An examination of psychophysiological measures of sexual arousal

Abstract

The scientific study of sex has developed significantly since the inception of psychophysiological methods to assess sexual arousal. Sexual psychophysiology involves assessing the physiological activation of the sexual response system, in addition to mental, behavioral, and emotional processes or experiences (Rosen & Beck, 1988). Measures of sexual arousal are reviewed in Chapter One. Chapter Two describes a study testing the validity of the most commonly used measure of genital arousal in women, vaginal photoplethysmography. Results indicate that vaginal photoplethysmography is sensitive to sexual arousal only, and that there are important sex differences in patterns of physiological arousal to sexual stimuli. Directions for future research are discussed.