Automatic Sex-Liking and Sex-Failure Associations in Men With Sexual Dysfunction

Abstract

Current models of sexual functioning imply an important role for both automatic and controlled appraisals. Accordingly, it can be hypothesized that erectile dysfunction may be due to the automatic activation of negative appraisals at the prospect of sexual intercourse. However, previous research showed that men with sexual dysfunction exhibited relatively strong automatic sex-positive instead of sex-negative associations. This study tested the robustness of this unexpected finding and, additionally, examined the hypothesis that perhaps more specific sex-failure versus sex-success associations are relevant in explaining sexual dysfunction and distress. Male urological patients (N = 70), varying in level of sexual functioning and distress, performed two Single-Target Implicit Association Tests (ST-IATs) to assess automatic associations of visual erotic stimuli with attributes representing affective valence ("liking"; positive versus negative) and sexual success versus sexual failure. Consistent with the earlier findings, the lower the scores on sexual functioning, the stronger the automatic sex-positive associations. This association was independent of explicit associations and most prominent in the younger age group. Automatic sex-positive and sex-failure associations showed independent relationships with sexual distress. The relationship between sexual distress and sex-failure associations is consistent with the view that automatic associations with failure may contribute to sexual distress.

Gender Differences in the Relationship of Sexual Functioning with Implicit and Explicit Sex Liking and Sex Wanting: A Community Sample Study

“…In men, better orgasmic functioning was associated with lower levels of implicit liking of erotic stimuli, but implicit sex-wanting associations did not correlate with any aspect of sexual functioning. These starkly contrasting findings, nevertheless, replicated results in previous studies of our research group in female and male patient samples with and without self-and clinician-diagnosed sexual dysfunctions (van Lankveld, Bandell et al, 2018;van Lankveld, de Jong, et al, 2018;van Lankveld et al, 2015), using similar methodology. The present findings in female participants are also similar to those of Dewitte (2015), who investigated a substantially younger sample.…”

“…In a second study among male urological patients with and without sexual problems this finding was replicated, with participants with lower levels of sexual functioning exhibiting a stronger automatic sex-positive association. This effect was largest in the younger age group (van Lankveld et al, 2018). In a nonclinical student sample, several aspects of the sexual behavior of men were predicted best from their implicit sex-liking scores, whereas the sexual behavior of women was best predicted using implicit sex-wanting scores (Dewitte, 2015).…”

“…More recently, dual-process theory (Corr, 2010;Evans & Frankish, 2009;Olson & Fazio, 2008) has been proposed to explain the fluctuating relative contributions of controlled and automatic processing of erotic stimuli to the generation of sexual arousal (van Lankveld, 2010;van Lankveld et al, 2018van Lankveld et al, , 2015. Dual-process models, crucially, hypothesize that the relative impact of automatic and controlled cognizing on behavioral outcomes is determined by both situational and dispositional boundary conditions (Hofmann & Friese, 2008;Strack & Deutsch, 2004) (see Figure 1).…”

Implicit and Explicit Associations with Erotic Stimuli in Women with and Without Sexual Problems

“…Whereas women with and without sexual problem in the present study could be distinguished by their implicit sexual wanting scores, previous studies among men with and without sexual dysfunctions found, in contrast, that implicit liking associations discriminated between both group, while implicit wanting scores in both male groups were equal (van Lankveld et al, 2015(van Lankveld et al, , 2017. Research in which men and women are directly compared is necessary to investigate potential explanations for this gender difference.…”

“…This effect was significantly higher in the lower age group. Additionally, an independent negative relationship was found in younger men between explicit sex-liking associations and sexual functioning (van Lankveld et al, 2017).…”