The effects of attentional focus and partner arousal on sexual responding in functional and dysfunctional men

The effects of attentional-focus instructions (self vs partner focus) and level of partner arousal (high, low and ambiguous) on sexual responding, both objectively and subjectively measured, were examined with sexually-functional (N = 8) and sexually-dysfunctional (N = 8) men. These instructional sets were delivered just before the subjects viewed an erotic film depicting a heterosexual couple in which they identified with the male. When both groups were focusing on themselves rather than their partner, higher tumescence was observed when their partner was displaying low arousal. When the partner's level of arousal was ambiguous, highest tumescence was achieved during partner attentional focus. When the partner was displaying high sexual arousal, functional subjects reached highest levels of tumescence during partner focus, while dysfunctional subjects reached highest levels of tumescence during self focus. In fact, high partner arousal seemed to inhibit dysfunctional subjects' tumescence under partner focus. Examination of self-report of arousal data as measured by a subjective lever revealed interesting group differences. Results are discussed in light of possible maintaining factors in sexual dysfunction and their treatment implications.     

Effects of erotic stimuli on sexually functional and dysfunctional women: Multiple measures before and after sex therapy

A group of 11 women entering sex therapy for treatment of low arousal, and a comparison group of 11 women experiencing no arousal deficit, viewed an erotic film, listened to an erotic audiotape, and engaged in sexual fantasy during two experimental sessions. Session I occurred pre-treatment for the low arousal group. Session II occurred post-treatment. The adequate arousal group was tested at comparable points in time. Sexual arousal was measured subjectively by self-rating and physiologically by a vaginal photoplethysmograph. Contrary to expectation, the two groups showed equivalent significant increases in physiological response during the erotic stimuli in both sessions. However, the adequate arousal group rated subjective arousal significantly higher than the low arousal group in Session I, while no difference was found between the groups in Session II. Significant correlations were present between physiological response and ratings of several affective reactions to the audiotape, though few significant correlations were found between physiological and subjective sexual arousal measures. These data indicate a discrepancy between genital responses and ratings of sexual arousal for which several interpretations are offered.     

Study of Sexual Concordance in Men and Women with Different Typologies of Adherence to the Sexual Double Standard

Background/ObjectiveSexual concordance (i.e., relationship between genital response and subjective sexual arousal) is higher in men than in women. Among the factors that could explain this difference would be the sexual double standard (SDS). Sexual concordance is examined by SDS typologies of adherence (egalitarian, man-favorable, and woman-favorable).MethodDuring exposure to a film with sexual content, genital response (penile circumference/vaginal pulse amplitude) and self-reported sexual arousal were recorded in 104 young adults (42 men and 62 women), distributed into SDS typologies of adherence on the basis of their scores on the Sexual Double Standard Scale.ResultsSexual concordance was obtained in men and women with egalitarian and man-favorable typology. Subjective sexual arousal explained a significant percentage of the variance in genital response in the egalitarian typology (men: R² = .32, p < .01; women: R² = .19, p < .05) and man-favorable typology (men: R² = .21, p < .05; women: R² = .23, p < .05).ConclusionsAgreement between genital responsiveness and subjective sexual arousal depends on DES adherence typology.     

A sex difference in the specificity of sexual arousal

Sexual arousal is category-specific in men; heterosexual men are more aroused by female than by male sexual stimuli, whereas homosexual men show the opposite pattern. There is reason to believe that female sexual arousal is organized differently. We assessed genital and subjective sexual arousal to male and female sexual stimuli in women, men, and postoperative male-to-female transsexuals. In contrast to men, women showed little category specificity on either the genital or the subjective measure. Both heterosexual and homosexual women experienced strong genital arousal to both male and female sexual stimuli. Transsexuals showed a category-specific pattern, demonstrating that category specificity can be detected in the neovagina using a photoplethysmographic measure of female genital sexual arousal. In a second study, we showed that our results for females are unlikely to be explained by ascertainment biases. These findings suggest that sexual arousal patterns play fundamentally different roles in male and female sexuality.     

