed intrasexual competition. The tendency to engage in such competition appears to be strongly related to stable individual characteristics such as personality traits. Additionally, recent studies have revealed transient fluctuations in competitiveness according to the female menstrual cycle. To date, no German questionnaire exists to measure intrasexual competition. Our first study aimed to translate and validate the Intrasexual Competition Scale (ICS) by Buunk and Fisher (J Evol Psychol 7:37–48, 2009) in a population of healthy Swiss females (n = 241). Our second study applied the validated German ICS in a group of healthy, regularly cycling females (n = 49) in order to examine possible associations between the menstrual cycle phase and ICS scores. The psychometric properties suggest that the German ICS is a reliable and valid tool to assess individual differences in female intrasexual competition. Furthermore, our second study demonstrated that on average, women showed higher intrasexual competition scores when tested in the late follicular phase (M = 35.77 ± SD = 12.03) compared to the mid-luteal phase (M = 30.93 ± SD = 10.20). Our studies support previous findings of an association between ICS scores and relatively stable individual characteristics such as personality traits. Furthermore, our research endorses the assumption of cycle-dependent fluctuations in intrasexual competition. Future research should clarify the precise mechanisms underlying these findings and include biomarkers such as oestrogen and testosterone.

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Acknowledgements

We wish to thank Prof. Abraham P. Buunk for his highly valuable contributions on the study design and his support in the translation process.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Zurich, Binzmühlestrasse 14/Box 26, 8050, Zürich, Switzerland

    Serena Fiacco, Simona Palm-Fischbacher, Jana Campbell & Ulrike Ehlert

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  1. Serena Fiacco
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  2. Simona Palm-Fischbacher
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  3. Jana Campbell
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  4. Ulrike Ehlert
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ulrike Ehlert.

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The research involves participants who provided informed consent. The study protocol of both studies was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and was approved by the ethics committee of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Zurich.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Fiacco, S., Palm-Fischbacher, S., Campbell, J. et al. Measuring female intrasexual competition by the scale for intrasexual competition: a validation of the German version. Arch Womens Ment Health 22, 259–266 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00737-018-0890-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00737-018-0890-6

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