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The
Journal
of Sex Research
Vol.
34,
No.3,
1997 pp. 231-236
TheEffects
of
Secondary Stimulus
Characteristics
on
Men's
Sexual
Arousal
George
A.
GaitherJoseph
J.
Plaud
University
of
North Dakota, Department
of
Psychology
The penile plethysmograph is believed by
many
researchers
and
clinicians
tobe
the most valid
and
reliable instrumentcurrently available for assessing male sexual arousal patterns.
Stimuli
used to elicit sexual arousal
in
research studiesas well as in plethysmographic assessments, however, have varied considerably.
We
examined the effects
of
two stimulus characteristics that may greatly influence the measurement
of
male sexual
arousal-the
type
of
sexual behavior
de-
picted
and
the presence
of
accompanying audio cues. The sexual arousal
of
18
male college students was individuallyassessed via penile plethysmograph
and
self-report while they viewed 60-second erotic video clips. Each video clip
de-
picted a single sexual behavior;
half
of
the clips were presented with accompanying audio. Separate
2
(sound) x
6
(be-
havior) x
2
(session) repeated measures ANOVAs revealed significant
main
effects for sound
and
behavior for both thephysiological
and
self-report data, as well as a significant sound x behavior interaction for the self-report data. Thephysiological data
and
self-report data were also highly correlated
(r
=
78).
Results are discussed in the context
of
implications for male sexual arousal research
and
penile plethysmographic assessments.
T
he penile plethysmograph is believed by many researchers andclinicians to be
the
most valid and reliable device currently available for assessing male sexual arousal (Howes,1995; Maletzky, 1995; Proulx, 1989;Zuckerman, 1971). Although the mainuse of the penile plethysmograph is
inthe
detection and treatment of sexualdeviations (e.g., Abel & Blanchard,1976;
Kelly,
1982) and sexual dysfunctions (e.g.,
LoPiccolo
& Stock, 1986),
ithas
also been employed to examinesuch phenomena as the classical
con-
ditioning (e.g.,
Plaud
& Martini,
in
press; Rachman, 1966), operant conditioning (e.g., Rosen, Shapiro, &Schwartz, 1975), and habituation (e.g.,O'Donohue & Plaud, 1991; Plaud,Gaither, Amato-Henderson, & Devitt,
in
press) of male sexual arousal.A key element
in
sexual arousalresearch
and
plethysmographic assessments is
the
stimuli
that
are presented to elicit sexual arousaL Thestimuli
may
vary within a study orassessment
as
well
as
between studies or assessments on a
number
of
differentcharacteristics
(Howes,1995), which can be divided into pri
mary and
secondary characteristics.
Primary
characteristics, for plethysmographic
assessments, refer
tothose stimulus characteristics
that
are
intentionally varied between cat-egories (e.g., deviant versus normal)
and arethought
to be most salient
in
distinguishing between
men
according to their
stated
sexual preferences(e.g., age or sex of stimulus). For research studies, primary characteristics
are
those stimulus characteristics
that
are actively manipulated by
the
researchers, such as
the
verbal resistance of a sexual
partner
(Plaud,Bigwood,&Rosenkranz, 1996) or
the
description of condom use (Gaither,Rosenkranz, Amato-Henderson, Plaud,& Bigwood, 1996)
in
an
audiotapeddescription of sexual activity. Again,
the
defining
features
of
primary
characteristics
are
that
they are
actively manipulated
and thus
thoughtto be
the
most salient characteristics
in
distinguishing different categoriesof stimuli. Therefore, depending upon
the
research question, some stimulus characteristics
may
be considered
primary
for one study (e.g.,condom use when
that
is
the
characteristic
under
investigation)
but
secondary
in
another (e.g., condom use
in
some,
but
not all scripts when
that
is not
the
character
under
investigation).Secondary characteristics may varyboth within and between categories
but
are not actively manipulated andare not typically considered to besalient: They may even be considered231idiosyncratic. The results of plethysmographic assessments are normallyconsidered to be due to the manipulation of primary characteristics; yet,
if
they are not controlled, some secondary characteristics may confoundthose results. The purpose of the cur
rent
study was to determine whether
the
manipulation of two stimuluscharacteristics
that
are often not
con-
trolled in plethysmographic assessments would affect sexual arousal in asample of male college students.The mode of stimulus presentation is probably
the
secondary stimulus characteristic
that
has
received
the
most consideration
in
publishedresearch. Researchers have repeatedlyfound
that
films/videos elicit
greater
physiological
arousal
than
slides,still photographs, or audiotaped descriptions of sexual activity (e.g.,
This article is based on
the
master's
thesisof George
A.
