Effect of modeling on sexual imagery

Abstract

Social learning theory was used to examine the effects of a model's sexual imagery on the observer's sexual imagery. In the guise of a creative writing experiment, male and female college students were asked to listen to a tape recording of a same- or opposite-sex model relating a story in response to a sample TAT card. The story described a man and a woman in a physical sex encounter (high sex), a romantic date (medium sex), or a casual study date (low sex). The sample TAT picture and model's story were omitted in the control groups. All subjects wrote stories in response to two other TAT cards. These stories were scored for sexual imagery by a male and a female judge who were blind to experimental conditions and who used a standard sexual imagery scoring manual. The following prediction were based on social learning theory: There would be greater sexual imagery in the stories of subjects who heard the high sex model than in the stories of those who heard the medium or low sex model or no model. Past research implied the prediction that the modeling effects would be greater for males than for females in the high sex model condition and greater for females than for males in the medium sex model condition. The results were analyzed using two factorial analyses of variance. There was greater sexual imagery by subjects who heard the high sex model than by those who heard the low sex model or model. The sexual imagery by subjects who heard the medium sex model was intermediate between that by those who heard the high sex model and that by those who heard the low sex model. The modeling effect was greater in males. The results also confirmed the prediction that sexual imagery would be greater for males in the high sex model condition but did not confirm the prediction that sexual imagery would be greater for females in the medium sex model condition.