Concordance between physiological and subjective measures of sexual arousal

Abstract

Twenty adult heterosexual males participated in a study designed to assess physiological and subjective sexual arousal in response to audiotaped depictions of heterosexual intercourse. The audiotapes were narrated by either a male or female. Males who listened to the tape narrated by a female reported significantly higher levels of subjective sexual arousal which was not accompanied by greater physiological responding. Correlations computed between the physiological and subjective arousal of individual Ss demonstrated considerable variability. Those Ss who had the highest correlations were those who were both most physiologically aroused and slower to report maximum levels of subjective arousal. These results are discussed in terms of desynchrony in measures of arousal.