Gaither
with
the
direction of
Joseph
J.
Plaud. This research was supportedby a
Student
Research
Grant
from
The
Society for
the
Scientific Study of Sexuality. Special
thanks
to Michael
Franklin
for
his
assistance
in
data
collection.Address correspondence to
Joseph
J.
Plaud, Ph.D.,
Department
of Psychology, University of
North
Dakota, P.O. Box 8380,
Grand
Forks, ND 58202-8380. Telephone:701-777-4494. Fax: 701-777-3454. E-mail:plaud@badlands.nodak.edu.
 
232The Effects of Secondary Stimulus CharacteristicsAbel, Barlow, Blanchard,
&
Mavissakalian, 1975; Abel, Blanchard,
&
Barlow, 1981; McConaghy, 1974).Many of these studies, however, wereflawed in
that
the content
ofthe
stimuli was not matched between modes.Julien
and
Over (1988),
in the
onlystudy to date to match
the
contentacross modes, examined differences
in
male sexual arousal across fivemodes
of
stimulus presentation: film,slides, audiotaped descriptions (spo
ken
text), written text,
and
fantasy.
Julien
and
Over produced a film
that
was divided into eight two-minute
seg
ments. Each segment consisted of
the
same
man and
woman engaging
in
adifferent sexual activity. Photographswere
taken
simultaneously from
the
same angle as
the
movie camera for
the
slides. The spoken text
and
writ
ten
text consisted of factual descriptions of
the
activities
taking
place
in
each segment.
In the
fantasy condition,
the
research participant wasgiven a factual description of
the
activities he was to imagine, whichalso corresponded to each segment of
the
video. The researchers found
that
the
film elicited significantly
greater
arousal
than
slides, spokentext,
and
written text, which did notdiffer significantly from one another.
Fantasy
elicited significantly lessarousal
than the
other four modes.Some secondary stimulus characteristics
are
specific to certain modes
of
stimulus presentation. For example,
the
sex of
the narrator
as well ashis or
her
tone of voice
are
characteristics
that
are
specific to auditorystimulus presentation, whereas
the
attractiveness of the actors is specificto visual modes of presentation (i.e.,slides
and
video/film). High, Rubin,and Henson (1979),
in
one of the
few
studies designed to examine
the
ef
fects of mode-specific secondary stimulus characteristics, found
that
avideo presented
in
color did not elicitgreater physiological sexual arousal
than the
same film presented in black
and
white for eight men.Another secondary stimulus characteristic inherent in videos/films is
the
presentation
of
the accompanyingsound. Many studies reported in theliterature, which involved the use ofthis mode of stimulus presentation,
do
not state whether the accompanying sound was presented (e.g., High
et
aI., 1979; Julien
&
Over, 1988;
Mc
Conaghy, 1974). Thus,
it
may not beproper to compare results betweenstudies
if
this is not known, becausethe effects of this characteristic havenot yet been investigated. Therefore,
it
seems vital
that
we
delineate theseeffects to account for some variancebetween studies.Some secondary stimulus characteristics are inherent
in
all modes ofpresentation, such as the type of sexual activities
that
are
depicted. Someresearchers who have used slides
or
videos used stimuli
that
present onlya nude
or
seminude person
in
a nonsexual pose (e.g., McConaghy, 1974).
