Sex differences and menstrual cycle effects in aversive conditioning: A comparison of premenstrual and intermenstrual women with men

Abstract

To evaluate potential sex differences in conditionability that may be related to the differential incidence of phobias between the sexes, 30 female and 15 male undergraduate students were exposed to an aversive conditioning procedure, with skin conductance as the dependent measure. Since prior studies have indicated that women condition more readily during the premenstrual period, women were tested either premenstrually or intermenstrually (midcycle), but the relationship of the conditioning procedure to menstrual phase was disguised. Substantial evidence established the presence of conditioning among all three groups, and a trend for a sex difference in conditionability was obtained. Nevertheless, premenstrual women did not prove to be more conditionable than intermenstrual women. The disparity between the findings of no menstrual phase effects in this study and those of prior research may be accounted for by the adoption of a more stringent definition of conditioning or, possibly, by the careful controls for expectancy effects introduced in the present study.