Meyer, Linus (2022) The Impact of Sexual Arousal and Disgust on Pain Tolerance and Pain Intensity. Master thesis, Psychology.
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Abstract
There have been previous studies showing that emotions can influence pain tolerance and pain intensity. Two such emotions are sexual arousal and disgust. Sexual arousal has been found to produce analgesic effects, especially when combined with direct genital stimulation. The effect of disgust on pain on the other hand has received less attention in research and the findings on it show both potential increases and decreases in both pain tolerance and pain intensity. This study aims to provide further insights into the effects these two emotions have on pain tolerance and pain intensity, providing findings on the effect of sexual arousal without genital stimulation. A between groups experimental design was used in which female participants (N = 174) were exposed to cold pain after being induced with disgust, sexual arousal, or no emotion as a control condition. We did not find an effect of either emotion on pain tolerance or pain intensity. This suggests that sexual arousal alone may not have the analgesic effects it is thought to have and relies on genital stimulation to be effective at relieving pain.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Master) |
|---|---|
| Supervisor name: | Borg, C. and Lakhsassi, L. |
| Degree programme: | Psychology |
| Differentiation route: | Clinical Psychology (CP) [Master Psychology] |
| Date Deposited: | 01 Sep 2022 09:32 |
| Last Modified: | 01 Sep 2022 09:32 |
| URI: | http://gmwpublic.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/1396 |
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