Date of Award

1-30-2001

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Thomas V. Petros

Abstract

The penile plethysmograph is currently accepted as the most reliable and valid measure of male sexual arousal and male sexual preferences. Several researchers, however, have begun to experiment with newer, less intrusive, measures such as Choice Reaction Time (CRT; Wright and Adams, 1999; 1995), Viewing Time (VT; Abel, Lawry, Karlstrom, Osborn, & Gillespie, 1994), and Reaction Time to a Secondary Task (RTST; Gaither, Franklin, & Plaud, 1997). The present study was designed to examine the reliability and validity of CRT, VT, and RTST as measures of male sexual preferences. Two hundred fifty-five undergraduate males completed questionnaires and were then provided with an opportunity to participate in a study of male sexual preferences using the CRT, VT, and RTST measures. Nearly 50% of the men volunteered for this second study but only 73 actually completed the study. Of these men, 20 also completed another session in which their sexual arousal was assessed via a penile plethysmograph and self-report. Results indicate that none of the newer measures were highly correlated with any of the others, nor were they highly correlated with self-report of arousal or penile tumescence change scores. The participants' experience with specific heterosexual behaviors were not related to their preferences for stimuli depicting the behaviors on any of the measures (including the plethysmograph and self-report). Discussion is given to the differences between the types of volunteers in the study, as well as implications of this study for the use of these measures in assessing male sexual preferences for specific heterosexual behaviors.

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