1. Sexual Arousal and Response
Chapter 5

2. Learning Objectives Making Sense of Sex Aphrodisiacs
Sexual Response and the Brain: Cerebral Sex?
Sex Hormones and Sexual Behavior
Sexual Response

3. Making Sense of Sex
Senses
All the senses can be responsive to stimuli that enhance or diminish one’s sexual arousal

4. Making Sense of Sex
Visual stimuli are very important to human sexual arousal and response
Men appear to be more responsive to visual stimuli
Both men and women can be sexually aroused by mediated erotica
Men are more interested
Vision

5. Making Sense of Sex Odors can be sexually attractive or off-putting
Play a role in selection of sex partners
Pheromones are odorless chemicals detected by the nose
Contributes to menstrual synchrony in women
Smell

6. Making Sense of Sex Sense of touch has most direct effect on arousal
Erogenous zones are areas of the body that are especially sensitive to stimulation, such as strokes and caresses
Primary erogenous zones are particularly sensitive because they are richly endowed with nerve endings
Secondary erogenous zones are areas of the body that become especially sensitive through experience
The Skin Senses

7. Making Sense of Sex
Tastes seem to play a minimal role in sexual arousal and response
Some people are aroused by taste of genital secretions
Taste

8. Making Sense of Sex
Auditory stimuli can have a strong influence on sexual arousal and behavior
A person’s voice, certain music, certain “dirty” words, etc., can be turn-on or turn-off
Hearing

9. Aphrodisiacs Anaphrodisiacs
Drugs or other agents that are sexually arousing or that increase sexual desire
Foods resembling male genitals
Drugs that affect the brain’s receptors for dopamine
Testosterone
Good nutrition and exercise
Novelty
Substances that inhibit or destroy sexual arousal and response
Tranquilizers and barbiturates, which depress the central nervous system
Drugs for hypertension
Some antidepressants
Nicotine
Antiandrogen drugs, substances that decrease the level of androgens in the bloodstream
Anaphrodisiacs

10. Psychoactive Drugs Alcohol
A small amount can be stimulating, but large amounts often curb sexual arousal & response
Reduces sexual inhibitions
Binge drinking associated with high-risk sexual behavior
Can create feelings of euphoria

11. Psychoactive Drugs Hallucinogens
No proven connection between such drugs and sexual arousal and response
Effects may depend on prior use, attitudes/expectations, and amount

12. Psychoactive Drugs Stimulants
Activate the central nervous system, but may not have specific sexual effects
Can elevate mood, which could increase sexual pleasure
Regular users may need the drug to become sexually aroused or may lose the ability to enjoy sex

13. Alcohol stimulates sexual desire and behavior.
Critical Thinking
Alcohol stimulates sexual desire and behavior.
Agree or Disagree
Critical Thinking

14. Sexual Response & the Brain
Parts of the brain play a central role in sexual arousal and response
Fig Parts of the brain involved in sexual functioning (p. 135).

15. Sexual Response & the Brain
Cerebral cortex
The part of the brain that is active when people engage in sexual thoughts, images, wishes, and fantasies
Transmits messages through spinal cord
Provides sense of conscious sense of self
Makes judgments about sexual behavior

16. Sexual Response & the Brain
Limbic system
Structures active in memory, motivation, and emotion
Hypothalamus – regulates body temperature, drives, hormones, and emotion

17. Sexual Response & the Brain
Electrical stimulation of certain parts of the limbic system has led to reports of sensations similar to sexual gratification
Research suggests “pleasure centers” may exist
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18. Critical Thinking
If you electrically stimulate part of a rat’s brain, it mechanically runs through a mating routine. Does it seem useful or wise to apply this research finding to humans?

