The present study examined gender differences in the emotional tone of written sexual fantasies. Participants included 182 heterosexual men and 206 heterosexual women enrolled in undergraduate clinical and counseling courses at a mid-sized Midwestern university. Data collected on each respondent was derived from five sources 1) a written sexual fantasy, 2) the Extended Personal Attributes Questionnaire (EPAQ), 3) Human Sexuality Questionnaire - The Heterosexual Experience Subscale, 4) the Sexual Opinion Survey (SOS), and 5) the Revised Mosher Guilt Inventory. The Dictionary of Affect in Language (DAL) (Whissell, 1999) was used to obtain two quantitative measures, Activation and Evaluation of the emotional tone of the sexual fantasies. The variables of the study were gender role variables (agency and communion) and sex variables (erotophobia-erotophilia, sex experience, sex guilt, Activation and Evaluation). It was hypothesized that men would score higher on agency, sexual experience, erotophilia, and Activation, which is associated with arousal and action, and women would score higher on communion, erotophobia, sex guilt and Evaluation, which is associated with pleasant feelings. Gender differences were found for all variables except sexual experience and the measures of emotion, Activation and Evaluation. Given the stated hypotheses, canonical correlations were performed to determine the linear relationship of gender role and sex variables for men and women. One significant canonical correlation was found for men indicating that as agency, erotophilia, and sexual experience increase, sex guilt decreases. No significant canonical correlation was found for women. A discriminant analysis was performed to determine if the gender role variables and the sex variables were strong discriminators of sex. Results indicated that communion and erotophobia were the best discriminators for men and women. The study's present findings are discussed in terms of the sexual double standard and the changing social values of women in today's society. Limitations of the study and future directions of research in sexual fantasies and gender differences, specifically in terms of application to counseling are discussed. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:handle/175935 |
| Date | January 2003 |
| Creators | Dubois, Stephanie L. |
| Contributors | Gordon, Phyllis |
| Source Sets | Ball State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | ix, 128 leaves : ill. ; 28 cm. |
| Source | Virtual Press |
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