Physiological response to visual sexual stimuli∗

Abstract

The effect that environmental stimuli will have on behavior is ordinarily a function of three properties of the stimuli: intensity, meaningfullness and variation (Fiske and Maddi, 1961). Research on physiological concomitants of arousal and emotional states have utilized a variety of stimuli to evoke pertinent reactions. One type frequently used consists of visual stimuli in which nude or seminude human figures are depicted in still photographs or movies. Several investigations have found differences in physiological response patterns between this type of pictorial stimulus and other types of pictorial emotional stimuli (Koegler and Kline, 1965; Davis, 1967; Davis and Buckwald, 1957; Lazarus et al, 1963; Lifshitz, 1966). Differences in magnitude of physiological response to varied types of visual sexual stimuli have been found in studies of deviant sexual orientation (Solyom and Beck, 1967; McConaghy, 1967; Freund et al, 1958; Hess et al, 1965). Levitt and Hinesley (1967) studied the valences of erotic visual stimuli in normal subjects, but without regard to physiological variables. Except for studies by Loiselle and Mollenauer (1965), Koegler and Kline (1965), and McConaghy (1967), there has been little attention given to different types of pictorial sexual stimuli and physiological response in normal individuals, nor to the author's knowledge, have relationships been investigated between physiological responses and the different possible emotional connotations or meanings that sexual visual stimuli may have for normal subjects, other than roughly classifying the stimuli as male or female, or as nude or semi-nude.