19. Sex Hormones & Sexual Behavior
Hormones are chemicals secreted by the endocrine system
Regulate various bodily functions
Hypothalamus and pituitary gland regulate gonadal secretion of sex hormones
Testosterone in males
Estrogen and progesterone in females
Female and male sex hormones are present in both women and men
Release of sex hormones at puberty results in reproductive maturity and development of secondary sex characteristics

20. Sex Hormones & Sexual Behavior
Sex hormones have
Organizing effects
Exert influence on the type of behavior being expressed
Activating effects
Ability to perform the behavior
Frequency and motivation to perform the behavior

21. Sex Hormones & Sexual Behavior
Prenatal hormones
Play a role in sexual differentiation of genitalia and brain structures
Role in patterning sexual behavior in adulthood remains unknown

22. Sex Hormones & Sexual Behavior
Male Sexual Behavior
Male hormones influence sex drive & response
Men who are surgically or chemically castrated typically show a gradual decline in sexual desire
Hypogonadism
Condition characterized by abnormally low levels of testosterone production, results in a loss of sexual interest and a reduction in sexual activity
No one-to-one correspondence to hormone levels and sex drive

23. Sex Hormones & Sexual Behavior
Female Sexual Behavior
Estrogen and progesterone activate changes that occur during puberty and regulate the menstrual cycle, but do not seem to influence sexual motivation or response in human females
Women who have ovariectomies (surgical removal of the ovaries) continue to be sexually active
Androgens appear to have more of an effect on both men’s and women’s sexual response

24. Sexual Response
Excitement phase
Plateau phase
Orgasmic phase
Resolution phase
Masters and Johnson’s model of sexual response consists of four phases

25. Sexual Response Excitement Phase Erections in men
Vaginal lubrication and genital swelling in women
Muscle tension and increases in heart rate in both females and males
Sex flush is a reddish rash that may appear on the chest or breasts late in the excitement phase

26. Sexual Response Plateau Phase
Increases in vasocongestion, muscle tension, heart rate, and blood pressure
Orgasmic platform, which is the thickening of the walls of the outer third of the vagina, due to vasocongestion
Sex skin, which is the reddening of the labia minora
Rapid breathing and heart rate, blood pressure increases

27. Sexual Response Orgasmic Phase
Male orgasms consist of two stages of muscular contractions
1st stage – contractions push seminal fluid into urethral bulb
2nd stage – ejaculation

28. Sexual Response Orgasmic Phase
Female orgasms manifest as 3 to 15 contractions of the pelvic muscles surrounding vaginal barrel
Spacing of contractions more variable in women than in men
Uterus and anal sphincter contract rhythmically

29. Sexual Response Orgasmic Phase
In both men and women, muscle spasms occur throughout the body and blood pressure and heart rate peak
Orgasm is a subjective experience

30. Sexual Response Resolution Phase
The fourth phase of the sexual response cycle, during which the body gradually returns to its pre-aroused state
Resolution takes longer when people do not reach orgasm
Blood is released from engorged areas, myotonia dissipates, and blood pressure, heart rate, & respirations return to normal
Refractory period for men
Period of time following an orgasm during which an individual is no longer responsive to sexual stimulation
Men experience in varying degrees

31. Sexual Response
Fig Levels of sexual arousal during the phases of the sexual response cycle (p. 141).

32. Sexual Response Kaplan’s Three Stages of Sexual Response:
Desire
Excitement
Orgasm
The stages are independent and their sequence is variable
This model is notable for identifying desire as a separate phase of sexual response
Useful for identifying and treating sexual dysfunctions
Kaplan’s Three Stages of Sexual Response:
An Alternative Model

33. Controversies about Orgasms
One or more additional orgasms following the first, which occur within a short period of time and before the body has returned to a pre-plateau level of arousal
Women are more capable of multiple orgasms, by definition, than men are because they do not experience a refractory period
Men may experience multiple orgasms if they are dry orgasms
Multiple Orgasms

34. Controversies about Orgasms
Evolutionary perspective suggests that female orgasm will lead to conception by holding the sperm within the body
Orgasms Increase the Likelihood of Conception?

35. Controversies about Orgasms
Freud
Clitoral orgasm
Vaginal orgasm
Masters & Johnson
Only one type of orgasm
Singers
Vulval orgasm
Uterine orgasm
Blended orgasm
How many kinds of orgasms do women have?
No consensus yet