Lecture 13 - Orgasm and sexual response

Question 1

When are people most happiest?

Answer 1

When making love.

Second is exercising.

Question 2

Summarise the stages of the human sexual response cycle

Answer 2

The stages are excitement, plateau, orgasm and resolution.

Excitement is when both males and females muscle tone increases, heart rate increases, and sex flush can occur. (25% of men and women).

Plateau is when the heart rate, blood pressure and respiration still increase, but there is also an increase in muscle tension. The phases of excitement just increase, and both gentials prepare for inception.

Orgasm has effects of rhythmic contractions, release of muscle tension but blood pressure, respiration and heart rate still increase. Involuntary contractors of hands and feets also occur.

In the resolution stage, heart rate, blood pressure, repsiration and muscle tension return to normal.

Question 3

What is desire?

Answer 3

When a person wants sexual stimulation or intimacy. Similar to lust, but doesn’t always happen alone, sometimes other things have to happen before feeling desire.

It is much harder to define than other stages and is not generally considered part of the sexual response cycle.

It can be described as proceptivity vs arousability. This means, it is the absense of sexual stimuli but wanting to have sexual stimuli.

Question 4

What is proceptivity

Answer 4

The absence of sexual stimuli

Question 5

What is arousability

Answer 5

Having sexual stimuli

Question 6

What happens when women get excited?

Answer 6

Vasocongestion (he swelling of bodily tissues)
Sex Flush
Clitoral and nipple erection
Vaginal changes
Breast swelling
Labia minora deepen in colour and enlarge.

Question 7

What happens when men get excited?

Answer 7

Erection - penis get larger in length and diameter.
Penis angle changes
Urethral opening widens
Scrotal skin thickens and constricts
Elevation and enlargement of the testes
Nipple erection

Question 8

What happens to the breats during the sexual response cycle

Answer 8

During excitement, breasts increase in size, nipples become erect and superficial veins become more visible.

During plateau and orgasm, breats keep increasing, the areolar (around the nipple) engorges, sex flush generally appears, and veins become even more visible.

During resolution, breasts return to normal size in about 5-10 minutes there is a rapid disappearance of sex flush and loss of tumescence in nipples and areolar.

Question 9

What is the plataeu stage of the sexual response cycle?

Answer 9

In this stage, sexual arousal grows as a precursor to orgasm.

Both men and women have an increase in their heart rate, blood pressure, respiration and muscle tension.

Mens penis size and colour change, and the testes rotate and precum may be released.

Upper part of the vagina expands fully and outer walls swell. Labia minora darken.

Question 10

What happens during the resolution stage of the sexual response cycle?

Answer 10

During the resolution pahse, the body reuturns to its unexcited state.

Prolactin may cause sleepiness. Also oxytocin and other hormones get released.

The cervix widens.

Question 11

Who created the sexual response cycle model

Answer 11

Masters & Johnson. They identified there is three patterns of the sexual response cycle in females and only 1 in males.

Females can, a. become excited, plateau, orgasm, plateau, orgasm and resolution. B. Get excited, keep plateauing, then slowly experienece resolution, or c. become excited, plateau, orgasm quickly and resolution.

However, males simplyget excited, experience plateau, orgasm and then either experience resolution, or during the refractory period, can orgasm again.

Question 12

Discuss Chivers and Baileys patterns that vary by orientation research

Answer 12

They found that, it is much easier to see the orientation of males simply by their genital arousal than women, and homosexual women are even more obvious than heterosexual women. During 2005 Bailey and Chivers found that during chimpanzee porn, women still experienced genital arousal, despite saying they were not aroused.

Specifically, womens mean genetial arousal scores were not representative of their subjective arousal scores. However, whilst males were still somewhat different their genital scores could be used to predict their sexual orientation. However, males do get more turned on by male-male porn than they believe they do.

Question 13

Discuss the male orgasm

Answer 13

It has two stages, emission and ejaculation. During emission, seminal fluid moves into the upper urethra giving men the sense of ejaculatory inevitability.

During ejaculation, reflex centres in the spinal cord and signals cause contractions of the penis, anus and pelvic muscles causing semen ejection.

Question 14

Discuss wet dreams and nocturnal emmissions

Answer 14

Nocturnal emissions are most likely to occure during teenage and early adult years, but they can occur throughout life. 83% of men report experiencing a wet dream at some point in their life (Kinsey et al., 1948).

In general, the less often a man masturbates, the more nocturnal emissions he will have.

One idea about this may be that the body is refereshing the semen inside, ready and fresh for the next time.

Question 15

Discuss the female orgasm

Answer 15

There are two borad categories of competing explanations. The by-product hypothesis, that orgasm has no direct evolutionary function, and the mate choice hypothesis, that female orgasms have function in mate choice. Females will return to a mate if that mate makes them orgasm.

Question 16

Discuss what is meant by the female orgasm as a crytpic mate choice system

Answer 16

Good female sexual function means intermediate orgasm rate to discrimination good from bad lovers.

Clitoral orgasms and vaginal orgasms serve different mate choice functions.

Through discriminatory vaginal orgasms, women favor aboce-average penis size (especially girth).

Human copulation is unusually long and costly, revealing aerobic fitness benefits.

There has been a co-evolution of male and female genitalia and preferences. Females evolve to favor male traits for better copulatory courtship, as indicators of genetic quality and phenotypic condition. E.g. larger and more complex male genitalia, longer, more vigorous copulation and repeated ejaculations over time. There is evidence for this in primate penises: polygynous mating males have smaller simpler penises, but mulit-male, multi-female groups have larger, more complex penises.

Question 17

Discuss the clitoral anatomy for cryptic female choice

Answer 17

They are often complex deep structures, not just the glans clitoris. They circle the vagina, and assess penis girth, length and copulatory vigor.

Question 18

What is the evidence that orgasms are adaptive

Answer 18

Women’s reported orgasms correlate with male foreplay.

Copulatory orgasm is associated with relationship quality including satisfaction, intimacy, passion and love.

Women have more orgasms in stable pair bonds.

Women report more orgams if their partner has good immunocompatibility.

However, when controlling for variables like relationship duration, only partner attractiveness significantly predicts orgasm as last coitus. Puts et al found a mans attractiveness may increase both his mates orgasms frequency and her happiness in the relationship.

Question 19

What is the insuck hypothesis?

Answer 19

King et al measured sperm backflow following female orgasm, to test whether retaining sperm is the function of female orgasm. They found that female orgasm does help retain sperm.

Question 20

Discuss what is meant by the orgasm being a bartering tool.

Answer 20

Orgasms have evolved as a bartering tool to control a partners behaviour. Orgasms may have evoled as a way to maintain control over partners. Sexual pleasure may act as positive reinforcement, and motivate behaviour. This could help to signal devotion and strengthen bonds in relationships. The study also suggests orgasms may be a way to ensure reproductive success.

Question 21

Discuss orgasm from an evolutionary-behaviourist perspective

Answer 21

Orgasm is a primary reinforcer.

Men experience orgasm during intercourse more often than women as it is necessary.

Orgasm should motivate women to mate with high quality males.

But orgasm is also used to aid in bonding between any two individuals, orgasm and sexual pleasure an be classically conditioned.

Orgasm is a signal to sensivitiy of behaviourist shaping.