penile plethysmograph and homophobes (this is sort of funny)

penile plethysmograph and homophobes

"Sam Seder:
In our book, we quote a 1996 study in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology by researchers at the University of Georgia. The subjects of the experiment -- all males describing themselves as exclusively straight -- were divided into homophobic and non-homophobic groups. They were then shown videos of straight pornography and gay pornography, while their levels of arousal were measured by a penile plethysmograph.

The results? During the gay videos, nearly 80% of the male homophobes achieved a state of arousal. What's more intriguing is in their own assessments of their arousal, the homophobes claimed to have none, even though the instruments showed otherwise.

I DO NOT want to know where they insert the Penile Plethysmograph.
Out of curiousity, where did the non-homophobe group score?

....still trying to find a link to this. Someone sent this to me via email.

I just think it's hilarious that the homophobes were aroused by homosexual porn. That's sort of like a vegan drooling over the thought of eating a steak.

Heh..

I think it's more like "a little rubber thingy that fits over your John Thomas" (to paraphrase Monty Python...).

A reference for all of you Deadwood fans - I hope the homophobes enjoyed it as much as Swearingen enjoyed the kidney stone treatment.

male gets an erection to the degree that the stamps are torn at the perforation and separated while he watches gay movies, then he is homosexual or latent homosexual.

In fact, plethysmograph might for all I know be the fancy name for blood pressure cuff.

I used to be a defence lawyer, we used them to defend child molesters (that is, people accused of being child molesters).

Not sure of spelling there. BP cuff works.

-Hoot

And that, oddly enough, sounds like something that could very likely be expected to be wrapped around a penis, given the "MANometer" ending! :-)

They were 'outraged' and 'affronted' and 'disgusted'...or maybe they were just reacting to the penile plethysmograph.

You get the weirdest damn somatic responses sometimes on these studies...
:silly: :rofl:

:P

:eyes:

to learn that he experimented in homosexual behaviour. i know lots of straight men get "blow jobs" from gays and consider themselves "straight" and can be quite "homophobic". my first husband was that way.

my opinion of "homophobics" is that "they protest so much". if they were comfortable with their sexuality they should not fear gay men. we have male gay friends and my husband of 36 years has no problem with them. he's confident about his sexuality.

if a gay man comes on to a straight man all the straight man has to do is say "no". the same with gay women.

okay flame me if you want.

I agree with your assessment re: they doth protest too much and are apparently insecure about their own sexuality.

Title: Is homophobia associated with homosexual arousal?

Author(s): Adams, Henry E., U Georgia, Dept of Psychology, Athens, GA, US Wright, Lester W.
Lohr, Bethany A.

Source: Journal of Abnormal Psychology, Vol 105(3), Aug 1996. pp. 440-445.

Journal URL: http://www.apa.org/journals/abn.html

Abstract: The authors investigated the role of homosexual arousal in exclusively heterosexual men who admitted negative affect toward homosexual individuals. Participants consisted of a group of homophobic men (n = 35 ) and a group of nonhomophobic men (n =|&29); they were assigned to groups on the basis of their scores on the Index of Homophobia (W. W. Hudson & W. A. Ricketts, 1980). The men were exposed to sexually explicit erotic stimuli consisting of heterosexual, male homosexual, and lesbian videotapes, and changes in penile circumference were monitored. They also completed an Aggression Questionnaire (A. H. Buss & M. Perry, 1992). Both groups exhibited increases in penile circumference to the heterosexual and female homosexual videos. Only the homophobic men showed an increase in penile erection to male homosexual stimuli. The groups did not differ in aggression. Homophobia is apparently associated with homosexual arousal that the homophobic individual is either unaware of or denies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2005 APA, all rights reserved

Discussion

The results of this study indicate that individuals who score in the homophobic range and admit negative affect toward homosexuality demonstrate significant sexual arousal to male homosexual erotic stimuli. These individuals were selected on the basis of their report of having only heterosexual arousal and experiences. Furthermore, their ratings of erection and arousal to homosexual stimuli were low and not significantly different from nonhomophobic men who demonstrated no significant increase in penile response to homosexual stimuli. These data are consistent with response discordance where verbal judgments are not consistent with physiological reactivity, as in the case of homophobic individuals viewing homosexual stimuli. Lang (1994) has noted that the most dramatic response discordance occurs with reports of feeling and physiologic responses. Another possible explanation is found in various psychoanalytic theories, which have generally explained homophobia as a threat to an individual's own homosexual impulses causing repression, denial, or reaction formation (or all three; West, 1977). Generally, these varied explanations conceive of homophobia as one type of latent homosexuality where persons either are unaware of or deny their homosexual urges. These data are consistent with these notions.

Another explanation of these data is found in Barlow, Sakheim, and Beck's (1983) theory of the role of anxiety and attention in sexual responding. It is possible that viewing homosexual stimuli causes negative emotions such as anxiety in homophobic men but not in nonhomophobic men. Because anxiety has been shown to enhance arousal and erection, this theory would predict increases in erection in homophobic men. Furthermore, it would indicate that a response to homosexual stimuli is a function of the threat condition rather than sexual arousal per se. Whereas difficulties of objectively evaluating psychoanalytic hypotheses are well-documented, these approaches would predict that sexual arousal is an intrinsic response to homosexual stimuli, whereas Barlow's (1986) theory would predict that sexual arousal to homosexual stimuli by homophobic individuals is a function of anxiety. These competing notions can and should be evaluated by future research.

The hypothesis that homophobic men are merely aggressive individuals is not supported by the present data. There were no differences in aggression scores between groups as measured by the Aggression Questionnaire. However, this questionnaire is a general measure of aggression and does not address the possibility of situational aggression or hostility where the situation involves homosexuality or interacting with a homosexual person. It is possible that aggressiveness in homophobic individuals is specific to homosexual cues.

These data also indicate that subjective estimates of arousal and erection are largely consistent with physiological indices of penile erections, with correlation coefficients ranging from .53 to .66. Because the relationships between subjective measures of erection and arousal were quite high, ranging from .78 to .95, it is likely that these two estimates are measures of similar or identical events. Most of these latter correlations were in the .90 range with the exception of nonhomophobic individuals' ratings of arousal and erection to homosexual stimuli, which was .78. As noted before, these results were probably due to the small penile responses to this stimulus, making subjective estimates more difficult and less consistent.

female action, what part of the arousal is due to the idea of sex with a woman as compared to the idea of the man engaging in sex at all? In other words, is there any measurement to classify the fact that the subject is watching a male engage in sex?

Imagine that instead of a movie, that you are watching a couple in real life engaging in sex, but not participating. What is the focus of your arousal, if any? The female, the male, fantasy, the act itself, etc.?