It
has
been demonstrated, however,
that
this type of stimulus does notelicit high levels of arousal. Thus, mostresearchers use stimuli
that
depict individuals engaging in some type of
sex
ual activity. In describing their stimuli,however, many researchers state only
that
the stimuli depicted heterosexualactivity. Thus,
once
again,
it
is not clear
how
much
(if
at
all) this characteristicmay affect
the
participants' arousalpatterns.
In the Julien and
Over (1988)study described previously,
the
participants showed similar patterns ofarousal to the different sexual behaviors across modes. The stimuli depicting the couple undressing one anotherelicited the least arousal across allmodes, whereas stimuli depicting
fel
latio elicited the greatest arousal
in
three modes, and mutual oral sex(which includes fellatio) elicited thegreatest arousal in the other twomodes.
It
is entirely possible
that
thisresult was due to order effects (whichwere not analyzed), because the stimuli were presented
in
the same orderwithin each mode across participants.
In
the current study,
we
examinedthe effect of two stimulus characteris
tics-the
presentation of video stimuli.with and without accompanying soundand the type of sexual activity depict-
ed-on
male sexual arousal using apenile plethysmograph and self-report.
We
hypothesized first
that
significantly greater arousal would be elicitedwhen the accompanying sound waspresented. Second, based on the findings reported by Julien
and
Over(1988), we hypothesized
that
videoclips depicting fellatio and mutual oralsex would elicit the greatest levels ofsexual arousal.
Method
Participants
One hundred thirty-three male undergraduate students
at
the University of North Dakota completed a packetof questionnaires
in
small groups aspart of a larger study on volunteer bias
in
sexual arousal research (Plaud,Gaither, Hegstad, Rowan,
&
Devitt,
1997).
At the end of the packet, thestudents were given information regarding the current study and wereasked to indicate whether they wouldlike to participate. Nineteen studentsvolunteered to serve as participants inthis study (mean age
=
23.68).
Thissample was predominantly White
(n
=
17,89.5%) and single
(n
=
16,84.2%).One participant dropped out of thestudy after completing one data-collection session. Therefore, data reportedhere are from the
18
participants whocompleted both data-collection sessions. Participants received four hoursof research credit toward their psychology courses.
Apparatus
Physiological arousal (penile tumescence) was measured by a Type Amercury-in-rubber strain gauge
and
then recorded
in
centimeters by a
pe
nile plethysmograph manufacturedby
Parks
Medical Electronics Inc.(model
240-A),
Aloha, Oregon. Theplethysmograph was connected to aCoulboum Instruments transducerrack
for
transformation from analogto digital recordings. Data were thenstored on a Gateway 2000 4DX2-66Vwith Intel processor computer via theAdvanced CODAS data-acquisitionsystem (Dataq Instruments Inc.).
 
A VCR placed
in the
control roomwas used to play
the
videos. The VCRwas connected to a 19-inch color television set
in
the
experimental cham
ber
for display of
the
video segments.The VCR was also connected to astereo system
in the
control room,which was used to present accompanying sound via a pair of headphones.
Stimuli
Twelve 60-second video segments,
taken
from commercial erotic videos,were presented. Each segment depicted one sexual behavior involvinga
man and
a woman, which was preceded
and
followed by 15 seconds of ablank screen. The behaviors includedfellatio, cunnilingus,
mutual
oral sex,face-to-face intercourse with
the
malesuperior, face-to-face intercourse with
the
female superior,
and
intercoursewith
rear
entry. There were 2 segments depicting each of
the
6 behaviors for 12 segments. Each segmentwas recorded on a different videotape,thereby allowing for random orderingof segment presentation.The order in which the segmentswere presented for each participantwas randomly determined with threerestrictions: Each participant wouldsee all
12
segments
in
both sessions,only 1 of
the
2 segments depicting eachbehavior would be presented with accompanying sound in each session,and the 6 segments
that
were presented with sound
in
the first sessionwould be presented without sound
in
the second session and vice versa.A 3-minute video segment depicting animals moving about
in
a
rain
forest was presented as a sexually
neutral
stimulus.
An
11-minute videoconsisting of a
man
and
a woman engaging
in
a variety of different sexualactivities (including
the
6 experimen
tal
behaviors) was presented as ameans to elicit a full erection.
Procedure
Two
male
researchers-a
graduatestudent (the first author) and
an
undergraduate student--collected all
data
in this study
at
the
beginning
ofthe semester. The researchers called
GaitherandPlaud
each potential participant (i.e., thosewho
had
volunteered to participate inthe study) and set
an
appointment for
an
orientation meeting
in
the laborato
ry.
During this meeting, the researchershowed the potential participant theplethysmograph and the other equipment
that
would be used in measuringhis sexual arousal. He was also shown
the
experimental chamber, which
con-
tains a comfortable reclining chair,headphones, a television set, and a
vi-
sual 10-point Likert scale hanging on
the
wall. The researcher explained theprocedures
that
would be used, assured him of confidentiality, and answered any questions. This orientationmeeting served to aid the potentialparticipant in making
an
informed
de-
cision regarding his participation inthe study and adapt him to
the
laboratory environment.The potential participant was given
an
informed consent statement to takehome
at
the
conclusion
ofthe
orientation meeting along with a researchcredit slip for one hour. He was
then
given
at
least 24 hours to deliberateon his decision to participate,
at
whichtime
the
researcher called
him
and,
if
he chose to participate, set appointments for both data-collection sessions. The appointments were alwaysmade for
the
same day and time oneweek apart.When
the
participant arrived for
the
first session,
the
researcher led
him
into
the
experimental chamber
and
again explained
the
proceduresto be used throughout
the
study. Theparticipant was
fllso
informed
that
he
mayor
may not
hear
the
accompanying audio while he viewed
the
videos to ensure
that
he did not
think
that
the
headphones were broken
the
first time
the
accompanying audiowas not presented. The researchertook
the
signed consent form, explained how to fit
thestrain
gaugeproperly on
the
penis, answered anyquestions
the
participant
had
without divulging
the
hypotheses
under
investigation,
and
then
left
the
room.Communication was maintainedbetween the participant and the researcher via a voice-activated inter-233
com
system. After the participant
had
placed the strain gauge on his penisand the headphones on his head, henotified
the
researcher
that
he wasready to begin. The researcher then instructed him to "get comfortable andrelax."After three minutes, the researcherpresented the three-minute sexuallyneutral video segment and continuously recorded the participant's physiological arousal with the plethysmograph.This served as a baseline measurement of the participant's penile circumference. At the end of
the
threeminutes, the researcher stopped thetape and asked the participant to ratehow sexually aroused he felt using the10-point Likert scale
(0
=
not at all
aroused,
9
=
extremely aroused).
Thiswas then
followed
by a two-minute restperiod.The researcher next presented
the
11-minute video described previously.At
the
end of
the
11
minutes,
the
researcher again stopped the video
and
asked
the
participant to
rate
his sex
ual
arousal using
the
Likert scale.This was
then
followed by a detumesence period, which lasted for two minutes, or until
the
participant's penilecircumference
hadreturned
to itsbaseline
measurement,
whicheverwas longer.After
the
detumesence periodended,
the
researcher played a oneminute video segment (the first experimental stimulus). At the end of thesegment,
the
participant was asked torate his sexual arousal. This was
fol-
lowed by a detumesence period,
at
theend of which the next video segmentwas presented. This procedure was repeated until all
12
segments
had
beenpresented.Throughout
the
session,
the
researcher continuously monitored
the
participant's physiological sexualarousal on
the
computer screen
in the
control room. Continuous recordingswere
taken
at
a
rate
of 100 records
per
second while stimuli were beingpresented. During detumesence periods, however,
data
were not recorded.After
the last
segment
had
beenpresented
and
the
participant gave
of 00

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