Differences in Automatic Thoughts Presented During Sexual Activity Between Sexually Functional and Dysfunctional Men and Women

Abstract The study is aimed at investigating the differences between individuals with and without sexual dysfunction on the automatic thoughts content (reported as usually presented) during sexual activity. A total of 491 individuals (163 women and 232 men without sexual problems and 47 women and 49 men with a DSM-IV diagnosis of sexual dysfunction) answered the Sexual Modes Questionnaire (SMQ; Nobre and Pinto-Gouveia (J Sex Res 40:368–382, 2003). Results indicated that men and women with sexual dysfunction reported having had significantly more negative thoughts during sexual activity compared to sexually healthy individuals. Failure and disengagement thoughts (I’m not satisfying my partner, I’m not getting turned on, when will this be over?), sexual abuse thoughts (this is disgusting, he only wants to satisfy himself), and lack of erotic thoughts were significantly more common in women with sexual dysfunction compared to sexually healthy women. Additionally, men with sexual dysfunction presented significantly higher scores on erection concern thoughts (I must be able to have intercourse, I must achieve an erection), failure anticipation thoughts (this is not going anywhere, I’m condemned to failure), and lack of erotic thoughts compared to men without sexual dysfunction. Overall, findings support clinical observations and experimental findings, indicating that cognitive distraction from erotic cues is strongly associated with sexual dysfunction. The increased use of cognitive techniques on the treatment of sexual dysfunction is a major implication of the study

Questionnaire of Cognitive Schema Activation in Sexual Context: A Measure to Assess Cognitive Schemas Activated in Unsuccessful Sexual Situations

The aim of this study was to assess the reliability and validity of the Questionnaire of Cognitive Schema Activation in Sexual Context (QCSASC; Nobre & Pinto-Gouveia, 2000b). A total of 319 individuals (96 with sexual dysfunctions and 223 without sexual dysfunctions) participated in the study. The QCSASC assesses 28 self-schemas proposed by J. S. Beck (1995), usually associated with psychological problems. The measure assesses the activation of these self-schemas following the presentation of 4 negative sexual events associated with the most common sexual dysfunctions in men and women. The QCSASC demonstrated internal consistency (Cronbach's agr = .94), test-retest reliability (r[34] = .66), convergent validity (high correlations with other measures of general schemas), and incremental validity. Discriminant analysis differentiated between clinical (sexual dysfunction) and non-clinical groups, giving credit to the hypothesis that the activation of negative schemas may be involved in sexual dysfunctional processes. Findings also suggest the relevance of assessing cognitive schemas in clinical settings