What is it about?
Giving an answer to this question was the aim of this study. While sexual desire refers to the interest in sexual relationships and activities, sexual arousal is an emotional and motivational state that causes physiological, cognitive-affective and behavioral changes. Specifically, this study examined the explanatory capacity of dyadic sexual desire towards a partner, towards an attractive person and solo sexual desire in objective and subjective sexual arousal. For this purpose, they evaluated these three types of sexual desire in 60 young heterosexual couples and quantified the sexual arousal these couples experienced when exposed to videos with neutral and sexually explicit content by recording their genital responses (erection diameter in men and vaginal pulse amplitude in women) to them. In men, dyadic sexual desire towards their partner explained 31% of the genital response, while dyadic sexual desire towards an attractive person (not their partner) explained 23% of the subjective sexual arousal experienced in the viewing of sexually explicit videos. In contrast, in women, only dyadic sexual desire towards their partner explained 17% of the objective sexual arousal.
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Why is it important?
This study conclude the importance of differentiating between the three types of sexual desire when it comes to linking it to sexual arousal and the difference in this relationship between men and women.
Perspectives
It is important to consider the multidimensional nature of sexual desire.
Dr. Juan Carlos Sierra
Universidad de Granada
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Relación del deseo sexual con la excitación sexual objetiva y subjetiva, Revista de Psicopatología y Psicología Clínica, January 2020, UNED - Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia,
DOI: 10.5944/rppc.25374.
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