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Non-Erotic Thoughts, Attentional Focus, and Sexual Problems in a Community Sample

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Abstract

According to Barlow’s model of sexual dysfunction, anxiety in sexual situations leads to attentional focus on sexual performance at the expense of erotic cues, which compromises sexual arousal. This negative experience will enhance anxiety in future sexual situations, and non-erotic thoughts (NETs) relevant to performance will receive attentional priority. Previous research with student samples (Purdon & Holdaway, 2006; Purdon & Watson, 2010) has found that people experience many types of NETs in addition to performance-relevant thoughts, and that, consistent with Barlow’s model, the frequency of and anxiety evoked by these thoughts is positively associated with sexual problems. Extending this previous work, the current study found that, in a community sample of women (N = 81) and men (N = 72) in long-term relationships, women were more likely to report body image concerns and external consequences of the sexual activity, while men were more likely to report performance-related concerns. Equally likely among men and women were thoughts about emotional consequences of the sexual activity. Regardless of thought content, experiencing more frequent NETs was associated with more sexual problems in both women and men. Moreover, as per Barlow’s model, greater negative affect in anticipation of and during sexual activity predicted greater frequency of NETs and greater anxiety in response to NETs was associated with greater difficulty dismissing the thoughts. However, greater difficulty in refocusing on erotic thoughts during sexual activity uniquely predicted more sexual problems above the frequency and dismissability of NETs. Together, these data support the cognitive interference mechanism implicated by Barlow’s causal model of sexual dysfunction and have implications for the treatment of sexual problems.

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Notes

  1. A measure of relationship satisfaction was originally included, but due to an error in the instructions in the online administration, the data were considered invalid.

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Acknowledgments

Support for this research was obtained by a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) to the second author. This research was conducted in fulfillment of the thesis requirement for a Master’s of Arts Degree at the University of Waterloo for the first author and supported by a Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canadian Graduate Scholarships–Master’s Award from SSHRC. Portions of this research were presented at the 69th and 70th Canadian Psychological Association Conventions in Halifax, Nova Scotia, 2008 and Montreal, Quebec, 2009, respectively. The authors would like to thank Madeline Burley for her assistance in data collection, and Uzma Rehman and Daniel Smilek for their review of previous versions of this article.

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  1. Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, 200 University Ave., Waterloo, ON, N2L 3G1, Canada

    Andrea L. Nelson & Christine Purdon

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  1. Andrea L. Nelson
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Correspondence to Andrea L. Nelson.

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Nelson, A.L., Purdon, C. Non-Erotic Thoughts, Attentional Focus, and Sexual Problems in a Community Sample. Arch Sex Behav 40, 395–406 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-010-9693-1

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