James H. Geer

Alleviation of learned helplessness in the dog.

Dogs given inescapable shock in a Pavlovian harness later seem to “give up” and passively accept traumatic shock in shuttlebox escape/avoidance training. A theoretical analysis of this phenomenon was presented. As predicted by this analysis, the failure to escape was alleviated by repeatedly compelling the dog to make the response which terminated shock. This maladaptive passive behavior in the face of trauma may be related to maladaptive passive behavior in humans. The importance of instrumental control over aversive events in the cause, prevention, and treatment of such behaviors was discussed.

Sexual arousal in women: The development of a measurement device for vaginal blood volume

Undergraauate women were shown erotic and nonerotic films. A vaginal photoplethysmograph was developed and used to measure pressure pulse and vaginal blood volume during film presentations. All subjects yielded a visible increase in pressure pulse amplitude during the presentation of the erotic films. Statistical analyses of the pressure pulse data strongly confirmed (p <0.001) the visual impressions. In addition, total blood volume in the vaginal wall also increased (p <0.005) during the presentation of the erotic film. Subjective ratings of sexual arousal did not correlate with physiological measures. The results indicate that a simple and reliable device for measuring vaginal pressure pulse and blood volume is available. Measures obtained from the device appear to be useful for detecting sexual arousal in women.

The habituation of sexual arousal

The effects of two levels of stimulus intensity (medium and high) and two levels of stimulus variability (varied stimuli and constant stimuli) on the habituation of subjective and physiological sexual arousal were investigated in a 2 × 2 factorial design. Forty male volunteers served as subjects. It was hypothesized that, as compared to constant stimuli, varied stimuli would produce higher rates of response attenuation on indices of sexual arousal. This hypothesis was confirmed for both penile response and a subjective measure of sexual arousal. Second, it was hypothesized that stimuli of medium intensity would produce higher rates of response of attentuation on subjective and physiological indices of sexual arousal than would stimuli of high intensity. This hypothesis was partially confirmed for subjective arousal but was not confirmed for the physiological measure of sexual arousal. These results were interpreted as supporting the notions that sexual arousal to erotic stimuli decreases with repeated stimulus presentations and, since the experimental design properly controlled for physiological fatigue, that a habituation process is involved in this observed decrement. The implications of habituation for sex research are discussed.

Empathy, social skills, and other relevant cognitive processes in rapists and child molesters

Considerable theoretical and research efforts have gone into formulations which suggest that sex offenders differ from nonoffenders in their processing of sexual material. This article reviews the literature concerning patterns of empathy, social skills, and other cognitive processes (i.e., theories, attitudes, and distorted cognitions) of incarcerated sex offenders or those who have identified themselves as sex offenders. We choose these three general topic areas because many see these phenomena as central to the understanding of sex offending. First, we present general empirical findings relevant to the phenomena of empathy, social skills, and distorted cognitions. We then move to a discussion of specific cognitive models that have been offered to account for the data. We briefly discuss the available data relevant to these cognitive models. The next section of the article reviews the treatments that have been applied to sex offenders with the stated goal of modifying the processes we are examining. Our final section attempts to summarize and highlight some of the identified problems and weaknesses in the study of the aforementioned processes in sex offending. We argue that too little attention has been paid to basic cognitive psychology and the role that cognitions or conceptualizations can play in promoting our understanding of the sex offender. We suggest that following the information processing approach as a generalized model will help integrate and direct research efforts.

Sexual content induced delays in unprimed lexical decisions: gender and context effects.

Two experiments are reported in which subjects made unprimed lexical decisions where the targets included sexual, romantic, and neutral words. Predicted gender differences in lexical decision times are found. Women delayed their lexical decisions when the target was sexual and the delay was present, but reduced, when the target word was romantic. For men these delays while in the same direction, were smaller and failed to attain statistical significance. Data were collected on the several characteristics of the target words. We found that word familiarity influenced decision time but could not account for the word content induced delay. Similarly, neither word emotionality nor word acceptability accounted for the delay. Finding a strong effect of sexual word content for women in unprimed lexical decisions makes it clear that the effect is present at very basic levels of information processing. This suggests that it is a pervasive characteristic of the responding to sexual stimuli that occurs throughout much of cognitive activity.

