sexual arousal

Examples of sexual arousal in the following topics:

• Male Sexual Response

  • As sexual arousal and stimulation continues, the glans of the erect penis will swell wider.
  • Some men older than age 40 report that they do not always have an erection when sexually aroused.
  • A young man or one with a strong sexual drive may experience enough sexual arousal for an erection with a passing thought or just the sight of a passerby.
  • Several hormones affect sexual arousal, including testosterone, cortisol, and estradiol.
  • Testosterone is the most commonly-studied hormone involved with sexuality, and it plays a key role in sexual arousal in males, with strong effects on central arousal mechanisms.

• Female Sexual Response

  • Sexual arousal is caused by sexual desire during or in anticipation of sexual activity.
  • Reduced estrogen levels may be associated with increased vaginal dryness and less clitoral erection when aroused, but are not directly related to other aspects of sexual interest or arousal.
  • Mental and physical stimuli such as touch and the internal fluctuation of hormones influence sexual arousal.
  • Cognitive factors like sexual motivation, perceived gender role expectations, and sexual attitudes play important roles in women’s self-reported levels of sexual arousal.
  • Basson suggests that women’s need for intimacy prompts them to engage with sexual stimuli, leading to an experience of sexual desire and psychological sexual arousal.

• Autonomic Reflexes

  • The ANS affects heart rate, digestion, respiratory rate, salivation, perspiration, pupillary dilation, micturition (urination), and sexual arousal.
  • Everyday examples include breathing, swallowing, and sexual arousal, and in some cases functions such as heart rate.
  • A more modern characterization is that the sympathetic nervous system is a quick- response, mobilizing system and the parasympathetic is a more slowly activated, dampening system—but there are exceptions, such as in sexual arousal and orgasm where both play a role.

• Comparing the Somatic and Autonomic Nervous Systems

  • Examples of body processes controlled by the ANS include heart rate, digestion, respiratory rate, salivation, perspiration, pupillary dilation, urination, and sexual arousal.
  • The ANS affects heart rate, digestion, respiratory rate, salivation, perspiration, pupillary dilation, micturition (urination), and sexual arousal.

• Social Context and Sexual Behavior

  • Social context influences sexual behavior; sexuality is expressed and understood through socialized processes.
  • Sexual behavior refers to the manner in which humans experience and express their sexuality.
  • Sexual activity normally results in sexual arousal and physiological changes in the aroused person, some of which are pronounced while others are more subtle.
  • Sexual activity also includes conduct and activities which are intended to arouse the sexual interest of another, such as strategies to find or attract partners (mating and display behavior), and personal interactions between individuals, such as flirting and foreplay.
  • Since sexuality is expressed through means learned by socialization, social context is bound to influence sexual behavior.

• Applications of Classical Conditioning to Human Behavior

  • The influence of classical conditioning can be seen in responses such as phobias, disgust, nausea, anger, and sexual arousal.
  • As an adaptive mechanism, conditioning helps shield an individual from harm or prepare them for important biological events, such as sexual activity.
  • Thus, a stimulus that has occurred before sexual interaction comes to cause sexual arousal, which prepares the individual for sexual contact.
  • For example, sexual arousal has been conditioned in human subjects by pairing a stimulus like a picture of a jar of pennies with views of an erotic film clip.

• Vagina

  • During arousal, the vagina gets moist to facilitate the entrance of the penis.
  • The absence of a hymen may not indicate prior sexual activity.
  • The vagina's primary functions are sexual arousal and intercourse as well as childbirth.
  • During sexual arousal, and particularly clitoral stimulation, the vaginal walls lubricate to reduce friction caused by sexual activity.
  • As the woman becomes fully aroused, the vagina tents (expands in length and width), while the cervix retracts.

• Sexual Dysfunction and Disease

  • "Human sexuality" refers to people's sexual interest in and attraction to others, and the capacity to have erotic or sexual feelings and experiences.
  • Sexual problems are often categorized in one of four ways: desire disorders, arousal disorders, orgasmic disorders, and sexual pain disorders.
  • Sexual desire disorders, or decreased libido, are characterized by a lack or absence of desire for sexual activity or of sexual fantasies.
  • Sexual arousal disorders were previously known as frigidity in women and impotence in men, though these have now been replaced with less judgmental terms, such as erectile dysfunction.
  • In the revisions to the DSM-5, sexual desire and arousal disorders in females were combined into female sexual interest/arousal disorder.

• Biological Influences on Sexual Motivation

  • Sexual motivation, often referred to as libido, is a person's overall sexual drive or desire for sexual activity.
  • Based on the pleasure model of sexual motivation, the increased sexual pleasure that occurs following oxytocin release may encourage motivation to engage in future sexual activities.
  • Vasopressin is involved in the male arousal phase, and the increase of vasopressin during erectile response may be directly associated with increased motivation to engage in sexual behavior.
  • Sexual motivation can be measured using a variety of different techniques, including self-report measures such as the Sexual Desire Inventory.
  • Sexual motivation can also be implicitly examined through frequency of sexual behavior.

• Biology of Sexual Behavior

  • The biology of human sexuality includes the reproductive system and the sexual response cycle, as well as the factors that affect them.
  • Sexual motivation, often referred to as libido, is a person's overall sexual drive or desire for sexual activity.
  • The sexual response cycle is a model that describes the physiological responses that take place during sexual activity.
  • It controls nerves and muscles used during sexual behavior.
  • Vasopressin is involved in the male arousal phase, and the increase of vasopressin during erectile response may be directly associated with increased motivation to engage in sexual behavior.