Effects of sex guilt, repression, sexual "arousability," and sexual experience on female sexual arousal during erotica and fantasy.

Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences This study was an assessment of the relation of inventory measures of sex guilt, repression-sensitization, sexual arousability, and sex experience to sexual arousal during erotic stimuli. Sixty-two female subjects were randomly assigned to view either an erotic or a nonerotic videotape. All subjects then imagined and wrote out a sexual fantasy. Sexual arousal was measured subjectively by selfreport ratings and physiologically by continuous vaginal photoplethysmograph recording. Women high in sex guilt reported less arousal but showed significantly greater physiological arousal during the erotic videotape than did women low in sex guilt. For the high sex-guilt women, the erotic videotape facilitated physiological arousal during fantasy. Women low in sexual arousability and low in sexual experience followed a similar pattern. No significant differences were found for repression-sensitization. Results were interpreted as suggesting a pattern of behavioral inhibition that facilitates increased response to forbidden erotica.