The enhancing effects of anxiety on arousal in sexually dysfunctional and functional women

Effects of anxiety on sexual arousal were examined to determine if sexually dysfunctional and functional women exhibit different patterns of physiological and subjective response. Subjects viewed 2 videotape conditions: an anxiety-evoking and neutral-control preexposure stimulus, each paired with a sexual arousal-evoking stimulus. Anxiety preexposure enhanced the rate and magnitude of genital arousal for both dysfunctional and functional subjects in relation to the neutral condition. Despite increased genital responses, both groups reported less subjective sexual arousal after anxiety preexposure. Functional subjects exhibited greater physiological but not subjective arousal than dysfunctional subjects in both conditions. Results are discussed in terms of desynchronous patterns of sexual response, mechanisms by which sympathetic activation enhances sexual arousal, and implications for treatment of sexual dysfunction in women.     

Psychoticism and sexual arousal to rape depictions

This study tested the hypothesis that high scorers on the Eysencks' P scale would become more sexually aroused by erotic material of a violent nature than low scorers. One hundred and forty-five college Ss were exposed to erotic auditory messages varying in degree of violence and pain experienced by the victim. Personality was assessed by a median split on the Eysencks' P scale. Sexual arousal was assessed by mercury strain gauge and self-report. Results, as predicted, showed a significant interaction between psychoticism and level of violence (rape vs nonrape): high P scorers showing greater sexual arousal (by both self-report and physiological assessment) to rape as compared to nonrape depictions whereas the opposite pattern occurred for low P scorers.     

The effects of state and trait self-focused attention on sexual arousal in sexually functional and dysfunctional women

This study examined the effects of state self-focused attention on sexual arousal and trait self-consciousness on sexual arousal and function in sexually functional (n=16) and dysfunctional (n=16) women. Self-focused attention was induced using a 50% reflectant television screen in one of two counterbalanced sessions during which self-report and physiological sexual responses to erotic films were measured. Self-focused attention significantly decreased vaginal pulse amplitude (VPA) responses among sexually functional but not dysfunctional women, and substantially decreased correlations between self-report and VPA measures of sexual arousal. Self-focused attention did not significantly impact subjective sexual arousal in sexually functional or dysfunctional women. Trait private self-consciousness was positively related to sexual desire, orgasm, compatibility, contentment and sexual satisfaction. Public self-consciousness was correlated with sexual pain. The findings are discussed in terms of Masters and Johnson's [Masters, W. H. & Johnson, V. E. (1970). Human sexual inadequacy. Boston: Little, Brown) concepts of "spectatoring" and "sensate focus."     

Electrodermal responses to movie stressors: Nicotine × extraversion interactions

Support was found for Eysenck's hypothesis that the effects of smoking sized doses of nicotine on cortical and electrodermal activity are functions of extraversion and the degree of externally-induced arousal. Responses to scenes that elicited moderate electrodermal and emotional responses followed the predicted extraversion ☆ nicotine interaction for electrodermal measures, but not for self-reported emotions, heart rate or electromyographic measures. The failure of the Ss to demonstrate an extraversion ☆ nicotine interaction when high-intensity stimuli were used (Gilbert and Hagen, 1980) is also interpreted as consistent with Eysenck's hypothesis.     

Issues in the assessment of fear: Response concordance and prediction of avoidance behavior

A large group of female subjects completed a battery of questionnaires including the Fear Survey Schedule and the Snake Questionnaire. They were later administered a behavioral approach test with a live snake during which self-report, behavioral, and psychophysiological measures were collected. These data were initially used to test Hodgson and Rachman's (Behavior Research and Therapy, 1974,12, 319–326) hypothesis that response concordance varies directly with the strength of emotional arousal. The results indicated that the less fearful subjects produced a greater degree of response concordance—contrary to the hypothesis. Next, previously identified factors extracted from the Snake Questionnaire were examined to determine their ability to predict behavioral avoidance during the test procedure. One factor was suitably predictive of the avoidance criterion. These two sets of results are discussed in terms of a possible explanation for concordance variations and in terms of the potential value of factor scores in subject selection and fear assessment.     

