Psyc 391- Ch 5 pg 147-156
• Erotophobia= revulsion toward erotic stimuli, tendency to experience negative emotional rxns
when exposed to sexual situations/info/imgs
• Erotophilia= liking for erotic stimuli, tendency to experience positive emotional rxns when
exposed to sexual things
o These 2 the extremes on a range
• 1 factor to influence sexual behaviour is indiv’s tendency to respond to sexual cues w/typical
types of emotions
o Byrne said this term “evaluative, attitudinal sets”
o Authoritarianism correlated w/erotophobia-erotophilia
If strongly authoritarian are strongly devoted to tradition and maintaining status
quo so react negatively to behaviour that’s contrary to accepted standards, are
intolerant of sexual openness and expression (erotophobic)
• Erotophobic ppl score higher on sex guilt (tendency to experience
negative feelings about socially unacceptable behaviour
o Erotophobia/philia related to nature of family environment experiences during
childhood/adolescence
Erotophobia associated w/reports of parental strictness about sex, sex related
guilt, fears, inhibitions, conservative attitudes as well as avoidance of
masturbation, erotica and (at least for women) multiple premarital partners
• Parents also less likely to give children straightfwd answers to questions
about sex and provide less info
Erotophobia/philia linked to rxn of indivs to own sexual experiences before 16
years old
• Ppl w/largely positive feelings about early experiences had higher scores
on erotophilia (so more erotophilic as adults that ppl w/negative and
mixed feelings about early sexual experiences)
• Erotophobic women and men masturbate less and have less sexual
experience and fewer sexual partners
o Erotophilic ppl believe items purchased help w/sex life compared
w/erotophobic ppl
o Erotophilic ppl believe their way of life helps then to attract
sexual partners and that their possessions help contrib. To their
sexual enjoyment • Erotophobic women report less sexual interest, behaviour, satisfaction
and experimentation during pregnancy than erotophilic F
o Also erotophobic men engage in less frequent masturbation and
sexual behaviour than erotophilic men
o Erotophobic F delay sex after birth too, masturbate less, less
likely to breastfeed
o Erotophobic women use contraception less consistently (general
lack of knowledge)
Greater discomfort w/subject so less interested in getting
involved/all the info so more likely persuaded by
illogical/irrelevant things in making decisions
Emotional inhibition hypothesis: negative emotions about sexuality cause lower
levels of sexual behaviour and contraception
• Negative feelings RE sexual issues inhibit expression of sexuality
• Inhibition causes probs when negative emotions not strong enough to
prevent sexual behaviour yet they’re strong enough to prevent
contraceptive behaviour
• Erotophobic ppl link sexual concepts more strongly w/other negative
concepts, believe that pregnancy is less likely to result from sexual
behaviour, and are less influenced by negative outcomes thought to
result from unplanned pregnancy
o Findings indicated that difs in processing info cause erotophobic
ppl to believe that sexual behaviour is less risky than erotophilic
indivs
• Erotophobic women examines selves for breast cancer less often and
feel less competent when shown how
o Erotophilic women think instruction better understood for self
breast
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