ABSTRACT
Sexual psychophysiology is an emerging discipline. The annual number of publications on sexual arousal has increased about 10-fold over the last 30 years. Paralleling this growth in output is a considerable expansion of the field in terms of its subject matter. Whereas initially researchers focused on the assessment and treatment of sexual deviations and disorders, psychophysiological methods are now being applied to an increasingly broad array of questions. The topics studied include the activation and inhibition of sexual arousal; the psychophysiology of sexual motivation, orgasm, and ejaculation; the effects of aging, hormones, and mood on sexual responsivity; the association between sexual preferences/orientation and sexual arousal; and the effects of exposure to erotica/pornography on sexual attitudes and behavior. On a more applied level, psychophysiological methods are used in the assessment of sexual offenders, diagnosis of sexual dysfunctions, and evaluation of treatment efficacy.
