The effects of secondary stimulus characteristics on men's sexual arousal

Gaither, George A.; Plaud, Joseph J.

doi:10.1080/00224499709551890

Cited by 29 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Previous research has shown that the type (e.g., visual, auditory, other modalities; Abel, Abel, Blanchard, & Barlow, 1981;Julien & Over, 1988;McConaghy, 1974;Sakheim et al, 1985;Tollison et al, 1979), characteristics (e.g., duration, color versus black and white, soundtrack included or not; Gaither & Plaud, 1997;High, Rubin, & Henson, 1979;Youn, 2006), content (e.g., the specific behaviors depicted; Abel et al, 1981;Chivers, Seto, & Blanchard, 2007;Hatfield, Sprecher, & Traupmann, 1978;Janssen, Carpenter, & Graham, 2003;Mosher & Abramson, 1977;Wright & Adams, 1994, 1999, and emotional/cognitive variables (e.g., Cranston-Cuebas & Barlow, 1990;Janssen & Everaerd, 1993;Nobre et al, 2004;Peterson & Janssen, 2007) associated with stimuli used to elicit sexual arousal responses in the laboratory are all important and influential variables. The general consensus seems to be that moving images (film or video) with sound that facilitate positive emotion and thoughts lead to the highest levels of sexual arousal.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Patterns of Sexual Arousal in Homosexual, Bisexual, and Heterosexual Men

Cerny

Janssen

2011

Arch Sex Behav

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The purpose of this study was to determine if self-identified bisexual, heterosexual, and homosexual men show differential genital and subjective arousal patterns to video presentations of bisexual, heterosexual, male homosexual, and lesbian sexual interactions. It was predicted that, relative to heterosexual and homosexual stimuli, bisexual men would show the highest levels of sexual arousal to bisexual erotic material, while this stimulus would induce relatively low levels of response in heterosexual and homosexual men. A sample of 59 men (19 homosexual, 13 bisexual, and 27 heterosexual) were presented with a series of 4-min sexual videos while their genital and subjective sexual responses were measured continuously. Bisexual men did not differ significantly in their responses to male homosexual stimuli (depicting men engaging in sex) from homosexual men, and they did not differ significantly in their responses to heterosexual (depicting two women, without same-sex contact, engaged in sex with a man) and lesbian (depicting women engaging in sex) stimuli from heterosexual men. However, bisexual men displayed significantly higher levels of both genital and subjective sexual arousal to a bisexual stimulus (depicting a man engaged in sex with both a man and a woman) than either homosexual or heterosexual men. The findings of this study indicate that bisexuality in men is associated with a unique and specific pattern of sexual arousal.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Patterns of Sexual Arousal in Homosexual, Bisexual, and Heterosexual Men

Cerny

Janssen

2011

Arch Sex Behav

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“…For instance, about a half-century ago, it was reported that men were sexually aroused far more easily and more frequently by visual stimuli than women (Kinsey, Pomeroy, & Martin, 1948;Kinsey, Pomeroy, Martin, & Gebhard, 1953). However, a key element in sexual arousal is the kind of stimuli presented to elicit the arousal (Gaither & Plaud, 1997). Subsequently, many researchers have focused on studying sexual arousal in response to sexual stimuli, particularly in terms of sensory modality and experimental content.…”

Section: Experimental Stimuli and Gender Differencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Until the early 1990s, no studies had been conducted that differentiated between audiovisual and visual effects on sexual arousal elicited by watching pornographic films. Gaither and Plaud (1997) examined the effect of two stimulus characteristics on male sexual arousal: the presentation of video stimuli with and without sound and the type of sexual activity described. The mode of stimulus presentation and the type of sexual behavior depicted were both found to affect physiological and subjective measures of sexual arousal, which were highly correlated.…”

Section: Experimental Stimuli and Gender Differencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, several experiments have demonstrated that there are many factors involved in the sexual arousal induced by viewing the films. Although the most striking factor in reporting sexual arousal has been gender (Exton et al, 2000;Janssen, Carpenter, & Graham, 2003;Mosher & Maclan, 1994;Quackenbush, Strassberg, & Turner, 1995), additional findings indicate that gender differences in sexual arousal are partially related to the nature of the experimental stimuli, such as sensory modality and the content of sexual stimuli (Gaither & Plaud, 1997;Janssen et al, 2003;Mosher & Maclan, 1994;Quackenbush et al, 1995).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

