“I Don’t feel like melting butter”: An interpretative phenomenological analysis of the experience of ‘inorgasmia’

Inorgasmia is under-studied in the domain of sexual health psychology. This study explores women's experiences of inorgasmia and the meanings giving to this experience. Interviews with six inorgasmic women were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). The analysis showed that the absence of orgasm was experienced as problematic and disturbing. A search for reasons for their condition, and its effects on self-image and self-confidence underpinned the experience of inorgasmia as a problem. The spectrum of meanings surrounding female orgasm demonstrates that, far from being perceived as a merely physical experience, the moment of orgasm takes on relational significance and it has implications for the women's identities. The paper identifies areas for future research and theorising.     

The Fifth R: Jesus as Evolutionary Psychologist

The historical Jesus seems to have known about human nature as described by evolutionary psychology. He addresses the dispositions of human nature that evolutionary psychology says are central: resources, reproduction, relatedness (kinship), and reciprocity. In doing so he answers Aristotle's question, how can human beings flourish? His answer opens a window onto the divine.     

Anxiety's role in aids prevention

Abstract

Anxiety's role in AIDS risk reduction is discussed. We argue that behavioral techniques will be critical tools for alerting people to the threat of AIDS and their own vulnerability. Informational models have not been found to be sufficient for convincing people of the extent of the threat of AIDS to them. We suggest that techniques aimed at raising people's anxiety over their vulnerability will be necessary to raise their motivation to attend to AIDS messages, and we present techniques aimed at increasing anxiety over vulnerability. Following acknowledgment of vulnerability, people will need to adopt or continue safer sex practices that are viewed as undesirable in contrast to unsafe sex practices that are viewed as less costly and less anxiety provoking. Given a clearer practical and theoretical understanding of the anxiety-producing costs of adopting safer sex behaviors, we present methods for reducing this anxiety. We also discuss the necessity for considering ethnic, minority, and other cultural nuances in social and sexual anxiety and how these might be addressed in efforts to increase safer sex practices.     

A Group of Sexually Abused Adolescents' Perceptions of their Future Life-Roles: An Exploratory Study

Sexual abuse of adolescents can have detrimental effects on their perceptions of their different future life-roles. We investigated such perceptions of students with a history of sexual abuse (n=163) as well as typically developing others (n=237). Participants completed the Life-role Inventory of the then called Human Sciences Research Council (Langley, 1990). Between-group comparisons were carried out. Adolescents with a history of sexual abuse reported negative perceptions of themselves fulfilling some of their roles in the future, being committed to these roles and attaching value to them, compared to typically developing others.     

Do lesbian women have a better body image? Comparisons with heterosexual women and model of lesbian-specific factors

Body dissatisfaction is prevalent among women but may be less common among lesbian women. Although research trends toward this conclusion when samples are well-matched and body mass index (BMI) is controlled for, many studies do not exhibit these characteristics. Furthermore, few studies have examined sociocultural contributors to group differences. I addressed limitations of past research with a large community sample of lesbian (n = 479) and heterosexual (n = 400) women. I contrasted the two sexual identity groups on several body dissatisfaction measures, and tested theoretically derived relationships between lesbian-specific cultural factors and body dissatisfaction. As predicted, lesbian women reported lower body dissatisfaction than did heterosexual women on three of four measures, and expressed a larger ideal body size. A structural equation model of lesbian-specific risk and protective factors for body dissatisfaction did not reveal significant relationships. This study represents a first attempt to model culturally specific influences on lesbian body image.     

Altered states of consciousness are related to higher sexual responsiveness

Altered states of consciousness lead to profound changes in the sense of self, time and space. We assessed how these changes were related to sexual responsiveness during sex. 116 subjects reported (a) intensity of awareness concerning body, space and time, and (b) satisfaction, desire, arousal, and orgasm occurrence. We differentiated vaginal intercourse orgasm from noncoital orgasm. Female vaginal intercourse orgasm was further differentiated as with or without concurrent clitoral masturbation. Overall, sexual responsiveness was related to greater body awareness and lesser time and space awareness. Satisfaction, desire, and arousal were especially associated with less time awareness in women. Female orgasms during vaginal intercourse were related to greater body awareness and lesser time awareness, but noncoital orgasms were unrelated. Our findings provide empirical support for the hypotheses that altered states of consciousness with attentional absorption are strongly related to sexual responsiveness in women, and to a lesser extent in men.     

