Wesseling, Vera (2026) Aversive Conditioning in the Sexual Context. Master thesis, Psychology.
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Abstract
Sexual health is crucial for overall well-being, yet many women experience sexual dysfunction, often linked to pain during intercourse. Negative sexual experiences may form conditioned associations that inhibit sexual arousal. This study investigated whether pain expectancy indeed reduces women’s subjective sexual arousal and whether an extinction procedure can reverse this effect. Thirty-two heterosexual women (ages 18-45) participated in a within-subject differential conditioning paradigm. Two female-friendly erotic film fragments served as conditional stimuli (CS+ paired with an aversive electro-cutaneous stimulus; CS− unpaired), with pain expectancy and sexual arousal measured via visual analogue scales across preconditioning, acquisition and extinction phases. Repeated-measures ANOVAs and paired samples t-tests examined changes in arousal and expectancy across trials. Results confirmed that pain expectancy was successfully induced, with higher ratings for the CS+ than CS− during acquisition. Contrary to hypotheses, sexual arousal did not decrease for the CS+; instead, it tended to increase relative to the CS− and remained elevated during extinction. These findings suggest that under conditions of temporal uncertainty, anticipatory pain may enhance rather than inhibit sexual arousal, potentially through arousal misattribution or excitation transfer. This highlights the complexity of aversive expectancies in sexual contexts and emphasizes the importance of temporal dynamics, cognitive interpretation, and individual differences in understanding women’s sexual responses. The study underscores the need for interventions addressing cognitive and interpretative processes, beyond simple exposure-based reduction of pain expectancy, to support sexual functioning in women experiencing pain-related dysfunctions.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Master) |
|---|---|
| Supervisor name: | Jong, P.J. de and Borg, C. |
| Degree programme: | Psychology |
| Differentiation route: | Clinical Psychology (CP) [Master Psychology] |
| Date Deposited: | 26 Mar 2026 10:31 |
| Last Modified: | 26 Mar 2026 10:31 |
| URI: | http://gmwpublic.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/6342 |
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