New research published in the Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy suggests that automatic thoughts during sex play an important role in sexual functioning.
The study of 156 men and 168 women found negative automatic thoughts and fewer erotic thoughts during sexual activity was associated with distressing sexual symptoms. This was true of both male and female participants, regardless of their sexual orientation.
Men with distressing sexual symptoms were more likely to report automatic thoughts related to failure and erection concerns. Women with distressing sexual symptoms, on the other hand, were more likely to report automatic thoughts related to disengagement, sexual abuse, sexual passivity, partner’s lack of affection, and lack of erotic thoughts.
PsyPost interviewed the study’s corresponding author, Maria Manuela Peixoto of the University of Porto. Read her responses below:
PsyPost: Why were you interested in this topic?
The article entitled “Automatic thoughts during sexual activity, distressing sexual symptoms, and sexual orientation: Findings from a web-survey” is part of a larger project, regarding cognitive-affective dimensions and distressing sexual symptoms in heterosexuals, gay men and lesbian women. This was my PhD project, between April 2011 and December 2014, funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, supervised by Professor Pedro Nobre, at University of Porto, Portugal. The cognitive-affective dimensions we study were: personality traits, dysfunctional sexual beliefs, cognitive schemas activated in sexual context, and automatic thoughts and affective responses during sexual activity.
My interest in this topics started in 2009, during my master’s degree in Clinical Psychology. My supervisor, Professor Pedro Nobre developed a Cognitive-Affective Model for Sexual Dysfunctions, based on more than ten years of studies with heterosexual samples. My interest was related to sexual minorities, namely gay men and lesbian women. Therefore, my main goal was to address the same dimensions he used in his model, but with gay men and lesbian women, with sexual difficulties.
Particularly, automatic thoughts represent a core maintenance factor for sexual problems, according to a cognitive-behavioral perspective. As a cognitive-behavioral psychologist, addressing this dimension with sexual minorities was a necessity. Although a couple of studies previously addressed the role of non-erotic thoughts with sexual minorities, and their relationship with sexual functioning, our goal was to address several cognitive dimensions, previously addressed with heterosexual men and women, and establish differences and similarities according to sexual orientation.
What should the average person take away from your study?
This particular study highlighted the role of automatic thoughts, namely erotic thoughts during sexual activity, as a core variable for a better sexual functioning, regardless of sexual orientation. More erotic thoughts in sexual context, and less negative thoughts (namely thoughts related with failure anticipation or erection concerns in men, and for instance failure and disengagement thoughts in women) are strongly associated with a better sexual response in gay and heterosexual men, as well as in lesbian and heterosexual women. Promoting erotic thoughts, and an erotic cognitive background may help both heterosexuals, gay men and lesbian women, to improve their levels of sexual desire and arousal, reaching orgasm and have increased levels of sexual satisfaction.
Are there any major caveats? What questions still need to be addressed?
Although this pilot study addresses an understudied topic, there are still questions that need to be addressed in the future. This study focused only on gay men and lesbian women, and no bisexual men and women have been included. Moreover, specific automatic thoughts for gay and bisexual men, as for lesbian and bisexual women, should also be assessed. Additionally, although men and women with distressing sexual symptoms have been recruited, no clinical diagnoses have been made during this research project. Exploratory and qualitative studies should be conducted in order to assess this understudied topic and overcome this limitations.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
This study was part of a larger project conducted at SexLab, at Center for Psychology at University of Porto, under the supervision of Professor Pedro Nobre, director of SexLab, and with a PhD Grant from Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology. With this and other six studies I received my PhD degree in Psychology, in december 2014 from University of Porto. Currently I am a researcher at Psychology Research Center, at University of Minho, Portugal. I’m running several studies, with Psychology Master Students, regarding clinical sexology, and I recently received my Sex Therapist certificate by Portuguese Society for Clinical Sexology.
The study was titled: “Automatic Thoughts During Sexual Activity, Distressing Sexual Symptoms, and Sexual Orientation: Findings from a Web Survey“.
