17 - Sexual Disorders

Abstract

Behavior analytic approaches to sexual disorders have as their bases the relationships among habituation, classical and operant conditioning, and overt sexual behavior. Learning-based accounts of sexual behavior focus on the importance of both conditioning and habituation of sexual arousal. Further, theories of human behavior which are not explicitly based on the principles of learning also rely on the assumption that, at least to some extent, sexual behavior and arousal are learned. In order to understand the importance of behavior analysis, empirical research should demonstrate that the principles of learning and behavior are involved in sexual behavior.. Functional assessment of sexual disorders should identify the possible respondent and operant mechanisms that may lie behind problematic sexual behavior in order to identify alternate appropriate, satisfying forms of sexual behavior that service the same function as the problematic sexual behavior. Additionally, therapists should identify appropriate forms of sexual behavior, either in the client's current or past behavioral repertoire, as well as appropriate forms of sexual expression that are presently not in the client's repertoire.