Sexual experience and sexual responsiveness: Sex differences

Male (30) and female (30) college undergraduate subjects were shown five photographic slides depicting different heterosexual behaviors and one slide depicting solitary masturbation by a person of the same sex as the subject. Subjects rated the extent to which they found each of the slides sexually arousing and pleasant or unpleasant and indicated how many times they had personally engaged in each of the depicted activities. Following exposure to the slides, sexual arousal and emotional reactions were assessed. Contrary to the propositions of Kinsey et al. (1953), female heterosexual experience was equal to or superior to masturbation experience as an indicant of female sexual reactivity to the erotic materials. Among males, masturbation experience was superior to heterosexual experience as an indicant of sexual reactivity. The role of affective reactions to sexual experiences as determinants of sexual responsiveness is discussed.Requests for reprints should be addressed to William Griffitt, Department of Psychology, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas 66502.     

Masturbation prohibition in sex offenders: A crossover study

Some self-help groups for individuals with aberrant sexual interests (e.g., Sexaholics Anonymous and Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous) maintain that a period of “sexual sobriety” is necessary for treatment. The hypothesis was tested that sexual urges during a 30-day period of voluntary abstinence from masturbation would be less frequent and intense than during a period when masturbation was not avoided. Outpatient pedophiles were randomly assigned to either refrain from masturbating or make no attempt to alter their masturbation frequency for a period of 30 days. All participants were crossed over to the other treatment condition at the start of the 2nd month. Sexual urges and behavior were measured using weekly self-reports. A repeated measures ANOVA failed to show a difference in reported intensity of sexual urges,F(7, 91)=1.15,p=0.34; masturbation urges,F(7, 91)=1.73,p-0.11; adult sex urges,F(7, 91)=1.82,p=0.09; or child sex urges,F(7, 91) =1.58,p=0.15, in Masturbation Allowed vs. Masturbation Not Allowed conditions. Of 17 participants, 3 (18%) were able to retain completely from masturbating for 1 month, 4 participants (25%) thought it was helpful not to masturbate; 1 participant (7%) thought therapists should recommend avoidance of masturbation. This study suggests that sexual sobriety from masturbation does not aid in the control of pedophilic fantasies. This may be because the technique is ineffective, or because so few participants are willing to engage in it.     

The Adolescent Sexual Interest Card Sort: Test-retest reliability and concurrent validity in relation to phallometric assessment

Test—retest reliability and concurrent validity studies on the Adolescent Sexual Interest Card Sort (ASIC) were conducted in two samples of 38 juvenile sexual offenders, each. Of the 64 items of the ASIC, 60 were found to be significantly correlated across test administrations. Cronbach's coefficient alpha was employed to determine the internal consistency of ASIC items. Coefficients ranged from .62 to .96 across categories, with an overall alpha of .97. Client ratings of sexual interests via the Card Sort were correlated with phallometric response to similar categories of stimuli. Significant correlations were found for only 4 of the 14 categories examined, suggesting little correspondence between client report of sexual interest on the ASIC and phallometric assessment of the same. Findings are consistent with the adult sex offender literature suggesting that self-report measures are particularly vulnerable to dissimulation and often at variance with more objective measurement. Clinical and research issues pertinent to the measurement of sexual arousal and interest in juvenile sexual offenders are discussed.     

Sexual behavior of castrated sex offenders

Data are reported on the sexual behavior of 39 released sex offenders who agreed voluntarily to surgical castration while imprisoned in West Germany. Findings indicated that frequency of coitus, masturbation, and sexual thoughts are seen as strongly reduced after castration. Sexual desire and sexual arousability are perceived by the subjects as having been considerably impaired by castration. In comparison with other studies, however, it was shown that male sexual capacity was not extinguished soon after castration. Particularly noteworthy is that 11 of 35 castrates (31%) stated they were still able to engage in sexual intercourse. Rapists proved to be sexually more active after castration than homosexuals or pedophiliacs. There seems to be a strong effect on sexual behavior only if castration is performed on males between the age of 46 and 59 years. In general, the findings do not justify recommending surgical castration as a reliable treatment for incarcerated sex offenders.     

