Name Lips
01-19-2010, 12:30 PM
OK, I almost posted this in the other thread because it's obviously going to trigger a discussion along the same lines. Perhaps they're really part of the same thing.
But it's another "study about human sexuality" that I find utterly fascinating. And I figured it was enough of "it's own thing" to put it in a new thread.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34688685/ns/health-sexual_health/
Men know it when aroused, women may not
Sexual connection between mind and body less consistent for women
When it comes to sexual arousal, a woman's mind and body are less in sync than a man's, a review of research finds.
Men who reported feeling turned on tended to also sport an erection , while a matchup between the mind and body wasn't so consistent for women, according to the review published online Jan. 4 in the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior.
"We wanted to discover how closely people's subjective experience of sexual arousal mirrors their physiological genital response — and whether this differs between men and women," said researcher Meredith Chivers, a psychology professor at Queen's University in Canada.
Chivers and colleagues reviewed more than 130 studies published between 1969 and 2007 involving participants' arousal responses. In total, the review included more than 2,500 women and 1,900 men.
Men's subjective ratings of arousal were in agreement with their body's level of sexual arousal about 66 percent of the time, while women's were in line only about 26 percent of the time.
"The general pattern that I have seen in my laboratory is that women experience a genital response but do not report feeling sexually aroused," Chivers told LiveScience.
Overall, the findings suggest women and men have different experiences of sexual arousal.
"For men, their experience is strongly related to physiological arousal whereas for women it is less so," Chivers said.
Supporting the conclusions, a study reported in 2003 showed men's arousal clearly tracks sexual orientation, with gay men getting turned on by images of men, and straight guys by images of women. In contrast, that 2003 study showed both heterosexual and lesbian women were sexually aroused by male and female erotica, regardless of their sexual orientation.
Figuring out how measures of arousal (mental vs. physiological) differ between men and women will help scientists study human sexuality and understand the nature of these differences, Chivers said.
So, basically, when a man says he feels turned on, he has an erection. When he says he doesn't feel turned on, he doesn't.
But when a woman says she isn't turned on, she may or may not be exhibiting physical signs of arousal, and if she is, she is unaware of the fact. It's almost like her body is preparing for possible sex without informing her brain.
I also find the bit thrown in at the end interesting. Men are turned on only by images that correspond with their sexual orientation, whereas women are turned on by male and female erotic images regardless of their stated sexual orientation.
But it's another "study about human sexuality" that I find utterly fascinating. And I figured it was enough of "it's own thing" to put it in a new thread.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34688685/ns/health-sexual_health/
Men know it when aroused, women may not
Sexual connection between mind and body less consistent for women
When it comes to sexual arousal, a woman's mind and body are less in sync than a man's, a review of research finds.
Men who reported feeling turned on tended to also sport an erection , while a matchup between the mind and body wasn't so consistent for women, according to the review published online Jan. 4 in the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior.
"We wanted to discover how closely people's subjective experience of sexual arousal mirrors their physiological genital response — and whether this differs between men and women," said researcher Meredith Chivers, a psychology professor at Queen's University in Canada.
Chivers and colleagues reviewed more than 130 studies published between 1969 and 2007 involving participants' arousal responses. In total, the review included more than 2,500 women and 1,900 men.
Men's subjective ratings of arousal were in agreement with their body's level of sexual arousal about 66 percent of the time, while women's were in line only about 26 percent of the time.
"The general pattern that I have seen in my laboratory is that women experience a genital response but do not report feeling sexually aroused," Chivers told LiveScience.
Overall, the findings suggest women and men have different experiences of sexual arousal.
"For men, their experience is strongly related to physiological arousal whereas for women it is less so," Chivers said.
Supporting the conclusions, a study reported in 2003 showed men's arousal clearly tracks sexual orientation, with gay men getting turned on by images of men, and straight guys by images of women. In contrast, that 2003 study showed both heterosexual and lesbian women were sexually aroused by male and female erotica, regardless of their sexual orientation.
Figuring out how measures of arousal (mental vs. physiological) differ between men and women will help scientists study human sexuality and understand the nature of these differences, Chivers said.
So, basically, when a man says he feels turned on, he has an erection. When he says he doesn't feel turned on, he doesn't.
But when a woman says she isn't turned on, she may or may not be exhibiting physical signs of arousal, and if she is, she is unaware of the fact. It's almost like her body is preparing for possible sex without informing her brain.
I also find the bit thrown in at the end interesting. Men are turned on only by images that correspond with their sexual orientation, whereas women are turned on by male and female erotic images regardless of their stated sexual orientation.