Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Sexual Arousal
Sexual Arousal
1 Terminology
There are several informalities, terms and phrases to describe sexual arousal including horny,[1] turned on, randy,
steamy, and lustful.[2] Things that precipitate human sexual arousal are called erotic stimuli, colloquially known
as turn-ons.
2 Erotic stimuli
Main articles: Sexual stimulation and Erogenous zone
Depending on the situation, a person can be sexually
aroused by a variety of factors, both physical and mental.
A person may be sexually aroused by another person or by
particular aspects of that person, or by a non-human object. The welcome physical stimulation of an erogenous
zone or acts of foreplay can result in arousal, especially if
it is accompanied with the anticipation of imminent sexual activity. Sexual arousal may be assisted by a romantic
setting, music or other soothing situation. The potential
stimuli for sexual arousal vary from person to person, and
from one time to another, as does the level of arousal.
Stimuli can be classied according to the sense involved:
somatosensory (touch), visual, and olfactory (scent). Auditory stimuli are also possible, though they are generally
considered secondary in role to the other three. Erotic
stimuli which can result in sexual arousal can include conversation, reading, lms or images or a smell or setting,
any of which can generate erotic thoughts and memories
in a person. Given the right context, these may lead to
the person desiring physical contact, including kissing,
cuddling, and petting of an erogenous zone. This may in
turn make the person desire direct sexual stimulation of
the breasts, nipples, buttocks and/or genitals, and further
sexual activity.
of sexual desire, during or in anticipation of sexual activity. A number of physiological responses occur in the
body and mind as preparation for sex and continue during it. Genital responses are not the only changes, but
noticeable and necessary for consensual and comfortable
intercourse. Male arousal will lead to an erection and in
female arousal, the bodys response is engorged sexual
tissues such as nipples, vulva, clitoris, vaginal walls and
vaginal lubrication. Mental stimuli and physical stimuli Erotic stimuli may originate from a source unrelated to
such as touch, and the internal uctuation of hormones, the object of subsequent sexual interest. For example,
can inuence sexual arousal.
many people may nd nudity, erotica or pornography sexSexual arousal has several stages and may not lead to any ually arousing,[3] which may generate a general sexual inactual sexual activity, beyond a mental arousal and the terest which is satised with sexual activity. When sexual
1
PHYSIOLOGICAL RESPONSE
arousal is achieved by or dependent on the use of objects, death, childbirth, ones parents, friends, family, contemit is referred to as sexual fetishism, or in some instances porary society, the human race in general, and particua paraphilia.
larly ones place in the world play a substantive role in
There is a common belief that women need more time to determining how a person will respond in any given sexachieve arousal. However, recent scientic research has ual situation.
shown that there is no considerable dierence for the time
men and women require to become fully aroused. Scientists from McGill University Health Centre in Montreal,
Canada used the method of thermal imaging to record
baseline temperature change in genital area to dene the
time necessary for sexual arousal. Researchers studied
the time required for an individual to reach the peak of
sexual arousal while watching sexually explicit movies
or pictures and came to the conclusion that on average
women and men took almost the same time for sexual
arousal around 10 minutes.[4] The time needed for
foreplay is very individualistic and varies from one time
to the next depending on many circumstances.[4]
4 Physiological response
3
and subsequent orgasms.[8] Some women have experi- and, as the genitals become further engorged with blood,
enced such multiple orgasms quite spontaneously.
their color deepens and the testicles can grow up to 50%
While young women may become sexually aroused quite larger. As the testicles continue to rise, a feeling of
easily, and reach orgasm relatively quickly with the right warmth may develop around them and the perineum.
stimulation in the right circumstances, there are phys- With further sexual stimulation, the heart rate increases,
[10]
iological and psychological changes to womens sexual blood pressure rises and breathing becomes quicker.
regions
arousal and responses as they age. Older women pro- The increase in blood ow in the genital and other[13]
sex
ush
sometimes,
in
some
men.