Castration for sex offenders: Treatment or punishment? A review and critique of recent European literature

The recent European literature on surgical castration in treatment of sex offenders is reviewed. Results are reported of the most important empirical studies conducted in this field of sex research in Germany, Switzerland, Norway, and Denmark. Methodological problems of follow-up studies on castrates as well as the subject of castration as treatment for sex offenders as a whole are discussed. The main conclusion is that there is no scientific or ethical basis for castration in the treatment of sex offenders.     

Sex fantasies revisited: An expansion and further clarification of variables affecting sex fantasy production

Findings of prior research which indicated both external factors (experimental response cues and internal factors (sex guilt) influencing subjects' writing of their sexual fantasies were expanded. University males (N = 88) and females (N = 122) were studied. They read sex fantasy examples varying in conventionality of the sexual activity and the relationship context before reporting their own fantasies. Sex guilt level of all subjects was measured as well as their subjective responses to writing the fantasies. The data were analyzed to determine whether varying response cues along certain dimensions could influence subjects to write parallel fantasies. Sex guilt levels and sex of the subject were the best predictors of the length, explicitness, and variety of content of subjects' reported fantasies. Males wrote longer, more explicit and varied fantasies but were affected similarly by sex guilt levels as females. High sex guilt subjects in general produced more restricted content and shorter fantasies. They also experienced more embarrassment and less arousal. Females were more likely to have high levels of guilt about sex than males. The varying dimensions of the fantasy examples had little effect on the types of fantasy material revealed and therefore the erotic/explicit aspect of the examples found in the prior research seems to be the factor that produces effects on fantasy production. Comparing the two studies, females may respond with longer, more explicit fantasies when given erotic but more traditional sexual examples.     

Sex Differences in the Flexibility of Sexual Orientation: A Multidimensional Retrospective Assessment

The flexibility of sexual orientation in men and women was examined by assessing self-reported change over time for three dimensions of sexual orientation (sexual fantasy, romantic attraction, and sexual behavior) across three categorical classifications of current sexual orientation (heterosexual, bisexual, and gay). The primary purpose of the study was to determine if there were sex differences in the flexibility (i.e., change over time) of sexual orientation and how such differences were manifested across different dimensions of orientation over the lifespan. Retrospective, life-long ratings of sexual orientation were made by 762 currently self-identified heterosexual, bisexual, and gay men and women, aged 36 to 60, via a self-report questionnaire. Cumulative change scores were derived for each of the three dimensions (fantasy, romantic attraction, and sexual behavior) of orientation by summing the differences between ratings over consecutive 5-year historical time periods (from age 16 to the present). Sex differences were observed for most, but not all, classification groups. There were significant sex differences in reported change in orientation over time for gays and heterosexuals, with women reporting greater change in orientation over time than did men. Bisexual men and women did not differ with respect to self-reported change in orientation.     

Sexual interviewing,evaluation, and therapy: Psychoanalytic emphasis on the use of sexual fantasy

Sexual fantasy in initial interviews and during psychotherapy and psychoanalysis is explored for its contribution to understanding psychopathology, both sexual and nonsexual. The focus is on distinguishing between the sexual and the seemingly sexual. Sexual behavior and fantasy are regarded as having sexual pleasure and orgasm as the predominant goal. Seemingly sexual behavior and fantasy have a predominant goal that is not sexual, even though a sexual mode is used. Predominant goals in the seemingly sexual are emphasized such as coping with intense aggression and problems of self-esteem, self-definition, self-cohesion, and the maintenance of object relations. Sexual fantasy and behavior can be especially useful for repairing negative self- and object images and the associated intensely negative affects. This does not imply that all more primitive patients are incapable of experiencing intense sexual pleasure and orgasm. On the contrary, borderline patients, with extensive use of splitting mechanisms at the level of dyadic object relating, may have intact sexual functioning.     

