Psychophysiological Response Patterns and Risky Sexual Behavior in Heterosexual and Homosexual Men

Abstract

The past few years have seen an increased awareness of the relevance of studying the role of sexual response, emotion, and traits such as sensation seeking and the propensity for sexual inhibition in risky sexual behavior. The current study examined the association between self-reported sexual risk taking and psychophysiological response patterns in 76 heterosexual and homosexual men. Measures included genital, electrodermal, startle eyeblink, and cardiovascular responses, and stimuli included threatening (depicting coercive sexual interactions) and nonthreatening (depicting consensual sexual interactions) sexual film excerpts. Sexual risk taking was hypothesized to be associated with decreased inhibition of sexual arousal and hyporeactive affective and autonomic responses to threatening sexual stimuli. Controlling for age and number of sexual partners in the past year, sexual risk taking (number of partners during the past 3 years with whom no condoms were used) was found to be associated with stronger genital responses and smaller eyeblink responses to both threatening and nonthreatening sexual stimuli. Correlations between genital and subjective sexual arousal were relatively low. Sexual risk taking was related to sensation seeking but not to the propensity for sexual inhibition. The findings suggest that risky sexual behavior may involve a role for psychophysiological mechanisms that are specific to sex as well as for ones that are associated with more general approach/avoidance response tendencies.

Sexual victimisation, sexual cognitions, desire and excitation/inhibition in community Spanish male and female sexual aggressors

“…In addition, our results partially confirmed the proposal of the Dual Control Model of sexual arousal and behaviour. Therefore, men who appear to have a high propensity for SE may be at a particularly high risk of engaging in sexually aggressive behaviour, especially if their level of excitation is deregulated from their inhibitory level (Janssen, Goodrich, Petrocelli, & Bancroft, 2009;Janssen, Vorst, Finn, & Bancroft, 2002). However, our findings do not support the initial postulates of the Dual Control Model regarding the inhibitory system.…”

Clinical and research concerns with vibratory stimulation: a review and pilot study of common stimulation devices

“…Film stimuli are vulnerable to individual differences in attention to different components of the stimuli (Rupp & Wallen, 2007), preference for specific content (Janssen, Goodrich, Petrocelli, & Bancroft, 2009) or clinical histories making portions of the stimuli aversive (Wouda et al, 1998). Sexual fantasy relies on the ability of the participant to fantasize effectively, and fantasy often results in no, or lower, levels of sexual arousal (Laan, Everaerd, Van Aanhold, & Rebel, 1993).…”

¿Existe realmente la adicción al sexo?

“…Como en el resto de las adicciones (Echeburúa, Bravo de Medina y Aizpiri, 2005, 2007, 2009), hay algunas dimensiones de personalidad que hacen a la persona más vulnerable a la sexoadicción, como es el caso de la impulsividad acentuada, la búsqueda de sensaciones/riesgos o los rasgos obsesivos (Janssen, Goodrich, Petrocelli y Bancroft, 2009). En general, la insatisfacción, las carencias afectivas y las sustancias adictivas (alcohol y cocaína) están detrás de un síndrome capaz de destruir a quien lo padece.…”

“…La hipersexualidad ha sido catalogada también como un trastorno del control de los impulsos, en donde la respuesta inmediata a un ansia sexual no toma en consideración las consecuencias de la conducta (Bancroft et al, 2004;Janssen et al, 2009), o incluso una compulsión sexual, sobre todo si se tiene en cuenta que muchas conductas sexuales repetitivas suponen un intento de reducir la ansiedad, el estrés y otros estados de ánimo disfóricos (la culpa o la tristeza) (Nelson y Oehlert, 2008). De este modo, la obsesión sexual supone la presencia de pensamientos o fantasías sexuales invasivos que intentan controlarse con la conducta sexual compulsiva (Kafka, 2010).…”