Forty-eight undergraduate male social drinkers were randomly assigned to one of two expectancy set conditions in which they were led to believe that the beverage they were administered contained alcohol or no alcohol. For half of the subjects in each expectancy condition, the beverage was an alcoholic malt liquor; the others drank a nonalcoholic malt beverage. After their drinks, changes in penile tumescence in response to normal and deviant tape recordings and to self-generated fantasy were measured physiologically by a mercuryin-rubber strain gauge. The cognitive set (expectancy) significantly increased penile tumescence in response to the various erotic recordings. Alcohol did not significantly influence levels of sexual arousal. Subjects who believed they had consumed an alcoholic beverage evidenced significantly more arousal to the forcible rape recording and to the sadistic stimuli than subjects who believed that they had consumed a nonalcoholic beverage, regardless of the actual contents of the beverage. The cognitive set, as well as the alcohol, significantly influenced several adjunctive measures of arousal, including heart rate, skin temperature, and subjective reports of sexual arousal. Self-report measures of sexual arousal were positively correlated with penile tumescence.An association between alcohol and serious criminal offense is often assumed (Fink, 1938;McGeorge, 1963). In particular, recent investigators suggest a direct relation between alcohol ingestion and aggressive sexual offenses such as forcible rape (Amir, 1971; Gebhard, Gagnon, Pomeroy, & Christenson, 196S;Rada, 1975). Gebhard et al. (1965) interviewed 1,356 white males who had been convicted of one or more sexual offenses. They reported that heterosexual contact accompanied by force or threat with females over age 16 was in sig-The authors express appreciation to Everett Smith, William Hawkins, Shirley Justice, and Betty Catoe for their conscientious assistance in conducting the study. The theoretical contributions of G. Terence Wilson are also gratefully acknowledged. The authors also thank the Hecht Distributing Company, Norfolk, Virginia, for providing the experimental beverages.Requests for reprints should be sent to
Forty-eight undergraduate males were assigned to eight experimental groups. The six subjects within each group received one of four dose levels of beverage alcohol and one of two different sets of expectancy instructions regarding sexual arousal. Changes in penile tumescence, in response to an erotic film, were measured physiologically by a mercury-in-rubber strain gauge. Muscle tension levels were also monitored during the film viewing. In addition, the following adjunctive measures of sexual arousal were employed: (a) sexual imagery, (b) the subjective report of arousal, and (c) the estimation of the extent of penile erection. Alcohol significantly reduced the levels of penile lumcscence (negative linear relation). The expectancy instructions regarding alcohol's effect did not significantly influence the penile response. Sexual imagery was negatively correlated with penile tumescence, whereas the subjective reports of sexual arousal and the estimations of penile erection were positively correlated with the physiological measure of sexual arousal. Muscle tension levels were not significantly influenced by alcohol or the expectancy set; neither was muscle tension correlated with penile tumescence.There is little conclusive evidence regarding the effects of alcohol on sexual responding despite the fact that alcohol has long been thought to influence sexual behavior. Recent clinical research has implicated acute alcohol intoxication as a cause for male sexual dysfunction:Secondary impotence developing in the male in the late forties or early fifties has a higher incidence of direct association with excessive alcohol consumption than with any other single factor. When a man is traumatized by the inability to achieve or to maintain an erection while under the influence of alcohol he frequently develops major concerns for sexual performance and rarely associates his initial disability with its direct cause. (Masters & Johnson, 1966, pp. 267-26S) Similarly, Lemere and Smith (1973) have observed that chronic alcohol abuse may re-This study was based on the doctoral dissertation of the first author in fulfillment of the requirements for the doctorate in clinical psychology.
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