Twelve male subjects who were trained to expect tolerance-level electric shocks viewed an erotic film under three different counterbalanced conditions. In one condition, subjects viewed the erotic film in conjunction with a signal light indicating threat of shock. A second light indicated threat of shock if subjects did not achieve an erection of a certain size. A third light indicated no shock. Both anxiety-inducing shock-threat conditions increased penile response over and above the np-shock-threat condition. Furthermore, shock threat contingent on size of erection produced more arousal than noncontingent-shock threat.

The structural patterns of sexual arousal are examined for eight male and eight female heterosexuals. Comparisons are made in terms of physiological and subjective arousal. The results indicate (1) that males and females differ in both the direction and magnitude of their arousal response to a variety of erotic stimuli and (2) that there is a stronger correspondence between subjective and physiological measures of sexual arousal for males than for females. A social acceptability and/or unacceptability theory is suggested to account for similarities and differences between the male and female structural patterns of arousal. Several methods of assessing subjective arousal are included to represent those most frequently used in clinical research settings. It is demonstrated that each of the subjective measures discriminates between erotic conditions and that the information provided by each of the measures are comparable.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract