Forty-one women filled out surveys about their heterosexual sexual behavior over the course of 30 days. These surveys tracked their menstrual cycles, sexual behavior, sexual desires, and orgasm frequency. Although the sample size was small, a number of borderline statistically significant (p < .10) trends emerged from the analysis: women experienced more copulatory orgasms on average when fertile and women who were not in relationships tended to have more frequent non-copulatory orgasms. Naturally cycling women also experienced significantly more non-copulatory orgasms when fertile. Although no strong conclusions can be drawn from the current sample, the results suggest many avenues for future research. / by Jesse B. Marczyk. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2011. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2011. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Whereas male masturbation has generally been normalized by being the butt of friendly jokes and a popular subject in romantic comedies, the predominant discourse surrounding female masturbation, both in society and the movies, is silence and stigmatization. However, female masturbation is symbolically powerful because it signifies a female sexuality that is not dependent on male presence. This thesis seeks to explore depictions of female masturbation, specifically looking at how female characters who engage in autoeroticism are stigmatized, controlled or silenced. This thesis will also explore the minority of depictions that show the act as liberating in films like Pleasantville (1998) and Better than Chocolate (1999). / by Megan Tomei. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2012. / Includes bibliography. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / System requirements: Adobe Reader.

A group of 44 high-orgasm-consistency and 34 low-orgasmconsistency women were administered the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, a Sexual Behavior Questionnaire, and the Fall Back Task. Excitatory and inhibitory controlling attitudes as manifested in hypnotic susceptibility, reported control of thinking and movement during coitus, causal attributions, and attitude toward alcoholic beverages were related to orgasm consistency. Women experiencing expectancy disconfirmation for coital outcomes attributed outcomes to unstable factors, supporting the application of Weiner's achievement model to the domain of coital orgasm. High and low consistency women showed different patterns of causal attribution for coital outcomes. High consistency women's attributions fit their reported sexual experiences, while low consistency women's attributions suggested the presence of self-esteem enhancing cognitive distortions.

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Theoretical and epidemiological studies indicate that women with a history of child sexual abuse (CSA) experience more sexual problems during adulthood compared to non-abused women. Despite the abundance of research conducted on prevalence and incidence of sexual difficulties associated with a history of CSA, very little is known on the psychophysiological sexual response of CSA survivors. A study was conducted to examine whether women with and without a history of CSA differed in their physiological and subjective sexual responses when exposed to erotic videos. A second study was conducted to explore potential predictors of the physiological and subjective sexual responses of women with a history of CSA. Overall, the physiological sexual arousal of CSA survivors was not significantly weaker than the response of women with no history of CSA. However, when controlling for levels of sexual distress and sexual function those CSA survivors with higher levels of sexual distress showed lower physiological sexual arousal compared to CSA survivors with less sexual distress. In agreement with prior studies, for women with no history of CSA the relationship between levels of distress and physiological sexual arousal was not significant. Similarly, levels of subjective sexual arousal reported in the laboratory were associated with sexual distress in CSA survivors but not in women with no history of CSA. Women who reported more re-experiencing symptoms and more negative affect before the erotic video showed a significantly lower increase in subjective sexual arousal in the presence of an increase in physiological sexual arousal. Cortisol levels measured before and after exposure to the erotic video indicated that higher dissociation experienced during the sexual interaction with a partner is associated with a cortisol secretion during exposure to sexual stimuli. This finding suggests a potentially learned stress response to erotic stimuli which may negatively affect the physiological sexual arousal for a subgroup of CSA survivors. Findings from the two studies suggest that the psychophysiological assessment of the sexual response of CSA survivors captures some important aspects of the sexual difficulties experienced by these women. A number of potential predictors of the physiological and the subjective sexual responses of CSA survivors were identified. Future studies will need to examine whether interventions that target these predictors can help CSA survivors to increase their physiological and subjective sexual arousal to sexual cues and whether this provides some relief to their sexual distress.

A descriptive study was conducted with the purpose of refining the Sexual Adjustment Questionnaire (SAQ) and further establishing reliability and validity. Twelve women receiving treatment for breast cancer and 22 women who were at least three months post-treatment for breast cancer voluntarily participated in the research study. Each was administered the Sexual Adjustment Questionnaire. Findings of the study revealed that the SAQ in its entirety was internally consistent. Repatterning of sexual behavior subsequent to having breast cancer did not occur in either group of women. Both the women receiving cancer treatment and those post-treatment experienced a noticeable change in their sexual behavior since having cancer.

The purpose of this research was to better understand the situational factors involved in date rape. Following the Inhibition Model of Sexual Aggression, I asked Can we observe disinhibition of sexual arousal to nonconsensual cues in heterosexual sexually nonaggressive men by introducing a strong excitatory cue, that is, female nudity? In the first study, young heterosexual men were presented with aural narratives depicting consenting and nonconsenting sexual interactions and nonsexual interactions while their genital sexual arousal was measured. Participants were also presented with pictures depicting clothed and nude women. A second study used videos depicting clothed and nude women exercising. Results suggest that nudity is an excitatory cue that elicits genital arousal; it might also have a small disinhibitory effect for nonconsenting cues, but only for moving images. A discussion of the research findings, implications for future research, and limitations to the research is presented. / viii, 146 leaves ; 29 cm

There are substantial differences between the sexual arousal patterns of men and women. Men’s genital and subjective sexual arousal are category-specific; different sexual stimuli elicit different degrees of arousal. Women’s subjective sexual arousal is also categoryspecific, but their genital arousal is category-nonspecific; different sexual stimuli produce similar arousal. Men also exhibit a high concordance or correlation between their genital and subjective arousal, whereas women exhibit much lower sexual concordance. I conducted five studies with 219 participants to further explore these sex differences and test different explanations for their occurrence. The results confirm the existence and stability of sex differences in arousal patterns, provide support for a functional explanation of the sex difference in genital category-specificity, provide mixed support for an informationprocessing model of sexual arousal in relation to sexual concordance, and provide no support for the notion that sexual concordance is another manifestation of sex differences in interoception. / xvi, 212 leaves ; 29 cm

Studies investigating the sexual responses of men and women in the laboratory reveal reliable sex differences. Men’s genital and subjective sexual responses exhibit a high degree of concordance and are category-specific (i.e., are dependent on the types of sexual cues presented). In comparison, women’s genital and subjective responses exhibit lower concordance and their genital responses are much less category-specific. One functional explanation for these sex differences is the preparation hypothesis of women’s genital responses: Women’s genital responses occur automatically in the presence of any sexual cue to protect the reproductive tract from injuries that may result from sexual activity. If this hypothesis is correct, then there should be a sex difference in patterns of habituation of genital responses. Specifically, women’s genital responses should be more resistant to habituation than men’s because the costs of not producing a genital response to sexual cues are inherently higher for women than for men. The results of two studies of 38 men and 38 women suggest, however, that repeated exposure to sexual stimuli leads to similar degrees of habituation of genital responses in men and women. Of note, attention appeared to influence the pattern of genital responses in both studies and higher attention did not preclude habituation. Implications for the preparation hypothesis, models of sexual arousal, and directions for future research are discussed. / xii, 93 leaves ; 29 cm