A literature review of studies into the prevalence and frequency of men's pornography use

This review aims to provide information on the prevalence and frequency of adult males' pornography use. It appears, the majority (> 80%) of adult men have accessed pornography at some point, and in the past year (40–70%). Around half of younger men (25 or under) are weekly consumers. Pornography use tapers-off with age. Relatively few (<10%) younger men have accessed violent pornography in the past year. The Internet is the primary method of access. Pornography use is associated with masturbation; use during partnered sex is less common. Differences in consumption rates between heterosexual and gay and bisexual men are discussed

An experimental investigation into pornography's effect on men's perceptions of the likelihood of women engaging in porn-like sex

This experimental study investigates whether exposure to pornography affects men's perceptions of the likelihood of women engaging in, and enjoying, "porn-like" sex. Participants (N = 418) were either exposed to nonpornographic control videos or pornographic videos in which a male taxi driver has sex with a female passenger. Participants' perceptions of the likelihood of women engaging in various sexual practices commonly depicted in pornography (e.g., unprotected sex with a stranger and rough sex) were then assessed across 2 vignettes. In the first vignette, a male taxi driver propositions a female passenger. In the second, a male boss propositions a female employee. The study was administered online to maximize ecological validity. No effect was found for experimental exposure. However, an effect was detected for past exposure. Men who had viewed taxi-themed pornography in the past 6 months rated the female taxi vignette character as being more likely to engage in porn-like sex with a male taxi driver. Similarly, those who had viewed workplace-themed pornography in the past 6 months judged the female workplace vignette character as being more likely to engage in porn-like sex with a male boss. The implications of these findings for theoretical models of sexual media socialization are discussed

Gender, embodiment, and positioning in the dialogical self: do men and women see eye to eye?

Positioning theory first emerged through efforts to analyze discourse in micro-social encounters, but it has also been adapted to account for the dynamics of conflict in a 'multi-voiced' dialogical self (see Raggatt, 2007). In this approach a person's repertoire of opposing I-positions is thought to have origins both 'inside' in terms of reflexive personal conflicts (e.g., over esteem or agency needs), and 'outside' in terms of social constructions (e.g., arising from role conflicts and from embedding in power and status hierarchies). This chapter describes findings from a survey of positioning in the dialogical self that focuses on gender differences in positioning conflicts. Opposing I-positions were obtained from 109 participants by asking them to sort similarities and differences across self-reported life history material. The relationship of body image to gender and self-representation was also a focus, and so participants were asked to sort 'liked' and 'disliked' body parts along with the life history material. Sources of conflict between I-positions given in the life history material were then coded for reflexive (personal) and social forms of positioning. Males and females were found to differ markedly in positioning styles. In women, esteem, communion, and cross-gender conflicts were the focus, while in men agency and independence issues were more problematic. There were also marked differences in the embodiment of I-positions. Females associated their faces with positive I-positions, and their lower bodies (legs and buttocks) with negative positions. Conversely, men associated their faces with negative I-positions and their torsos with positive ones. The findings are interpreted as evidence for the disjunction of embodied experience across the sexes. It is proposed that problems of communication emerge between the sexes in part because males and females use quite different modes of embodying self-expression. The results are discussed from the perspectives of dialogical self theory, positioning theory, social role theory, and the embodiment of self esteem

The landscape of narrative and the dialogical self: exploring identity with the personality web protocol

The paper discusses the application of a dialogical approach to the study of lives tradition in personality psychology. The assumption that a person's ‘life story’ can be conceived and told as an integrated unity is questioned. I argue that multiplicity and conflict are inherent properties of elaborated life narratives. It is suggested that problems in theorising ‘self’ and ‘identity’ can be addressed by assuming a ‘normal’ state of multiplicity in the person, rather than by normalizing psychic unity and integration (e.g., Erikson, 1959). Using the concept of ‘positioning’ in conversation, borrowed from discursive psychology, it is argued that the ‘dialogical self’ can be understood as a polyphony of (storied) positions. In this approach the contradictions and conflicts that are an important part of identity are acknowledged. In the second half of the paper a method for investigating the dialogical self is described, and a case study is presented to illustrate the approach. In discussion, implications for theory and research in the narrative psychology tradition are explored

A plurality of selves? An illustration of polypsychism in a recovered addict

To meet the challenges of rapid social change and growing cultural hybridisation, psychologists must find new ways to study personality processes unconstrained by older Enlightenment models that promote self-contained individualism. \ud \ud This research aims to contribute to that challenge. In trying to come to terms with issues surrounding the meaning of 'self' and 'identity' in a postmodern landscape, I have developed and refined a method for mapping the multiplicity of the self. \ud \ud The Personality Web protocol combines structured interviewing and qualitative analyses with multidimensional scaling statistical methods. The goal is to map the history and development of an individual's life-world from the viewpoint of alternative narrative voices which constitute\ud a polypsychic self. \ud \ud The method of analysis is described here with reference to the case study of Sean, a former addict. Sean's story provides a powerful illustration of opposing narrative voices in the self. It is argued that dialogical\ud oppositions in the self are defined by moral concerns, and by a matrix of social, political and cultural positioning