Sexual Content-Induced Delay With Double-Entendre Words

Seventy-three men and 72 women made lexical decisions to target words that followed sentences constructed so that the last word was a sexual double-entendre. Prime target relatedness, erotic versus nonerotic target, stimulus onset asynchrony, and participants gender were varied in a between-subjects design. A second analysis that substituted sentence context for prime target relationship also was conducted. Data were collected on the emotionality and social acceptability of priming sentences and target words. Results revealed that, as with previous research on neutral words, prime target relatedness facilitated lexical decisions. Additionally, there was evidence of slowing in making lexical decisions when erotic material was presented or was part of a contextual bias. This delay was accentuated in women. A model that proposes that sexual words evoke a more complex processing sequence is presented. The model suggests that appraisal and checking or editing mechanisms, which are accentuated in women, help explain the phenomenon.

Sex differences in memory for erotica

Abstract The research investigates how the sexes differ in their memory for sexual stones. Twenty males and 20 females read a story describing a heterosexual encounter. The story contained romantic, erotic, and neutral elements. Memory was tested via a recognition test. As hypothesised, there were significant Subject Sex by Sentence Content interactions for both recognition accuracy and decision time. Women were better and faster at identifying romantic sentences: Men were better and faster at identifying erotic sentences. The sexes did not differ in responding to neutral sentences. The research illustrates the utility of the memory bias paradigm in the domain of sexuality.

A study of fantasy-based sexual arousal in women

The self-reported use of sexual fantasy as an aspect of sexual behavior in natural settings was examined with respect to genital responding to both sexual fantasy and an erotic audiotape within the laboratory. It was predicted that subjects who self-reported a higher frequency of using sexual fantasy during either masturbation or sexual interaction with a partner in extralaboratory settings would be more highly responsive on genital measures of sexual arousal obtained when the subject was generating sexual fantasy within the laboratory. Forty-five female subjects (median age, 21) completed a battery of questionnaires, which included three scales of general imagery ability and frequency, and a detailed sexual history. All subjects then experienced an initial nonstimulated baseline period followed by a second baseline period and an exposure to an erotic audiotape. Genital responding was measured by vaginal photoplethysmography. Those subjects who reported more frequent use of fantasy during masturbation outside the laboratory showed greater genital responses during both fantasy and tape-elicited arousal than those reporting less use of masturbatory fantasy. One of the imagery questionnaires yielded a significant correlation with genital response in the fantasy condition. It appears that cognitive factors have predictive significance for measures of vaginal pressure pulse responses to erotic tape recordings and fantasies.

Vaginal blood volume responses during masturbation

Masters and Johnson (1966) reported that one of the principal physiological responses during sexual arousal was vasocongestion of the genitals. Following that lead, Sintchak and Geer (1975) developed a photoplethysmograph that detected both pressure pulse and pooling of the blood in the vagina in an attempt to develop a genital measure of sexual arousal in women. That device has proven useful in assessing sexual arousal to films (Geer et al., 1974), audio tapes with erotic content (Heiman, 1974), and subject-produced sexual fantasies (Heiman, 1974). The present study was designed to determine if the device successfully detected sexual arousal to physical stimulation (i.e., masturbation) and further to determine the nature of vaginal blood volume responses during masturbation, the resultant orgasm, and a subsequent recovery or resolution period. The Masters and Johnson (1966) description of physiological reactions throughout a sexual cycle proposes a four-phase model that includes excitement, plateau, orgasm, and resolution. In general, Masters and Johnson suggest that vascongestive responses increase throughout excitement and plateau phases, peaking at orgasm. They further note that during resolution vascongestion may take 10-15 min to return to prestimulation levels and even longer if orgasm did not occur. On the basis of that model, it was predicted that both pressure pulse and pooled blood volume would increase throughout masturbatory stimulation, with a possible plateau prior to orgasm and a peak at orgasm followed by a slow decline throughout a postorgasm period. In an examination of predictions, seven

Effects of Gaining Control over Aversive Stimuli after Differing Amounts of No Control

60 male undergraduates were given 4 levels of experience with insoluble problems. Solutions of problems avoided shock while non-solution resulted in shock. Increasing amounts of prior non-solution were associated with retardation of solving problems once solution became possible. The results were cast in a “learned helplessness” framework. Ss speed of reaction increased as problems became soluble. There were no detectable changes in Ss skin responses.