Treatment Alliance in Residential Treatment of Criminal Adolescents

Research on relationship aspects in residential treatment of criminal young persons has largely been neglected despite the general finding in treatment research that such aspects have a large bearing on outcome. In this article, two studies of associations between relationship aspects and outcome in this treatment context are presented. In one of them, two treatment units practicing Aggression Replacement Training and CBT-techniques and 2 U with more conventional, relationally oriented treatment approaches were studied using process questionnaires and interviews. In the other study, adolescents who had been sentenced to treatment were interviewed about treatment experiences 1 year after release. Despite considerable attrition, several interesting findings were noted: The boys’ alliance ratings were associated with the collaborative aspect of the staff’s alliance ratings, but not with the bond aspect; warm and close staff feelings were related to negative outcome and the boys’ conceptions of the treatment model but not of the relationship with the staff was associated with positive outcome. The results suggest that a distinction should be made between a mutual bond aspect of the staff−boy relationship that was not related to outcome and a collaborative aspect which was related to outcome.     

Sexual fantasy and pornography: Two cases of girls brought up with pornography

A normal part of late childhood and preadolescence for boys is exposure to pornography. The visual imagery of the forbidden acts in pornography are readily integrated with sexual fantasy in masturbation and in social sex. Money and Ehrhardt (1972) have attributed the fact that proportionately more women (36%) than men (11%) do not make any use of visual imagery during sexual acts to a greater biological readiness to respond to distal, visual images with arousal among men. While such a biological threshold hypothesis may well be correct, the ubiquity of practice with norm-violative behavior in the excited and approving context of the childhood male peer group could make an important contribution to the later uptake of pornographic imagery into fantasy. A full test of the Money and Ehrhardt hypothesis would be impossible, entailing a study of adolescent fantasy among a group of girls who grew up just like boys until adolescence. Two sisters close in age, now women in their 20s, grew up with pornography ad lib because of the family's business in pornographic publishing. They were interviewed for their sexual histories. One uses visual fantasy and has integrated some elements of the imagery of the pornography for a period into her sexual life; the other has not. Implications for the definition of the two gender curricula—what boys learn from other boys and girls from other girls—are discussed.     

The Perception of Sexual Attractiveness: Sex Differences in Variability

Results of three independent studies supported predictions derived from evolutionary theory: Men's assessments of sexual attractiveness are determined more by objectively assessable physical attributes; women's assessments are more influenced by perceived ability and willingness to invest (e.g., partners' social status, potential interest in them). Consequently, women's assessments of potential partners' sexual attractiveness and coital acceptability vary more than men's assessments. The proposition that polygamous women's assessments of men's sexual attractiveness vary less than those of monogamous women (because the former allegedly are more influenced by target persons' physical attributes) was also tested. In Study 1 male college students showed more agreement than females in their rankings of the sexual attractiveness of opposite-sex target persons. Target persons' flesh and bodily display enhanced this sex difference. In Study 2 men exhibited less variance than did women in their ratings of target persons' acceptability for dating and sexual relations. Women who viewed models described as having low status showed more variability than did women in the high-status condition. In Study 3 women showed more variability than men did in their ratings of 20 opposite-sex celebrities' sexual attractiveness. Studies 2 and 3 included the Sociosexual Orientation Inventory (SOI)—a measure of polygamous attitudes and behavior. Women's SOI scores did not affect the variability of their assessments in either Study 2 or 3. In Study 3 men with low SOI scores showed less variability than did men with high SOI scores. Alternative explanations of the findings are examined. Theoretical and empirical implications are discussed.     

Sexual dysfunction in male alcohol addicts: Prevalence and treatment

Study 1 examined the prevalence of sexual dysfunction in 101 male alcohol addicts. Inpatients at a clinic for alcoholism were investigated by questionnaire about their sexual functioning and by hormonal data. Three-quarters had erectile dysfunction, loss of libido, and premature or delayed ejaculation. A follow-up study was done 9 months after the end of treatment. No significant differences in the prevalence of sexual dysfunction were found between the two points of measurement. All patients had normal levels of plasma testosterone at the beginning and end of inpatient treatment. These findings suggest psychological causes for the sexual problems and a need for therapeutic intervention. Study 2 reports on a group of addicts with sexual dysfunction who were treated by a behavioral treatment format. Follow-up results indicate that the treatment group showed significantly less sexual dysfunction than an untreated control group.     