Space and time in the dialogical self: personal chronotopes in life history data

Bakhtin (1990) observed that looking into a mirror can be a ghostly and unsettling experience. In the image before us we see, simultaneously, both the object of the other's view, and that of our own authoring. William James called the image the 'Me' in contradistinction to the 'I'. But as Bakhtin observed, there is an unsettling absence in the mirror experience because the mirror furnishes no context for authorship. Both the mirror experience and the act of authoring are analogous in this sense because in both experiences there is a fundamental multiplicity. In both experiences we employ our capacity for 'distancing' – that is, we take up a second position, or a third-person perspective on the self. But in both circumstances we also need a third position, a context that is provided by the others’ view. This third position is conspicuously absent in the mirror experience. From this premise, I argue that questions about the emergence of the dialogical self must address processes of symbolic mediation involving dialogical triads of the original form: I-Me-Other. In psychology, the idea of 'thirdness' has been used in a wide range of triadic models that draw on principles of semiotic mediation, first proposed by C. S. Peirce in the United States, and by Vygotsky and others in Europe. In my talk, links are developed between these principles and the role of 'mediating objects' as third-term semiotic markers for our multiplicity. A distinctive feature of dialogical self theory is that it is spatial in its structural organization - there is no centre as such, but rather a terrain of decentralized 'locations' from which to speak. At the same time, however, our positioning must have continuity in the temporal domain. Hence, the dialogical self can be thought of as organized within a temporal-spatial matrix. Bakhtin called such a matrix the "chronotope" (meaning literally, 'time-space'). Using case material from life histories, the emergence of personal chronotopes in individuals is illustrated. I argue that the personal chronotope is comprised of a temporally organized string or sequence of dialogical triads. Each triad is defined by an I-position, a counter-position, and an ambiguous third as mediator

Putting the Five-Factor Model into context: evidence linking Big Five traits to narrative identity

The study examined relationships between the Big Five personality traits and thematic content extracted from self-reports of life history data. One hundred and five "mature age" university students (M=30.1 years) completed the NEO PI-R trait measure, and the Personality Web Protocol. The protocol examines constituents of identity by asking participants to describe 24 key "attachments" from their life histories (significant events, people, places, objects, and possessions). Participants sorted these attachments into clusters and provided a self-descriptive label for each cluster (e.g., "adventurous self"). It was predicted that the thematic content of these cluster labels would be systematically related to Big Five trait scores (e.g., that labels referring to strength or positive emotions would be linked to Extraversion). The hypothesized links were obtained for each of the Big Five trait domains except Conscientiousness. Results are discussed with a view to broadening our understanding of the Five-Factor Model in relation to units of personality other than traits

Mapping the dialogical self: Towards a rationale and method of assessment

It is widely believed that the well-adjusted individual has an integrated, coherent and autonomous 'core self' or 'ego identity'. In this paper it is argued that a 'multi-voiced' or 'dialogical self' provides a better model. In this model the self has no central core; rather, it is the product of alternative and often opposing narrative voices. Each voice has its own life story; each competes with other voices for dominance in thought and action; and each is constituted by a different set of affectively-charged attachments: to people, events, objects and our own bodies. It is argued that by exploring these attachments the dominant narrative voices of the self may be identified. A semi-structured interview protocol, the Personality Web, is introduced as a method for studying the dialogical self. In phase 1, 24 attachments are elicited in four categories: people (6), events (6), places and objects (8), and orientations to body parts (4). During interviewing, the history and meaning of each attachment is explored. In phase 2, participants were asked to group their attachments by strength of association into clusters, and multidimensional scaling was used to map the individual's 'web' of attachments. Using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, the strategy of clustering attachments was shown to be successful as a means for empirically examining the dialogical self. Two case studies of midlife adults are described to illustrate the arguments and methods proposed