may
lead
to
a
duce less vaginal lubrication and studies have investigated
changes to degrees of satisfaction, frequency of sexual
activity, to desire, sexual thoughts and fantasies, sexual
arousal, beliefs about and attitudes to sex, pain, and the
ability to reach orgasm in women in their 40s and after
menopause. Other factors have also been studied including socio-demographic variables, health, psychological
variables, partner variables such as their partners health
or sexual problems, and lifestyle variables. It appears
that these other factors often have a greater impact on
womens sexual functioning than their menopausal status. It is therefore seen as important always to understand the context of womens lives when studying their
sexuality.[9]
4.2
5 Psychological response
See also: Libido
Psychological sexual arousal involves appraisal and evaluation of a stimulus, categorization of a stimulus as sexual,
and an aective response.[16] The combination of cognitive and physiological states elicits psychological sexual arousal.[16][17] Some suggest that psychological sexual arousal results from an interaction of cognitive and
experiential factors, such as aective state, previous experience, and current social context.[18]
5.1 Female
Research suggests that cognitive factors like sexual motivation, perceived gender role expectations, and sexual attitudes play important roles in womens self-reported levels of sexual arousal.[18] In her alternative model of sexAs sexual arousal and stimulation continues, it is likely ual response, Basson[19][20] suggests that womens need
that the glans or head of the erect penis will swell wider for intimacy prompts them to engage with sexual stimuli,
4
which leads to an experience of sexual desire and psychological sexual arousal. Psychological sexual arousal also
has an eect on physiological mechanisms; Goldey and
van Anders[21] showed that sexual cognitions impact hormone levels in women, such that sexual thoughts result in
a rapid increase in testosterone in women who were not
using hormonal contraception. In terms of brain activation, researchers have suggested that amygdala responses
are not solely determined by level of self-reported sexual arousal; Hamann and colleagues[22] found that women
self-reported higher sexual arousal than men, but experienced lower levels of amygdala responses.
7.2
Females
5
For centuries, the assumption was made
that the longing for sexual interaction was innate, and an inner drive model was used to
explain it. It has been suggested that this
model was much like a metaphor for a steam
boiler. Internal sexual steam would build
up until the pressure became so great that
the drive to release it was very strong. This
view also assumed that there was some adverse physical consequence of not releasing the
pressure.[37]:95
The psychohydraulic model of sexuality has been formulated most denitely in psychoanalysis:
7.1
Experimental studies
The instinct causes tensions within the central nervous system which spread out over the
whole being; it is urgent and irresistible in nature and constantly repeats itself. [...] An erection, for example, is pleasurable and painful
at the same time. With an increase of sexual excitation, the tension increases and becomes wholly unpleasurable. This condition
becomes so unbearable that the individual is
forced to seek release from these tensions and
liberation from the painful feelings. [...] The
pain of tension which accompanies the increase in the intensity of the instinctual drives
changes, with the discharge, into the pleasure
of relaxation.[38]:55, 56
After a certain time, the same process begins anew. Such
an approach assumes sexual arousal to be a spontaneous
desire that appears periodically like sensations of hunger
and thirst. Drawing a parallel between these sensations
and sexual excitation is widely accepted now: Everyone
must experience sexuality in some way to survive. [...] In
this sense sex is a necessity of life, just as air, food, and
warmth.[39]:190 And yet there is no empirical evidence in
support of such a parallel, Imieliski says. Sensations of
hunger and thirst occur due to certain states of physiological insuciency. The feeling of hunger results from the
lack of glucose, fats and amino acids in blood. The feeling of thirst occurs in response to reduction of the water
content of tissues. None of similar states of physiological
deciency responsible for the periodical appearance of
sexual arousal has been revealed in human sexuality.[40]
7.2 Females
See also: Vaginal photoplethysmograph
Sexual arousal in women is characterized by
vasocongestion of the genital tissues, including internal and external areas (e.g., vaginal walls, clitoris, and
labia). There are a variety of methods used to assess
10 HORMONES
genital sexual arousal in women. Vaginal photoplethysmography (VPG) can measure changes in vaginal blood
volume or phasic changes in vasocongestion associated
with each heartbeat. Clitoral photoplethysmography
functions in a similar way to VPG, but measures
changes in clitoral blood volume, rather than vaginal
vasocongestion. Thermography provides a direct measure of genital sexual arousal by measuring changes in
temperature associated with increased blood ow to the
external genital tissues. Similarly, labial thermistor clips
measure changes in temperature associated with genital
engorgement; this method directly measures changes in
temperature of the labia. More recently, laser doppler
imaging (LDI) has been used as a direct measure of
genital sexual arousal in women. LDI functions by
measuring supercial changes in blood ow in the vulvar
tissues.