Psychological Correlates of Male Child and Adolescent Sexual Experiences with Adults: A Review of the Nonclinical Literature

Researchers have generally neglected sexual experiences of boys with adults, assumed them to be the same as those of girls, or tried to understand them by referring to clinical research while ignoring nonclinical research. A review of nonclinical research allows a more complete understanding of boys' sexual experiences with adults and the outcomes and correlates of those experiences. Research with nonclinical samples reveals a broad range of reactions, with most reactions being either neutral or positive. Clinical samples reveal a narrower, primarily negative, set of reactions. Comparison of the reactions of boys and girls shows that reactions and outcomes for boys are more likely to be neutral or positive. Moderator variables, including presence of force, perceptions of consent, and relationship to the adult, also relate to outcomes. Incestuous contacts and those involving force or threats are most likely to be negative. Problems in this field of research include broad and vague definitions of abuse and conflation of value judgments with harm. Effects of boys' early sexual experiences with older persons in general cannot be accurately inferred from clinical research alone or from girls' experiences.     

Paradoxes of Treatment in Juvenile Corrections

Youth offenders who are sentenced to correctional institutions are typically required to participate in various forms of psychological treatment. Despite high costs and poor results associated with these placements, little is known about how psychological treatment strategies are integrated into traditional correctional models or how these essentially competing philosophies operate together. Through field observations and semi-structured interviews, the authors expose several paradoxes of treatment that emerged in a county juvenile correctional facility for youthful male offenders in a large Midwestern American city. The authors provide a critical perspective on the blending of treatment and correctional approaches to juvenile rehabilitation.This project was funded by the Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station and the Lois and Samuel Silberman fund.     

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

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 × guided fantasy, gender × exposure duration, and guided fantasy × 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.     

A Comparison of Volume and Circumference Phallometry: Response Magnitude and Method Agreement

Penile circumference and penile volumephallometry are laboratory methods of assessing sexualarousal. Volume phallometry is reportedly more sensitiveto responses, but comparative studies have beeninconclusive and beset with methodological problems. In thisstudy, 42 self-professed heterosexual volunteers wereassessed with both methods simultaneously, employing astandard test for erotic partner preference. Pearson correlations between test outcomeprofiles were very high (r > .80) for subjects whosecircumferential increase was >2.5 mm [10% of a fullerection (FE)]. However, among lower responders the agreement dropped precipitously (mean r =–.15). Moreover, as a group higher respondersdifferentiated adult and pubescent age female stimulifrom each other and all other categories with eithermethod, but lower responders made this differentiationonly with the volume method. We conclude that (1) athigh levels of response both methods are equally good,(2) at low levels of response volumetric phallometry is a more accurate measure of arousal, and (3)10% FE, or a 2.5-mm circumference increase, should bethe minimum response criterion for the circumferentialmeasure.     

The basis of the abused abuser theory of pedophilia: A further elaboration on an earlier study

The connection between the retrospective self-report of sexual abuse in child-hood by an adult person, and (i) erotically preferred age bracket and (ii) type of offense, was investigated in 303 heterosexual males. This group consisted of 83 pedophilic sex offenders against female children, 52 sex offenders against female children who erotically preferred adult women, 34 sex offenders against adult women, and 134 volunteer controls. An earlier exploratory investigation with somewhat smaller numbers of individuals had rendered only ambiguous results. After regrouping of individuals and more precise analysis of results, the present study demonstrated that the self-report of having been sexually abused in childhood is mainly connected with pedophilia. Status as a sex offender in general was not related to childhood abuse.     

A Study in Sexual Health Applying the Principles of Community-Based Participatory Research

The principles of community-based participatory research were applied to an exploratory sexual health study that examined "cruising for sex" among men on a college campus. In the context of a study seeking a broad interpretation of the health implications of cruising, and when faced with methodological challenges, the researchers found these principles to provide invaluable guidance. A review of the research process is offered and the manner in which the principles of community-based participatory research were operationalized for this study is described.