A PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION OF AFFECTIVE AND COGNITIVE RESPONSE TO EROTIC STIMULATION IN MEN BEFORE AND AFTER SEX THERAPY

Affective and cognitive responses to erotic stimulation were studied i n sexually dysfunctional men before and after treatment in a sex thera py program. A comparison group of functional men was studied over the same time interval. A pool of 34 Likert-scaled items assessing various cognitions, affects, and perceptions was administered during baseline and following two erotic audiotapes and a self-generated sexual fanta sy. To focus on global response patterns rather than individual item r esponses, five aggregate indices (sexual arousal, physicality, sensual ity, negative affect, positive affect) were derived using a strategy t hat combined face-validity and reliability analysis. Cluster analysis was employed as an auxiliary technique to confirm the coherence of the se groupings. All five indices differentiated dysfunctional men from c ontrols, and further, three indices (physicality, sensuality, sexual a rousal) showed significant variation across types of erotic stimulatio n. Correlations among the five indices, as well as with penile respons e, revealed two trends that differentiated dysfunctional men from cont rols during the pretest, but that diminished following sex therapy in the dysfunctional men. Future investigations might further rely on mul tiple-item indices as described here. Such measures may provide a more integrated view of sexual response in the laboratory and lead to grea ter understanding of affective and perceptual differences between func tional and dysfunctional men.