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3.5 eating, sex and other needs week 3 summary
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SEX● Describe the sexual response cycle and its advantages and disadvantages
● Explain how psychological processes affect sexuality
● Discuss the importance of sex and orgasm on life satisfaction
● Report in-depth knowledge of all aspects of sexual dysfunction in men and women
described in the DSM V (Delayed Ejaculation, Erectile Disorder, Male Hypoactive Sexual
Desire Disorder and Premature Ejaculation in men and Female Orgasmic Disorder,
Female Sexual Interest/Arousal Disorder and Genito-pelvic Pain/Penetration Disorder in
women)
● Discuss the impact of childhood sexual abuse on women’s sexual health
● Describe (evidence-based) treatments of sexual dysfunctions; with a focus on the
working mechanisms and effectivity.
Biology, Psychology, and Human Sexual Responding
[The physiology of human sexual responding]
NOTE: anatomy - the structure involved vs physiology - the role anatomic parts play in process
(how they work)
Current chapter will look into what happens to the body before, during, and ager sexual
activities.
Why do humans become sexually aroused? Not just the impulse toward reproduction, but other
reasons may include feeling pleasure, giving pleasure, expressing feelings of closeness and
love, relieving stress, feeling valued, expressing value, feeling more dominant or submissive
and many other reasons.
For humans as it can be seen there are not purely bipological reasons for sexual desire; they
are essentially psychological reasons.
The excitement-plateau-orgasm resolution (EPOR) model [Masters and Johnson]
How does our bodies change during sexual stimulation? Masters and Johnson divided the
process into four phases of sexual response: exctement, plateau, orgasm, and resolution
(EPOR).
Note that they never intended for these four phases of sexual response to be conceptualized as
four separate and distinct events. It is more of an ‘arbitrary four-part division’.
● Excitement and plateau: the first two stages
(plateau is sometimes seen as an extension of the excitement phase)
,Early arousal responses can occur from any type of pleasurable sexual stimulation or
aphrodisiacs (altough this is a MYTH).
What happens during the excitement stage?
- Vasocongestion: (for both sexes)the blood begins to circulate into erectile structures,
causing them to expand and enlarge
For men: erection of the penis, testicles also somewhat enlarge. If stimulation decreases,
distraction - erection can easily be lost at this stage (cause still not fully erect)
For women: erection of the clitoris - altough this cannot really be seen, but we can still
understand the sexual excitement has begun in women by looking at vaginal lubrication.
Clitoris increases in size, the labia minora swells, as well as internal changes e.g. the uterus
engorges with blood, enlarges etc.
- A sex flush: reddening of the skin around chest and abdomen may occur in some people
- Nipples become erect
- Breathing becomes heavier and faster
- Increased heart rate
- Myotonia: voluntary muscles tense
After reaching some level of excitement - women and men report being continued to be
aroused, but no additional elevation in the level of arousal. This stage is called the plateau
phase.
What happens during the plateau phase?
- Erectile tissues fully engorged with blood
- Respiration, heart rate, blood pressure, and muscle tension are all at high levels as
orgasm approaches
- Tenting: the inner parts of the vagina continue to expand.
- Penis fully erect, unlikely to be lost
● Orgasm: the orgasmic phase, shorter of the four phases (usually lasting less than 15
seconds)
After - Men have one orgasm followed by a period of time, a refractory period, unable to have
another orgasm regardless of the stimulation
Vs women can have multiple orgams w/o needing a refractory period.
What happens during the orgasmic phase?
- Pelvic contractions for both sexes
- Two stages of ejaculation: Emission: semen build up, cannot be controlled after that
point (ejaculatory inevitability) & then expulsion
● Resolution phase: completion of the cycle, when the body returns to its sexually
nonaroused state
(fairly rapidly happens after orgasm)
- Heart rate, blood pressure, and muscle tension drop quickly
, - Relaxed, warm, content, sleepy feeling
- For women - if they receive additional stimulation they can go back to the plateau phase
and have one or more additional orgasms (multiple orgasms) w/o entering a resolution
phase or refractory period between them.
- Lose erection
- Men go into the refractory period.
Criticisms of the EPOR model
- Does not involve emotional and psychological components of sexuality e.g. desire
So we don't know if this cycle would occur even if desire was missing?
- Purely physical reactions examined, but the human sexual response involve and emerge
from psychological interpretations as well
- Too androcentric – relies too heavily on a one-size-fits-all male sexual response and fails
to acknowledge many fundamelntal differences in female sexuality
All stages, or experiences are individualized, the info mentioned is not the same for all men or
women.
- The act should not be goal(orgasm)-directed, and more pleasure directed
- Stages still questionable
Alternatives to masters and johnson
Kaplan’s three stage model: (1) desire, (2) excitement, (3) orgasm
She suggested that without desire, sexual responding is unlikely e.g. hypoactive sexual desire,
which she has observed to be extremely common interfering with stress, depression, pain,
medication, negative past experiences, loss of interest in partner, low self-image, and hormonal
influences.
// desire can also stem after the beginning of sexual activity itself, too simple but should still be
considered since it includes the psychological aspects.
Reed’s erotic stimulus pathway theory: again, more psychological and interpersonal
perspective compared to Masters and Johnson, for stages (1) seduction, (2) sensations, (3)
surrender, and (4) reflection
- Here, the seduction behaviors include the effort to attract the other person e.g. wearing
perfumes, makeup, eye contact, touching, buying flowers, signaling desire for sex
- Sensations - basically like the excitement and plateau, but Reed also suggests things
like imagination and fantasy feed the arousal and motivate us
- Surrender - orgasm
- Self-reflection, put meaning to the experience, interpretation
// no info on physical
, SEXUAL AROUSE AND RESPONSE:
INFORMATION PROCESSING: response to sexual stimul, cognitive mechanisms and
relevance of mood
Response to sexual stimuli
- Visual stimuli: It has been found that erotic films are powerful in eliciting sexual
responses in men (more than it is for non-moving visual stimuli)
[More research needed on how ‘moving’ and non-moving stimuli differ[
Sexual attractiveness in terms of visual appearance - complex, different for men and women
- Smell: the word ‘pheromone’ are used to describe olfactory cues, which show their effect
through:
(i) olfactory priming, by which an olfactory stimulus has some gradual effect on the physiological
of the recipient over a period of time
(ii) olfactory signaling, by which olfactory stimuli have a more immediate effect on the behavior
of the recipient
E.g. subjective and genital responses to sexual fantasy and erotic films combined with male
fragnence observed, helps with the development of sexual fantasy but becomes irrelevant later
on.
- Touch: sensory pathways from the genitalia activated in response to erotic stimulation.
Note that tactile stimulation to other parts of the body can also be intensely erotic.
Effects of feedback and performance demand
Are our sexual responses enhanced by our paying attention to them/to demands?
- It depends, in one study the feedback men receive from their erectile response can be
beneficial e.g. deconditioning of performance anxiety.
- Another study found that when the individual visually observed their erectile response –
perceiving a good sexual response is in itself sexually arousing, and perceiving poor
response is inhibiting.
- Dysfunctional men are adversely affected by demand for a response in an experimental
situation, whereas normal men aren't.
Partner’s response and feedback
- If their partner show low sexual arousal, both dys/functional men responded better by
concentrating on their own responses rather than theri partners
- If their partner was showing high arousal, the functional men again responded better by
focusing attention on the partner, whereas with dysfunctional men the reverse applied
(because it is more threatening for them)
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