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Subjective Sexual Arousal in Response to Erotica: Effects of Gender, Guided Fantasy, Erotic Stimulus, and Duration of Exposure

Youn

2006

Arch Sex Behav

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This study was designed to evaluate the effects of gender, guided fantasy, erotic stimulus (with or without audio), and exposure duration on the subjective sexual arousal of participants watching a 10-min erotic video excerpt depicting sexual activities between a heterosexual adult couple. The excerpt was shown to 105 male and 110 female undergraduates, and sexual arousal was measured four times, at intervals of 1, 4, 7, and 10,min from the onset of the excerpt. While no erotic stimulus effect was found, analysis of variance showed main effects of gender, guided fantasy, and exposure duration, and three two-way interactions of gender x guided fantasy, gender x exposure duration, and guided fantasy x exposure duration. According to the results of simple effects tests, the gender effects were found regardless of whether they had firstly experienced a guided fantasy, while the guided fantasy effect was detected only for the females. The simple main effects for gender were found at all four time intervals, while the pattern of within-subject contrasts at the four time intervals for the males was different from that for the females. The simple main effects for guided fantasy were not found at 1,min and 4,min, but at 7,min and 10,min, while the pattern of within-subject contrasts at the four time intervals for the guided fantasy present condition was different from that for the absent condition. The findings involving gender differences were discussed in the context of biological and social factors.

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“…Given the strong relationship of sexually charged words (or audio cues) to sexual arousal and behavior (Gaither & Plaud, 1997), can it be experimentally demonstrated that there is a natural relationship between sexually explicit words and the formation of stimulus equivalence classes? In other words, can specifically trained relationships among certain combinations of sexually explicit words lead to the formation of other relationships among such words when compared with ambiguously sexual words and neutral words?…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effects of Sexually Explicit Words on the Formation of Stimulus Equivalence Classes

Plaud¹,

Gaither

Franklin

et al. 1998

Psychol Rec

Self Cite

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Stimulus equivalence is a behavioral approach to the analysis of the "meaning" of stimulus sets. The formation of threemember (A-7B-7C) stimulus equivalence classes was used to investigate the effects of three different sets of sample and comparison stimuli on emergent behavior. The three stimulus sets were composed of sexually explicit words, sexually ambiguous words, and a third category of neutral words. Forty-one female and male subjects participated in a modified matching-to-sample experiment. Using a mixed crossover design, subjects received training and emergent relationship training in the three stimulus set conditions, controlling for serial order effects. Results revealed a significant interaction between the formation of stimulus equivalence classes and stimulus "meaning ," indicative of consistently biased responding in favor of reaching criterion responding more slowly for the sexually explicit words. Results were examined in the context of an analysis of the importance of stimulus "meaning" on behavior, and the relation of stimulus "meaning" to behavioral and cognitive theories, with special appraisal given to the influence of sexually related discriminative stimuli on behavior.Stimulus equivalence can be defined as a relationship between two things such that one of those things may be substituted for (or come to take the place of) the other in a particular setting and not significantly alter the situation; that is, they come to evoke the same or nearly the same response. Stimulus equivalence is a behaviorally based approach to exploring and understanding how humans process the relationships between these things-these symbolic stimuli-a process traditionally viewed as cognitive in nature but for which behavioral response patterns do emerge.Stimulus equivalence is concerned with both verbal behavior and rule-governed behavior of humans (Plaud, 1995). Utilizing a conditional

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The effects of secondary stimulus characteristics on men's sexual arousal

Cited by 29 publications

References 17 publications

Patterns of Sexual Arousal in Homosexual, Bisexual, and Heterosexual Men

Patterns of Sexual Arousal in Homosexual, Bisexual, and Heterosexual Men

Subjective Sexual Arousal in Response to Erotica: Effects of Gender, Guided Fantasy, Erotic Stimulus, and Duration of Exposure

The Effects of Sexually Explicit Words on the Formation of Stimulus Equivalence Classes

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