Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-27gpq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-27T09:45:41.540Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Responses to Complex Erotic Stimuli in Homosexual and Heterosexual Males

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Matig Mavissakalian*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, Mississippi 39216, U.S.A.
Edward B. Blanchard
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, Mississippi 39216, U.S.A.
Gene G. Abel
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, Mississippi 39216, U.S.A.
David H. Barlow
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, Mississippi 39216, U.S.A.
*
To whom requests for reprints should be addressed.

Extract

The technique of measuring penile erection is the most valid assessment of sexual arousal in males (Zuckerman, 1971). The stimuli used during assessments of sexual preference with this technique have for the most part, been still or moving pictures of nude single females and males (Freund, 1963; McConaghy, 1967; Barlow, Becker, Leitenberg and Agras, 1970). Recently Abel, Barlow, Blanchard and Mavissakalian (in press) have shown that erotic films produce significantly greater penile circumference changes than either slides or audiotaped descriptions in homosexual males. Similarly, Sandford (1974) showed the superiority of films over slides in heterosexual males and suggested that sexual activity rather than nakedness per se may be the more important in producing sexual arousal. The main purpose of this study was to determine what sexual activities produce significantly different sexual responses in homosexual and heterosexual males.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1975 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

This research was supported in part by Research Grant MH-20258 from the National Institute of Mental Health.

A synopsis of this paper was published in the October 1974 Journal.

References

Abel, G. G., Barlow, D. H., Blanchard, E. B. & Mavtssakalian, M. (1974) Measurement of sexual arousal in male homosexuals: The effects of instructions and stimulus modality. Archives of Sexual Behaviour. In press.Google Scholar
Bancroft, J. (1971) The application of psychophysiological measures to the assessment and modification of sexual behavior. Behavior Research and Therapy, 9, 119–30.Google Scholar
Barlow, D. M., Becker, R., Leitenberg, M., and Agras, W. S. (1970). Mechanical strain gauge recording penile circumference change. Journal of Applied Behaviour Analysis. 3, 73–6.Google Scholar
Barlow, D. H., Leitenberg, H., Agras, W. S., Callahan, E.J. & Moore, R. C. (1972) The contribution of therapeutic instruction to covert sensitization. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 10, 411–5.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Freund, K. (1963) A laboratory method for diagnosing predominance of homo-hetero-erotic interest in the male. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 1, 8593.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freund, K., Langevin, R., Cibiri, S. & Zajac, Y. (1973) Heterosexual aversion in homosexual males. British Journal of Psychiatry, 122, 163–9.Google Scholar
Hersen, M. & Barlow, D. H. Single Case Experimental Designs: Strategies for Studying Behavior Change. New York: Pergamon Press. In press.Google Scholar
Kinsey, A. C., Pomeroy, W. B. & Martin, C. E. (1948) Sexual Behavior in the Human Male. Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders Co.Google Scholar
McConaghy, H. (1967) Penile volume change to moving pictures of male and female nudes in heterosexual and homosexual males. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 5, 43–8.Google Scholar
McConaghy, H. (1969) Subjective and penile plethysmographic responses following aversion relief and apomorphine aversion therapy for homosexual impulses. British Journal of Psychiatry, 115, 723–30.Google Scholar
Marks, I. M. & Sartorius, N. H. (1968) A contribution to the measurement of sexual attitude. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 145, 441–51.Google Scholar
Sandford, D. A. (1974) Patterns of sexual arousal in heterosexual males. Journal of Sexual Research, 10, 150–55.Google Scholar
Zuckerman, M. (1971) Physiological measures of sexual arousal in the human. Psychological Bulletin, 75, 297329.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.