Procedure to validate sexual stimuli: reliability and validity of a set of sexual stimuli in a sample of young colombian heterosexual males.

Abstract

Penile plethysmography -or phallometric assessment -is a very relevant evaluation for sexual health. The objective of this research is to suggest a guideline to validate sexual stimuli and validate a set of sexual stimuli to assess "normative" sexual behavior in Colombian young heterosexual men. Six videos of 3:15 minute-long were used. A total of 24 men were assessed. Objective sexual arousal, the International Index of Erectile Function-5, Self-Assessment Manikin, Multidimensional Scale to Assess Subjective Sexual Arousal and socio-psycho-sexual questions were used. The results showed three sexual excerpts which were clearly superior to the others -something discordant with the subjective opinion of researchers. These three sexual excerpts generated internally consistent measurements; moreover, good indicators of external validity have been observed with statistically significant differences as expected. Furthermore, with a small healthy Colombian young population, it has been shown that the three stimuli produce objective sexual arousal if used together. ResumenLa pletimosgrafía peneana -o la medición falométrica -es una importante forma de evaluar la salud sexual. El objetivo deésta investigación es sugerir un procedimiento para validar estímulos sexuales y validar un set de estímulos sexuales para evaluar comportamientos sexuales "normativos", en formato de video, en hombres colombianos jóvenes y heterosexuales. Se utilizaron seis videos de 3:15 minutos de duración. Se evaluó un total de 24 hombres. Se evaluó la excitación sexual objetiva, el cambio rápido en la temperatura periférica, el pulso y se empleó elÍndice Internacional de Función Eréctil-5, el Self-Assessment Manikin, el Multidimensional Scale to Assess Subjective Sexual Arousal y preguntas socio-psico-sexuales. Los resultados muestran tres videos sexuales cortos, los cuales fueron notoriamente superiores a los otros evaluados y diferían de la opinión subjetiva de los investigadores. Estos tres videos sexuales generaron medidas de consistencia interna; además, se observaron buenos indicadores de validez externa con diferencias estadísticas significativas, según lo esperado. Se demostró que, al menos, en una pequeña muestra de jóvenes colombianos sanos los tres estímulos producen excitación sexual objetiva si se emplean juntos.

Relación del deseo sexual con la excitación sexual objetiva y subjetiva

“…La diferencia de edad entre las muestras de ambos estudios, siendo más jóvenes los participantes del presente estudio, podría dar una explicación a este resultado. En cuanto a la excitación sexual objetiva, destaca la elevada desviación típica encontrada, tanto en hombres como en mujeres, lo que refleja la gran variabilidad en las respuestas genitales ante la exposición, en un contexto de laboratorio, a estímulos sexuales visuales estandarizados, tal como se observa en estudios similares (Arcos-Romero, Gómez-Lugo, Saavedra-Roa, Pérez-Durán y Vallejo-Medina, 2016;Oliveira et al, 2014;Vallejo-Medina, Soler, Gómez-Lugo, Saavedra-Roa y Marchal-Bertrand, 2017;Velten, Scholten, Graham, Adolph y Margraf, 2016;Vilarinho et al, 2014).…”

The Spanish Version of the Sexual Opinion Survey (SOS-6): Evidence of Validity of a Short Version

“…Genital response. Objective sexual arousal in men was recorded using a penile plethysmograph, a device that measures changes in the circumference of the penis when an erection occurs ( Vallejo-Medina, Soler, Gómez-Lugo, Saavedra-Roa, & Marchal-Bertrand, 2017 ). In women, a vaginal pulse amplitude was obtained by vaginal photoplethysmograph, which reflects short-term changes in vaginal tissue blood congestion ( Rosen & Beck, 2011 ; Stanton, Boyd, Fogarty, & Meston, 2019 ).…”

A non-latex condom has no influence on male physiological sexual arousal

“…Eligible participants were then contacted through WhatsApp©, and the experimental sessions were scheduled based on their availability and willingness to participate. To prevent duplication of participant information, control measures were implemented, including checks on IP addresses, age, and WhatsApp© numbers, following similar protocols as described in other studies ( Vallejo-Medina et al., 2017 ).…”

“…The stimuli used in the present study were validated for Colombian men, who were exclusively or mainly heterosexual ( Vallejo-Medina et al., 2017 ). Six videos are edited and available in our laboratory.…”

“…The next minute corresponds to the cunnilingus scene, the following minute to fellatio, and the remaining minute to vaginal intercourse. The six videos were presented in an alternating sequence (i.e., NS1 - SSx - NS1 - SSx - NS3 - SS3; Vallejo-Medina et al., 2017 ) that were previously set and balanced to guarantee their presentation to the same number of participants.…”