Exploring Factors that Influence Sexual Arousal in Men: A Focus Group Study

1. Exploring Factors that Influence Sexual Arousal in Men: A Focus Group Study Brandon J. Hill, B.A.1,2, Kimberly R. McBride, Ph.D.2,3, William L. Yarber, H.S.D.1,2,4,5, Scott Butler, M.P.H.6, & Erick Janssen, Ph.D.2 1 Department of Gender Studies, Indiana University, Bloomington; 2 The Kinsey Institute, Indiana University, Bloomington; 3 Department of Pediatrics, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis; 4 Department of Applied Health Science, Indiana University, Bloomington 5 Rural Center for AIDS/STD Prevention; 6 Department of Kinesiololgy, Georgia College and State University, Milledgeville Background Most of what is currently known about the determinants and mechanisms of sexual arousal is based on research using quantitative, and in particular psychophysiological, methods. Masters and Johnson (1966) were among the first to decrease researchers’ reliance on self-report methods and animal models by providing them with innovative and increasingly non-obtrusive procedures and instruments to observe and measure the physiology of male and female sexual response. While Masters and Johnson and the researchers who build on their work, have made significant contributions to our understanding of the psychophysiology of sexual response, our understanding of the processes responsible for activation of such responses is still limited. Recently, researchers have started to use qualitative – in particular, interview and focus group – methodologies to complement experimental and psychophysiological approaches and to provided additional sources of information about factors and processes that are relevant to sexual arousal.1,2,3 Study Purpose The goal of this study was to improve our understanding of men’s sexual response and its components as well as the factors or types of situations that men describe as facilitating or interfering with sexual arousal. Methods Participants A total of 50 men (M age=35.2 years; SD=13.9; range, 18-70) participated in this study. The majority of men were heterosexual and white 50% of the men were single/never married, 26% married, 20% separated/divorced, and 4% widowed. Procedure Six focus group sessions were conducted were conducted in total: Two with men aged 18-24 years (N=20, M age=20), two with men aged 25-45 years (N=15, M age= 33), two with men aged 46 and older (N=15, M age=53). Two male moderators facilitated each focus group session. All sessions were audio-taped and transcribed for analysis. Men were told that they could share information from their own experience, things they have observed, or experiences described to them by other men (i.e., acting as participant-observers for their peers), and it was made clear there were no expectations for reaching consensus on any of the themes discussed. Data Analysis - Transcripts from the six sessions were independently analyzed and coded by two researchers. - Researchers identified recurrent themes within the categories and specific quotes within each theme. - The two researchers then compared the categories and themes across investigators and groups. - Each transcript was annotated with codes that indexed six broad conceptual categories. This project was funded by the Rural Center for AIDS/STD Prevention (RCAP) and The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction. • Discussion • Whereas both scientific and popular discussions of sexual arousal in men tend to emphasize erections, the findings from our study suggest that men experience a wide range of physical, psychological, and behavioral indicators that characterize sexual arousal. Erection seems neither a sufficient nor essential component of men’s experience of sexual arousal. • Existing research literature on sexual desire and arousal seem to endorse, if not reinforce, the belief that men and women differ in their sexual experiences, with the idea that women are more sexually complex than men, with more variables influencing their desire and arousal. The results from this study challenge this view and suggest that men’s sexual arousal is also complex and multifaceted, and that men and women share a number of commonalities. • Individual factors, such as the effect of mood on sexual arousal, were reported to have vastly different effects on arousal among our participants. These findings suggest that it might be both appropriate and conducive to progress in this area of research to reconceptualize some of our notions about sexual response, putting less emphasis on – while not ignoring- differences between men and women and giving more attention to differences among men and women. • Although this study was not designed to explore gender or masculinity related notions – our findings nevertheless point toward complex interactions between gender, masculinity, and men’s narratives about desire and arousal. Consequently, some of the men’s narratives reflect a more traditional, perhaps even hegemonic, notions of masculinitiy.4 Other men’s experiences were consistent with ideas more commonly associated with women’s experience of desire and arousal (e.g. Basson, 2002, Graham et al., 2004) • References • 1Graham, C., Sanders, S., Milhausen, R., & McBride, K. (2004). Turning on and turning off: A focus group study of factors that affect women’s • sexual arousal. Arch of Sex Beh., 33, 527-538. • 2Nicolson, P. & Burr, J. (2003). What is ‘normal’ about women’s (hetero)sexual desire and orgasm?: A report of an in-depth interview study. Soc. • Sci. & Med., 57, 1735-1745. • 3Bancroft, J., Janssen, E., Strong, D., Carnes, L. Vukadinovic, Z., & Long, J.S. (2003). The relation between mood and sexuality in heterosexual • men. Arch of Sex Beh., 32, 217-230. • 4Connell, R.W. (1995). Masculinities. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. • 5 Basson, R. (2002). Are our definitions of women’s desire, arousal and sexual pain disorder too broad and our definition of orgasmic disorder too • narrow? J. Sex & Mar. Th., 28, 289-300.