Sterol metabolism in extra-hepatic tissues

It is currently believed that cholesterol is the principal precursor of steroid hormones in endocrine organs and that it is converted to hormones via pregnenolone. The cholesterol molecule is first hydroxylated at C-20, and then at C-22 to yield 20α,22ζ-dihydroxy-cholesterol and this is then cleaved between C-20 and C-22 to yield pregnenolone and isocaproic acid./p> The enzyme system catalysing this series of reactions (cholesterol oxidase, E.C. 1.1.3.6) has been investigated in some detail using tissue preparations of bovine adrenal cortex and human term placenta. Cholesterol oxidase in both the adrenal cortex and the placenta is associated with the mitochondria but a method was devised for bringing it into solution by means of sonication. Mitochondria, soluble preparations of mitochondria and soluble, steroid-free extracts of acetone-dried preparations have been used as the source of the enzyme in these experiments. A reliable method of assaying cholesterol oxidase by measuring the [5-14C]-isocaproic acid produced from [26-14C]-cholesterol was devised and thin-layer chromatographic methods were developed for the separation and identification of the steroid products. An apparatus was devised for the quantitative recovery of the steroids from the thin-layer chromatograms, and this was also utilised in a method of extraction, separation and assay of the endogenous cholesterol, cholesteryl esters and pregnenolone in adrenal cortex subcellular fractions. The method was capable of detecting 7 μg of cholesterol, 16 μg of cholesteryl ester and 2 μg of pregnenolone, using pure samples of the steroids. In the course of this investigation the following compounds were prepared:- sodium cholesteryl-3β-sulphate, pyridinium cholesteryl-3β- sulphate, sodium [4-14C]-cholesteryl-3β-sulphate, sodium [26-14C]- cholesteryl-3β-sulphate, sodium pregnenolone-3β-sulphate, sodium 25-oxo- 27-nor-cholesteryl-3β-sulphate, [4-14C]-cholesteryl-3β-acetate, [26-14C]- cholesteryl-3β-acetate, [26-14C]-cholest-4-ene-3-one, 27-nor-cholest-4- ene-3,25-dione, dihydrogen cholesteryl-3β-phosphate, diphenyl cholesteryl- 3β-phosphate, cholesteryl-3β-chloride, pregnenolone-3β-palmitate, 20α-hydroxy- cholesterol, 20α-hydroxy-cholesteryl-3β-acetate and pregnenolone- 3β-tetrapyranyl ether. Evidence was obtained that NADPH is required for cholesterol oxidation in adrenal cortex mitochondria and in preparations derived from the mitochondria and that in mitochondria, this may arise by the action of transhydrogenase (E.C. 1.6.1.1) on the NADH formed from Krebs-cycle intermediates. However, adrenal cortex mitochondria as prepared in this work were shown to contain NADP-linked malic enzyme (E.C. 1.1.1.40) and NADP-linked glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (E.C. 1.1.1.49); in most tissues these enzymes are found mainly in the cytoplasm but if in the adrenal cortex they are associated with the mitochondria, as the results suggest, then they also could give rise to mitochondrial NADPH. The glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase of adrenal cortex (but not of yeast) was shown to be inhibited by pregnenolone but not by cholesterol. However, by comparison of the magnitude of this inhibition and the measured pregnenolone content of the adrenal cortex preparations, it was concluded that pregnenolone was unlikely to be a physiological regulator of cholesterol oxidase through its effect on glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase and the NADPH supply. Cholesterol was dispersed in aqueous incubation media using N,N-dimethyl formamide and the cholesterol dispersed in this way was found to be absorbed by the mitochondria. This absorption was partly reversible and the amount absorbed increased with the concentration of the added cholesterol. Absorbed cholesterol appeared to be less readily converted into steroid hormones than free cholesterol. The principal steroid product of cholesterol oxidation by adrenal cortex mitochondria, and by extracts made from mitochondria, was pregnenolone, but some progesterone was also formed, especially in experiments with whole mitochondria. The pregnenolone formed was partly retained in the mitochondria and partly released into the extra-particulate fluid; it was not taken up by the microsomes although the enzymes which convert pregnenolone into progesterone are known to be microsomal. The C6-product of cholesterol oxidation by adrenocortical preparations was isocaproic acid. This isocaproic acid was oxidised to carbon dioxide by the mitochondria under the conditions used but to such a slight extent that it did not affect the use of the production of isocaproic acid as a measure of cholesterol oxidase activity. The substrate specificity of cholesterol oxidase was investigated: cholesteryl-3β-sulphate , cholest-4-ene-3-one , cholesteryl-3β-acetate and cholesteryl-3β-linolenate were compared with cholesterol and were found to be less readily oxidised. Evidence was obtained that cholesteryl fatty acyl esters are not oxidised directly to pregnenolone esters but are first hydrolysed to free cholesterol by an esterase and subsequently