9 Concordance
7.3
Males
Category-specicity
Category-specicity refers to a person showing sexual arousal to the categories of people they prefer
to have sex with. Sexual arousal studies involving
category-specicity look at genital responses (physiological changes), as well as subjective responses (what people report their arousal levels to be). Category-specic
sexual arousal is more commonly found amongst men
than women.[45][46] Heterosexual men experience much
higher genital and subjective arousal to women than to
men. This pattern is reversed for homosexual men.[47]
10 Hormones
See also: Sexual motivation and hormones
7
tion.[53] Also, women who participate in polyandrous relationships have higher levels of testosterone. However, it
is unclear whether higher levels of testosterone cause increased arousal and in turn multiple partners or whether
sexual activity with multiple partners cause the increase
in testosterone.[54] Inconsistent study results point to the
idea that while testosterone may play a role in the sexuality of some women, its eects can be obscured by
the co-existence of psychological or aective factors in
others.[52]
11
Other animals
12 Evolutionary models
The eect of sexual response is thought to be a plastic positive reinforcement behavior modier associated
with the Baldwin eect. The display of secondary sex
characteristics in humans such as a penis-like enlarged
clitoris in females during arousal and gynecomastia in
males are thought to have once been objects of mate selection in human evolution because of the persistence of
the phenomenon of these features invoking sexual arousal
for potential mates in cross-cultural studies.[56] A dramatic example of this is the high rates of secondary
sex characteristic dimorphism in some Southeast Asia
human populations.[57] Similar evolutionary stimuli may
also have resulted in novel structures such as the pseudopenis of the female spotted hyena.[58]
13 See also
Aphrodisiac
Erectile tissue
Kinsey Reports
Nudity and sexuality
Orgasm control
Post-SSRI sexual dysfunction
Priapism
Sexology
Sexual frustration
14 References
[1] horny - denition of horny by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia. Thefreedictionary.com. Retrieved 2012-08-27.
[2] aroused synonym.. Synonyms.net. Retrieved 2012-0827.
[3] DeVita-Raeburn, Elizabeth. "Lust For The Long Haul".
Psychology Today. 2008-12-26
[4] Your introduction to foreplay. Archived from the original on 2007-06-18. Retrieved 2007-05-18.
[5] Soucasaux, Nelson (1990). The Female Sexual Response. Novas Perspectivas em Ginecologia. Retrieved
10 August 2010.
[6] Rellini, Alessandra H.; Katie M. McCall; Patrick K.
Randall; Cindy M. Meston (January 2005). The relationship between womens subjective and physiological sexual arousal. Psychophysiology 42 (1): 116
124. doi:10.1111/j.1469-8986.2005.00259.x. PMID
15720587.
14
REFERENCES
[7] McKinne, Kathleen (1991). Sexuality in close relationship. Routledge. p. 59. ISBN 0-8058-0719-5. Retrieved
2013-11-03.
[24] Chivers, M.L., Reiger, G., Latty, E., & Bailey, J.M., A
sex dierence in the specicity of sexual arousal, " Psychological Science 15(11), 736-744, 2004
10
15
15
15.1
15.2
Images
15.3
Content license
11
15.3
Content license