“Toates (2017). Arousal.” – Article summary

General arousal triggered by a range of non-sexual events can sometimes change into sexual arousal. There appears to be an optimal level of arousal although people differ in the level of optimal arousal. A lot of human behaviour can be explained as attempts to elevate a level of arousal.

Unpredictability (1), danger (2) and novelty (3) elevate arousal. Pleasant arousal is triggered by a range of desirable behaviour (e.g. sexual behaviour). Unpleasant arousal is characterized by fear and anxiety. The bodily states of pleasant and unpleasant arousal overlap considerably.

Negative emotions (e.g. fear) can be transformed into sexual desire. Sexual desire can also be heightened by things that are taboo or illegal. Sexual desire interacts with general excitement seeking. Seeking of arousal could amplify sexual desire. Breaking the boundaries of conventionalism could boost arousal (e.g. voyeurism) The forbidden aspect may be a crucial element in sexual attraction of some people.

Danger, negative emotions and sexual arousal all activate the sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system. They share bodily reactions (e.g. elevated heart rate). Emotion can thus enhance sexual arousal because the arousal of the autonomic nervous system becomes available to sexual arousal. Autonomic arousal does not immediately disappear when triggers are removed. This means that it can enhance later sexual attraction (e.g. people are aroused by a stimulus and by making the target of sexual attraction salient, they become more aroused due to the arousal by the neutral stimulus).

People tend to make sense of their bodily reaction by labelling it in terms of the most likely cause. In cases of ambiguity, people may misperceive the cause of their arousal. The time interval between the arousal trigger and the attribution process determines what the subjective arousal is attributed to. With a short time interval, there will be a correct attribution. However, with a longer time interval, it may be misperceived and misattributed (i.e. arousal by neutral stimulus attributed to sexual stimulus). With an even longer time interval, the arousal dissipates.

Arousal is interpreted in terms of available stimulus. This means that arousal induced by another factor than sexual arousal (e.g. negative emotion) makes an attractive partner more attractive and an unattractive partner more unattractive.

Perversion refers to people who celebrate and idealize humiliation (1), hostility (2), defiance (3), the forbidden (4), the furtive (5), the sinful (6) and the breaking of taboos (7). These people feel special for not being normal. These defiant attitudes are essential for the enjoyment of perversion. Physical pain can increase desire for some people but this depends on earlier experiences of pain. Individuals are more likely to exploit pain for sexual arousal in a society where a certain amount of pain is seen as integral to the sexual act.

There are three definitions of sexual arousal:

• It is the same as sexual desire.
• It is the reaction of the genitals in terms of the amount of blood flowing there (i.e. genital swelling).
• It is something situated between desire and the genital reaction which influence each other.

The third definition appears to be best supported as arousal is not the same as desire. There can be serious failures of arousal in the genital reaction even in people who report normal levels of desire. Women with persistent genital arousal disorder experience unwanted arousal in the absence of desire. Desire may trigger sexually-directed behaviour in the absence of arousal.

It appears as if sexual arousal appears first in development and desire is shaped from this by linking arousal to attractive others. The objective measure of sexual arousal correlates well with subjective feelings of arousal in men but not in women. The subjective arousal depends upon a combination of two sources of information:

1. Automatic arousal
   This is reflected in the state of the genitals and other bodily reactions (e.g. heart rate). Bodily arousal that persists at sufficient strength contributes to subjective arousal.
2. Subjective cognitive interpretation of the situation (i.e. labelling the situation).
   This states that the subjective arousal depends on the meaning attached to the bodily state and the apparent sexual stimulus that triggers it. This subjective feeling is influenced by attitudes (1), intentions (2), memories (3) and beliefs (4).

The emergence of a sexual label in response to bodily arousal is not inevitable as it can also trigger anger. Learning is involved in linking external sexual stimulus and bodily sensations in order to yield subjective sexual arousal. Sexual desire does not necessarily lead to sexual arousal but arousal can lead to sexual desire. This depends on an interpretation process. It both influences each other.

Women are less good at monitoring their bodily conditions. There may be a sex difference in the tendency of arousal signals to enter conscious processing. Part of this could be due to the fact that a male’s genital arousal is more externally evident than a female’s genital arousal. This could explain the gender differences in the correlation between objective and subjective sexual arousal.

Fewer girls may masturbate due to a learning process linking genital sensations to erotic labelling. The emotional and social context appears to be of greater importance in subjective arousal for women than for men. Increased activity of the sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system can increase a woman’s sexual arousal but decrease a man’s sexual arousal. Sexual arousal can be conditioned in males and memories can increase or decrease sexual arousal.

Objective and subjective factors may act in the same mutually reinforcing direction. Women report wanting to resolve the build-up of sexual arousal and an orgasm appears to resolve this. When an orgasm does not occur, this can be lead to frustration.

Subjective arousal can be negative even though there may be objective arousal (e.g. sexual assault). The objective arousal in sexual assault may be a spill-over of arousal from fear or may protect women from injury or infection during intercourse.

The insula is responsive to bodily states (e.g. fear; arousal). This region fails to respond to erotic stimuli when sex hormones are deficient. Sexual behaviour is accompanied by automatic thoughts and these can be positive (e.g. erotic thoughts) or negative (e.g. concern about appearance). Negative automatic thoughts during sexual behaviour contribute to sexual dysfunction whereas sexual dysfunction also contributes to negative automatic thoughts.

In women, sexual desire and subjective sexual arousal are closely connected. Sexual arousal regards the subjective awareness of bodily changes and desire regards outward-directed goal-seeking that relates to the intention to engage in sexual activity. There is no fixed sequence of subjective arousal and desire.