The Role of Induced Pain Expectancy in Female Sexual Arousal: A Conditioning Approach to Expectancy Induction and Arousal Recovery

Meiborg, Willemijn (2026) The Role of Induced Pain Expectancy in Female Sexual Arousal: A Conditioning Approach to Expectancy Induction and Arousal Recovery. Master thesis, Psychology.

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Abstract

Sexual pain is common among women and may foster anticipatory threat that disrupts sexual responding. From a learning perspective, erotic cues may acquire aversive meaning when paired with pain, yet it remains unclear whether pain expectancy suppresses sexual arousal during acquisition and whether any such effects extinguish once reinforcement ceases. In a conditioning–extinction paradigm, healthy cisgender heterosexual women aged 18–45 (N = 32) viewed two erotic video clips across 20 acquisition trials (CS+ always paired with electrocutaneous pain; CS- never paired), followed by 20 extinction trials without pain. Pain expectancy was rated before each trial and subjective sexual arousal after each trial, followed by a behavioural approach task. Pain expectancy showed rapid and robust differential conditioning, with higher ratings for the CS+ that declined during extinction but remained elevated relative to the CS-. Contrary to predictions, subjective sexual arousal was not suppressed. During acquisition, arousal increased more for the CS+ than for the CS- and remained relatively stable during extinction. Exploratory analyses suggested greater willingness to rewatch the CS+. These findings demonstrate a dissociation between learned pain expectancy and subjective sexual arousal. Rather than uniformly inhibiting sexual responding, anticipatory threat coexisted with maintained or even heightened arousal in this laboratory context. These results seem to suggest that threat does not automatically inhibit sexual responding, but that its impact might depend on how the situation is interpreted. Keywords: sexual arousal, pain expectancy, aversive conditioning, extinction, women

Item Type:	Thesis (Master)
Supervisor name:	Borg, C. and Jonge, P. de
Degree programme:	Psychology
Differentiation route:	Clinical Psychology (CP) [Master Psychology]
Date Deposited:	03 Feb 2026 07:17
Last Modified:	03 Feb 2026 07:17
URI:	http://gmwpublic.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/6112

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