Experimenter effects on responses to explicitly sexual stimuli

Experimenter effects on responses to explicitly sexual stimuli were investigated in 63 single undergraduate males and 89 single undergraduate females. A completely factorial design with sex of subject, sex of experimenter, and experimenter's style of interacting (informal vs formal) as the independent factors was employed. While the variables under investigation did not have an overriding effect on the outcome measures, at least one experimenter attribute was discovered to significantly influence a large percentage of the variables assessed: The data suggest that informal experimenters permit less socially desirable responses and more generalized arousal than formal experimenters. In addition to replicating earlier work on experimenter effects, the present study serves to delineate a possible set of cues by which experimenters may influence their subjects' arousal to explicitly sexual stimuli.     

Activity measures in stress-attenuated novelty tests as possible analogues for extraversion in rats: Some experimental results

In an attempt to extend and validate Garcia-Sevilla's (1974) hypothesis proposing ambulation in a non-stressful open field (OF) as an animal analogue of human extraversion, ambulatory behaviour and rearing behaviour were studied and compared in several experiments with genetically-unselected rats. The effects of variation of OF auditory stimulation level, the correlation with a two-way avoidance-learning situation and the effects of a stimulant dose of d-amphetamine and an anxiolytic one of diazepam upon rearing and ambulatory behaviours were studied. All in all, our results support some of the requirements of the hypothesis, but also generate some additional problems. The results show that the number of rearings could be a better and more sensitive measure of variations in the level of arousal and a better predictor of shuttle-avoidance conditioning than ambulation. However, all activity measures are at least moderately intercorrelated, and they become grouped when results are factor analysed. All the results are discussed with reference to Eysenck's personality theory and Gray's anxiety theory, and it is concluded that these measures are too multidetermined and too poorly controlled to represent correctly and in a direct form a personality dimension such as Extraversion. Anyway, this attempt could be a good point of departure for discovering more efficient animal behavioural measures of arousability.     

A comparison of two objective measures of sexual arousal of women

The efficacy of two objective measures of sexual arousal of women was compared by simultaneously recording vaginal blood volume by means of a photoplethysmograph and labial temperature by means of a thermistor-clip during and after stimulation by an erotic film. Both measures increased during the stimulation, and they were highly correlated with each other in six of the eight subjects, indicating that both were valid measures of sexual arousal. During the stimulation, labial temperature was significantly correlated with subjective ratings of arousal while vaginal blood volume only approached significance. During the 15-min period following stimulation, the measures neither correlated significantly with subjective ratings nor each other, and both had a tendency not to return to prestimulation levels.     

Sexual arousal patterns of bisexual men

There has long been controversy about whether bisexual men are substantially sexually aroused by both sexes. We investigated genital and self-reported sexual arousal to male and female sexual stimuli in 30 heterosexual, 33 bisexual, and 38 homosexual men. In general, bisexual men did not have strong genital arousal to both male and female sexual stimuli. Rather, most bisexual men appeared homosexual with respect to genital arousal, although some appeared heterosexual. In contrast, their subjective sexual arousal did conform to a bisexual pattern. Male bisexuality appears primarily to represent a style of interpreting or reporting sexual arousal rather than a distinct pattern of genital sexual arousal.     

Sex guilt,sexual arousal,and urinary acid phosphatase output

This study investigated the relationship between the personality variable sex guilt and a proposed physiological measure of sexual arousal (urinary acid phosphatase level). Urinary acid phosphatase levels of 43 male college students were assessed both basally and after exposure to 19 sexually themed slides. As predicted, sex guilt was inversely related to both basal acid phosphatase level and changes in acid phosphatase level upon exposure to the erotic stimuli. In addition, sex guilt scores were correlated with subjects' self-reported reactions to the erotic stimuli. The relationships obtained provided further construct validity evidence for the sex-guilt measure. Finally, the relationship between sexual arousal and urinary acid phosphatase level was explored. The data provided only partial validation for the proposed relationship between sexual arousal and urinary acid phosphatase output.     

Habituation and dishabituation of female sexual arousal

Measures of subjective and physiological sexual arousal were taken within a session while women either viewed the same segment of erotic film on many occasions or employed the same sexual fantasy over a number of trials. For both film and fantasy there were significant reductions in subjective sexual arousal and average pulse amplitude during the course of repeated erotic stimulation. Subsequent presentation of novel erotic stimuli led to recovery in sexual arousal. Bases for habituation and dishabituation of female sexual arousal are discussed.     

