Chapter 5 - Leslie Smith PDF

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Leslie Smith...

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Attraction, Arousal, and Response 

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A predictable sequence of mental and bodily processes characterizes sexual interactions  Sexual attraction to a potential sex partner  Psychological sexual arousal  Physiological changes in the genitals (sexual response cycle) This sequence is NOT universal (but the three phases serve as guidelines/a framework for discussion)

Sexual attraction: it takes two  Beauty is not entirely in the eye of the beholder  Masculinity/femininity  Differences in structures of men's and women's faces (indicators of reproductive maturity and fertility because changes happen most drastically during puberty due to sex hormones)  Women's faces tend to be judged as most attractive when on far end of masculine-feminine spectrum, BUT men are more complicated [on the farthest masculine end, may be judged as "cold" and therefore perceived as less attractive]  Symmetry  Averageness  Culture influences the attractiveness of bodies  Body mass index (BMI)--a person's weight in kilograms divided by their height in meters  Choice blindness--unawareness of the actual reasons for a preference, along with unconscious invention of fictitious reasons  Attractiveness involves senses besides vision  Hearing--voices (women generally prefer men with deeper voices; men prefer higherpitched voices)  Smell--human sex pheromones--volatile substances released from men's and women's bodies that may influence sexual feelings in others [but note that they don't have same extreme effect as they do with insects and some vertebrates, if they even do exist; inconclusive research]  Behavior and personality influence sexual attractiveness  Men more interested in physical attractiveness whereas women more interested in wealth, status, or intelligence  Familiarity may increase or decrease attraction  The more people know each other, the more person-specific judgment supplant consensus judgments  Coolidge effect--revival of sexual arousal caused by the presence of a novel partner  Habituation--a psychological or physiological process that reduces a person's response to a stimulus or drug after prolonged exposure  Westermarck effect--the lack of sexual attraction between individuals, such as siblings, who lived together during their childhood  Perceived attractiveness varies around the menstrual cycle  Women prefer more masculine faces near time of ovulation (also preferred deep-voiced men around this time)  Evolutionary implications--genetically-favored, "strong" males preferred during fertile window

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Asexual women and men do not experience sexual attraction  Asexual--describes a person who does not experience sexual attraction (approx. 1% of adults in US)  Demisexual--describes a person who experiences sexual attraction only in the context of a strong emotional bond Sexual arousal has multiple roots  Fantasy is a common mode of sexual arousal  Fantasy--an imagined experience, sexual or otherwise (during waking hours)  Rape fantasies are exception to generalization that sexual fantasies typically involve behaviors people engage/would like to engage in  Arousal occurs in response to a partner  Sexual arousal tends to operate in a more specific manner in men than in women  Gonadal steroid hormones influence sexual arousability  Testosterone by itself does not cause sexual arousal, BUT it does have an important longterm effect on our sexual arousability  Hypogonadal--producing insufficient levels of sex hormones; hypogonadal men suffer a gradual decline in sexual desire and activity  Aphrodisiac--a substance believed to improve sexual performance, enhance sexual pleasure, or stimulate desire or love (testosterone one of many substances used as an aphrodisiac)  Women more complicated, because arousability involved both androgens (including testosterone) and estrogens; additionally, fluctuations throughout menstrual cycle influence arousability  Conditioning may influence arousal  Classical/Pavlovian conditioning--form of behavioral learning in which a novel stimulus is tied to a preexisting reflex Sexual arousal follows a response cycle  Sexual response cycle--the sequence of physiological processes that accompany sexual behavior  In the excitement phase, genital response begins  Excitement phase--the beginning phase of the sexual response cycle  Vasocongestion--tissue swelling caused by increased filling of local blood vessels  In women, marked by swelling and opening up of inner labia, vaginal lubrication, a deepening of color of the inner labia and vaginal walls due to vasocongestion, erection of clitoris and nipples, swelling of breasts, and increase in heart rate and blood pressure  In men, marked mainly by erection of the penis (in young men, erection usually takes less than a minute, sometimes as little as 10 seconds), contraction of the Cremaster muscle also elevates testicles  In the plateau phase, arousal is maintained  Plateau phase--phase of the sexual response cycle during which arousal is maintained at a high level  Orgasmic platform--the outer portion of the vagina and surrounding tissues which thickens and tenses during sexual arousal  Myotonia--a general increase in muscle tension  Orgasm is the climax of sexual arousal  Orgasm--the intense, pleasurable sensations at sexual climax, along with the physiological processes that accompany them  Research suggests there is little, if any, difference in the ways men and women experience orgasm

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Brain imaging suggests where orgasm may be experienced  Zone in the middle of the brain, including the thalamus (dopamine-related systems)  Activity in the cerebral cortex (seat of our intellectual lives) decreases greatly during orgasm  In women, especially heightened activity in the nucleus accumbens--nucleus within the basal ganglia that is part of the brain's reward system In the resolution phase, arousal subsides  Resolution phase--the phase of the sexual response cycle during which physiological arousal subsides  Full resolution usually takes around 15 minutes, but is slower if an orgasm has not occurred The phases may be linked in different ways  Not all sexual experiences follow this "standard" path (some skip orgasm, etc.)  Men are less likely than women to be satisfied with a sexual experience that does not include an orgasm  Another type of cycle involves multiple orgasms--two or more orgasms, between which the person descends only to the plateau level of arousal  Far more common in women  Serial orgasms--two or more orgasms with no more than a few seconds between them (often observed with women using vibrators) Men experience a refractory period  Refractory period--in males, a period of reduced or absent sexual arousability after orgasm; usually lasts between 30 and 90 minutes Pituitary hormones influence the sexual response cycle  Oxytocin and prolactin  Oxytocin increases during arousal and plateau and surge drastically right before and after orgasm  Prolactin has opposite effect (reducing prolactin increases arousal); prolactin surges at the time of orgasm, so probably plays a part in the reduction of arousal in resolution phase and in the sexual unresponsiveness that characterizes refractory period  Dopamine also released in part of brain associated with motivation and reward The Masters and Johnson cycle may be incomplete [4 stage model detailed above]  The motivations for engaging in sex can be complex and diverse and can't be encompassed by any single model...