oxidised to pregnenolone. It is suggested that cholesteryl fatty acyl esters form a reserve of cholesterol which can be metabolised, after hydrolysis, to steroid hormones. Cholesteryl-3β-sulphate was oxidised directly to pregnenolone-3β- sulphate under the experimental conditions employed and no free pregnenolone or other steroids were formed. It is suggested that oxidation of cholesteryl-3β-sulphate forms part of an alternative pathway of steroid hormone biosynthesis in adrenal cortex, but no evidence was obtained that sulphurylation or phosphorylation were obligatory steps in cholesterol oxidation. Cholesteryl-3β-sulphate and free cholesterol were compared as substrates for cholesterol oxidase. Kinetic studies in a variety of tissue preparations indicated that free cholesterol was the preferred substrate with a Km of 1 - 4 μM whereas the Km for cholesteryl-3β- sulphate was about 500 μM. Cholesterol sulphatase was detected in adrenal cortex and was found to be microsomal. It was inhibited by inorganic phosphate and therefore phosphate was used in experiments designed to measure cholesteryl- 3β-sulphate oxidation. he inhibitor specificity of cholesterol oxidase was investigated. Cholesteryl-3β-esters (phosphate, sulphate, acetate, oleate and linolenate) inhibited cholesterol oxidation competitively but it is suggested that inhibition by fatty acyl esters was due to production of free cholesterol by esterase activity. The products of cholesterol oxidation, pregnenolone and 20α-hydroxy-cholesterol inhibited cholesterol oxidation non-competitively. The Ki for pregnenolone was 80 μM and for 20α-hydroxy cholesterol 10 μM. Evidence was obtained that feed-back inhibition by pregnenolone may be a physiological mechanism for the control of cholesterol oxidation and steroid hormone formation and that this effect is exerted directly on the enzyme cholesterol oxidase. A number of other steroids inhibited cholesterol oxidation and among these was 25-oxo-27-nor-cholesterol, a synthetic steroid which was more potent than pregnenolone (Ki 16 μM, non-competitive). These results suggest that a 3β-hydroxyl group as well as an oxygen function in the side chain are important structural characteristics of an inhibitor of cholesterol oxidase. Cholesterol oxidase was also inhibited by Su 4885 (2-methyl,1,2-di-(pyrid-3-yl)-propan-l-one), a synthetic hydroxylation inhibitor. When cholesterol oxidation was inhibited by pregnenolone, 20αhydroxy- cholesterol, 25-oxo-27-nor-cholesterol or Su 4885, no trace of accumulated intermediates was detected. This supports the theory that 20α-hydroxylation is the first and rate-limiting step of cholesterol oxidation. Certain steroid carboxylic acids (3β-hydroxy-chol-5-enoic acid, 3α-hydroxy-chol-5-enoic acid and 3β-hydroxy-22,23-bisnor-chol-5-enoic acid) stimulated cholesterol oxidation but 3β-hydroxy-androst-5-ene- 17α-carboxylic acid and 3β-acetoxy-22,23-bisnor-chol-5-enoic acid did not. The oxidation of cholesteryl-3β-sulphate by adrenal cortex mitochondria was inhibited by pregnenolone, 20α-hydroxy-cholesterol and 25-oxo-27-nor-cholesterol but not by pregnenolone-3β-sulphate or 25-oxo- 27-nor-cholesteryl-3β-sulphate. This similarity to the inhibitor specificity of cholesterol oxidation suggests that there is only one enzyme system oxidising both cholesterol and cholesteryl-3β-sulphate. This theory is supported by the similarity between the maximum rates of oxidation of cholesterol and cholesteryl-3β-sulphate by soluble, steroidfree cholesterol oxidase. In view of the necessity for pregnenolone made in the mitochondria to be transported to the microsomes for conversion to progesterone, it seemed possible that microsomes might increase the rate of cholesterol oxidation by mitochondrial preparations by reducing the feed-back inhibition. However microsomes were found to inhibit cholesterol oxidation by mitochondria and this effect was additive to that produced by pregnenolone. Heat-denatured microsomes were more effective than fresh microsomes for this and so it is suggested that the results can best be explained by the pregnenolone in the microsomes inhibiting cholesterol oxidation by the feed-back mechanism or by the cholesterol in the microsomes diluting the added labelled cholesterol. Evidence is presented which suggests that cholesterol oxidase is located within the outer membrane of the mitochondrion. Cholesterol oxidation was also investigated in human term placenta. The experiments were directed towards discovering whether placenta contained cholesterol oxidase and if so whether it was similar to that of adrenal cortex. The ability of placental preparations to oxidise cholesterol was demonstrated and the cholesterol oxidase was shown to be mitochondrial and to require NADPH. However, unlike adrenal cortex mitochondria, placental mitochondria did not appear to possess the ability to produce sufficient NADPH to support cholesterol oxidation and it was necessary to add a NADPH-generating system. If these results reflect the capability of the placenta in vivo to generate NADPH for cholesterol oxidation then the supply of NADPH may be regulatory in placenta, unlike the adrenal cortex.</p