Trait anxiety,stress, and learning a test of Saltz's hypothesis

Behavioral predictions from Saltz's, Spence's, and Spielberger's interpretations of trait anxiety were tested in a complex verbal learning task. Fifty-three high-anxious and 52 low-anxious male college students were randomly distributed to test conditions of failure-stress, pain-stress, or neutral instructions. The learning data revealed that high-anxious-failure and low-anxious-pain Ss were disrupted and supported Saltz's hypothesis; self-reported anxiety (A-State scale, STAI) was observed only in high-anxious-failure Ss and supported Spielberger's theory of the arousal of state anxiety as a function of trait anxiety. However, the contradiction between self-reported anxiety and learning behavior in low-anxious-pain Ss indicated that the verbal report of these Ss was an inaccurate or insensitive index of arousal.     

The effect of modification of expressive displays on vicarious emotional arousal

Several recent experiments have demonstrated that modulation of the facial expressive response is accompanied by changes in autonomic arousal and subjective response to painful stimuli. The present study asked whether facial self-regulation may also bring about changes in covert vicarious emotional experience. Three groups of subjects were exposed to a videotaped model displaying intermittent pain to shock in a differential vicarious autonomic conditioning paradigm. Subjects in the inhibit and amplify groups were asked, respectively, (a) to inhibit their facial muscles or (b) to pose a facial response of pain when the model was shocked. It was predicted that the inhibit group would show less autonomic arousal to the model's expressive display (empathy) and less conditioning (as measured by skin conductance and heart rate change), and the amplify group more empathy and conditioning, than a third group who was given no facial instruction. In fact, the amplify group showed more skin conductance arousal, heart rate acceleration, and activity in response to the model's expressive display of pain than did the other two groups (which were not different from each other), but no more autonomic or facial conditioning. The overall pattern of physiological data is interpreted as generally supportive of a facial feedback theory of emotion: where significant between-groups' differences were obtained in facial activity, as in vicarious instigation, autonomic arousal differences also emerged; where no expressive differences were obtained, as in vicarious conditioning, no differences in autonomic arousal were found.     

The impact of anxiety on sexual arousal in women

This study examined the impact of state anxiety, trait anxiety, and anxiety sensitivity on physiological and self-report measures of sexual arousal and sexual function in a non-clinical sample of women. Physiological sexual responses to an erotic stimulus were assessed using vaginal photoplethysmography, and subjective reactions were measured using questionnaires. Results suggested a curvilinear relationship between state anxiety and physiological sexual arousal (vaginal pulse amplitude; VPA). Trait anxiety and anxiety sensitivity were correlated with self-reported sexual arousal outside the laboratory. The findings may be interpreted in light of sympathetic nervous system (SNS) influences on sexual arousal and potential cognitive interference mechanisms associated with anxiety.     

The Anxiety Response: Concordance Among Components

Under social-evaluative stress, self-reported distress (cognitive and somatic symptoms), behavioral anxiety (motor, facial, verbal, and social), physiological arousal (heart rate and skin resistance), and task performance (cognitive and motor) were recorded. Concordance was selective and consistent across response systems. There were significant relationships among measures of cognitive aspects, and among those concerned with somatic aspects, but not between these two areas. Furthermore, concordance was much higher in high-than in low-trait/test-anxiety participants, who even exhibited reversed concordance. These differences are explained in terms of stronger physiological signals in high trait/test anxiety. Alternative interpretations involving perceiving and/or reporting internal threat-related information in low trait/test anxiety are discussed.     

Consistency of the labial temperature change measure of human female eroticism

Six adult, human female volunteers participated in a study to determine the consistency of their pattern of sexual arousal to two erotic films over two experimental sessions. Sexual arousal was assessed objectively by means of continuous measurement of temperature changes of the labia minora and subjectively by periodic self-ratings. Each subject developed increases in labial temperature to both film presentations that ranged from about 0.10°C to 1.36°C above basal levels. The amount of temperature change in a subject's labia minora during the first film presentation was significantly correlated with that during the second film, and there was a reasonable degree of consistency across the two sessions with regard to the rate at which the subject's labial temperature subsided towards basal levels after the cessation of erotic stimulation. Labial temperature changes and subjective ratings were also significantly correlated during each of the two film presentations.