Non-Erotic Thoughts, Attentional Focus, and Sexual Problems in a Community Sample

Abstract

According to Barlow's model of sexual dysfunction, anxiety in sexual situations leads to attentional focus on sexual performance at the expense of erotic cues, which compromises sexual arousal. This negative experience will enhance anxiety in future sexual situations, and non-erotic thoughts (NETs) relevant to performance will receive attentional priority. Previous research with student samples (Purdon & Holdaway, 2006; Purdon & Watson, 2010) has found that people experience many types of NETs in addition to performance-relevant thoughts, and that, consistent with Barlow's model, the frequency of and anxiety evoked by these thoughts is positively associated with sexual problems. Extending this previous work, the current study found that, in a community sample of women (N = 81) and men (N = 72) in long-term relationships, women were more likely to report body image concerns and external consequences of the sexual activity, while men were more likely to report performance-related concerns. Equally likely among men and women were thoughts about emotional consequences of the sexual activity. Regardless of thought content, experiencing more frequent NETs was associated with more sexual problems in both women and men. Moreover, as per Barlow's model, greater negative affect in anticipation of and during sexual activity predicted greater frequency of NETs and greater anxiety in response to NETs was associated with greater difficulty dismissing the thoughts. However, greater difficulty in refocusing on erotic thoughts during sexual activity uniquely predicted more sexual problems above the frequency and dismissability of NETs. Together, these data support the cognitive interference mechanism implicated by Barlow's causal model of sexual dysfunction and have implications for the treatment of sexual problems.

Non-Erotic Thoughts and Sexual Functioning

“…Perhaps difficulties in functioning trigger non-erotic thoughts, which may compromise the success of the corrective strategy (e.g., in the case of trying to change thoughts) or lead the person to make changes that actually do not facilitate sexual functioning (e.g., monitoring and moving the partner's hand away from body areas of which one is self-conscious, rather than focusing on the partner's pleasure or other arousing aspects of the experience). This is certainly consistent with Nelson and Purdon (2011), who found that greater difficulty re-focusing on erotic aspects of the sexual experience after the occurrence of a non-erotic thought was associated with poorer sexual functioning.…”

“…The current study replicated the findings of Purdon and Holdaway (2006) and Nelson and Purdon (2011) with respect to the content of non-erotic thoughts. In all three studies, non-erotic thoughts fell readily into performance, body concerns, external consequences, and emotional consequences categories.…”

“…One difference that did emerge between the previous and current studies is that the gender differences in thought content were not as pronounced. In their analysis of the first thought listed by participants, Purdon and Holdaway (2006) and Nelson and Purdon (2011) found that women reported more body image concerns whereas men reported more performance concerns. In the current study, the gender difference in the content of the first thought was only marginally significant (p\ .08), although the pattern was consistent, in that men tended to report more performance-related thoughts and women to report more body image concerns.…”

“…Greater thought frequency and anxiety were significantly correlated with poorer sexual functioning for men and women, and with poorer sexual satisfaction for women. Nelson and Purdon (2011) administered the NETC to a community sample of couples who had been co-habitating for at least 2 years, identifying the same content categories of nonerotic thoughts and similar gender differences. Consistent with current models of sexual dysfunction, negative mood in anticipation of sexual activity with a partner predicted more frequent non-erotic thoughts, controlling for other key factors.…”

Non-Erotic Cognitive Distractions During Sexual Activity in Sexual Minority and Heterosexual Young Adults

“…These findings suggest that there is a broad range of cognitive distractions during sexual activity that extends beyond body image and performance concerns. Similar findings regarding the range of non-erotic cognitive distractions were obtained in a communitysample;however,significantlyfewerindividuals in the community sample reported having no distractions during sexual activity than in an undergraduate sample (Nelson & Purdon, 2010).…”