The Role of Self-Disgust in Sexual Experiences: A Facial EMG Study

Köster, Fiona (2025) The Role of Self-Disgust in Sexual Experiences: A Facial EMG Study. Master thesis, Psychology.

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Abstract

Recent studies examined the relationship between sexual experiences and self-disgust. Importantly, research proposes a difference between experiencing these sexual scenarios from a self-perspective compared to from another perspective. Based on the study from Brouwer et al. (2023), this study aimed to further explore the effect of various auditive-told sexual scenarios in eliciting the different types of self-disgust (pathogen, sexual, and moral). In total, the study included 22 scenarios, eleven for each perspective (self and other). Female (under)graduate students (N=32, M age in years = 19.6, SD = 0.91) were asked to listen to different auditive-told scenarios while physiological facial EMG measurements were taken. The fEMG data were collected on two muscles, the levator labii and depressor labii, that are connected with expressing disgust. Additionally, self-reported data, including the Self-Disgust Scale (SDS) (Overton et al., 2008) and the Three-Domains of Disgust Scale (TDDS) (Tybur et al., 2009), were used. The study revealed that, according to the subjective feelings of self-disgust and a heightened urge to wash, significantly higher levels of self-disgust in the self-perspective than in the other-perspective were elicited by the different auditive-told sexual scenarios. However, the fEMG activity showed that only for moral disgust in the levator labii muscle, a significant difference between self-perspective and other-perspective was found. The other self-disgust types did not show significant results. This study revealed substantial new insights into the relationship between sexual experiences and the different types of self-disgust. This study provides a deeper understanding of this relationship through the combination of subjective and physiological measurements. Further research should refine the methods for measuring the different constructs and investigate other aspects that possibly influence this relationship.

Item Type:	Thesis (Master)
Supervisor name:	Borg, C. and Jong, P.J. de
Degree programme:	Psychology
Differentiation route:	Clinical Forensic Psychology and Victimology (FP) [Master Psychology]
Date Deposited:	16 Jul 2025 09:16
Last Modified:	16 Jul 2025 09:16
URI:	http://gmwpublic.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/5538

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