Sexual differences in memory in shiny cowbirds

Avian brood parasites depend on other species, the hosts, to raise their offspring. During the breeding season, parasitic cowbirds (Molothrus sp.) search for potential host nests to which they return for laying a few days after first locating them. Parasitic cowbirds have a larger hippocampus/telencephalon volume than non-parasitic species; this volume is larger in the sex involved in nest searching (females) and it is also larger in the breeding than in the non-breeding season. In nature, female shiny cowbirds Molothrus bonariensis search for nests without the male’s assistance. Here we test whether, in association with these neuroanatomical and behavioural differences, shiny cowbirds display sexual differences in a memory task in the laboratory. We used a task consisting of finding food whose location was indicated either by the appearance or the location of a covering disk. Females learnt to retrieve food faster than males when food was associated with appearance cues, but we found no sexual differences when food was associated with a specific location. Our results are consistent with the view that parasitism and its neuroanatomical correlates affect performance in memory tasks, but the effects we found were not in the expected direction, emphasising that the nature of avian hippocampal function and its sexual differences are not yet understood. Received: 30 April 1998 / Accepted after revision: 5 September 1998     

Masculine Ideology,Sexual Communication,and Sexual Self‐Efficacy Among Parenting Adolescent Couples

This study examined the relationship between traditional masculine role norms (status, toughness, anti‐femininity) and psychosocial mechanisms of sexual risk (sexual communication, sexual self‐efficacy) among young, low‐income, and minority parenting couples. Between 2007 and 2011, 296 pregnant adolescent females and their male partners were recruited from urban obstetrics clinics in Connecticut. Data regarding participants' beliefs in masculine role norms, frequency of general sex communication and sexual risk communication, and sexual self‐efficacy were collected via computer‐assisted self‐interviews. Generalized estimating equation (GEE) models were used to test for actor effects (whether a person's masculine role norms at baseline influence the person's own psychosocial variables at 6‐month follow‐up) and partner effects (whether a partner's masculine role norms at baseline influence an actor's psychosocial variables at 6‐month follow‐up). Results revealed that higher actor status norms were significantly associated with more sexual self‐efficacy, higher actor toughness norms were associated with less sexual self‐efficacy, and higher actor anti‐femininity norms were significantly associated with less general sex communication, sexual risk communication, and sexual self‐efficacy. No partner effects were found. These results indicate a need for redefining masculine role norms through family centered approaches in pregnant or parenting adolescent couples to increase sexual communication and sexual self‐efficacy. Further research is needed to understand partner effects in the context of a relationship and on subsequent sexual risk behavior.     

College Campus Community Readiness to Address Intimate Partner Violence Among LGBTQ+ Young Adults: A Conceptual and Empirical Examination

This paper provides an overview of a conceptual model that integrates theories of social ecology, minority stress, and community readiness to better understand risk for and outcomes of intimate partner violence (IPV) among LGBTQ+ college students. Additionally, online survey data was collected from a sample of 202 LGBTQ+ students enrolled in 119 colleges across the United States to provide preliminary data on some aspects of the proposed model. Results suggested that students generally thought their campuses were low in readiness to address IPV; that is, students felt that their campuses could do more to address IPV and provide IPV services specific to LGBTQ+ college students. Perceptions of greater campus readiness to address IPV among LGBTQ+ college students was significantly and positively related to a more favorable LGBTQ+ campus climate and a greater sense of campus community. Additionally, IPV victims were more likely to perceive higher levels of campus community readiness than non‐IPV victims. There was no association between IPV perpetration and perceptions of campus community readiness. Greater sense of community was marginally and inversely related to IPV victimization and perpetration. Sense of community and LGBTQ+ campus climate also varied to some extent as a function of region of the country and type of institution. Implications for further development and refinement of the conceptual model, as well as future research applying this model to better understand IPV among sexual minority students are discussed.     

Drugs,Sex, and Condoms: Identification and Interpretation of Race‐Specific Cultural Messages Influencing Black Gay and Bisexual Young Men Living with HIV

Black gay and bisexual young men carry a disproportionate burden of HIV in the United States. This study explored Black gay and bisexual young men living with HIV's identification and interpretation of race‐specific cultural messages regarding substance use, sexual activity, and condom use. A total of 36 Black gay and bisexual young men living with HIV (ages 16–24, mean = 20.6 years) from four geographically diverse regions of the United States participated in qualitative in‐depth interviews. Results from this study elucidate the ways in which these young men interpret various forms of race‐specific cultural messages and experiences regarding substance use, sexual activity, and condom use. Participants discussed cultural messages and experiences promoting and discouraging condoms and substance use. Regarding sexual activity, only messages and experiences promoting sex were reported. Across all three categories, messages and experiences promoting risk were predominant. Data further revealed that socially transmitted cultural messages received by young men emanated from multiple sources, such as family, peers, sexual partners, community/neighborhood, and the broader society. Race‐specific cultural messages and experiences should be addressed in interventions for this population, and programs should assist young men in developing a critical consciousness regarding these messages and experiences in order to promote health and well‐being.