Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques

Measuring Health: A Guide to Rating Scales and Questionnaires

This review focuses on the pathway leading from the marital relationship to physical health. Evidence from 64 articles published in the past decade, particularly marital interaction studies, suggests that marital functioning is consequential for health; negative dimensions of marital functioning have indirect influences on health outcomes through depression and health habits, and direct influences on cardiovascular, endocrine, immune, neurosensory, and other physiological mechanisms. Moreover, individual difference variables such as trait hostility augment the impact of marital processes on biological systems. Emerging themes in the past decade include the importance of differentiating positive and negative dimensions of marital functioning, the explanatory power of behavioral data, and gender differences in the pathways from the marital relationship to physiological functioning. Contemporary models of gender that emphasize self-processes, traits, and roles furnish alternative perspectives on the differential costs and benefits of marriage for men's and women's health.

Marriage and health: his and hers.

Sexual Behavior in the Human Male

This survey of sexual practices in the United States has been combed by the media for items of interest to the public: monogamous sex is much more widespread in this country than has been thought; infidelity is less frequent than presumed; vaginal intercourse is the defining experience of heterosexual behavior; watching one's partner undress is stimulating to many people; married couples have more sex than single people (unmarried, cohabiting couples have the most sex of all); the majority of couples experience sex twice a week to several times a month; 2.8% of men identify themselves as homosexual and 1.4% of women do so, but a higher percentage of people consider a same-gender experience to have some appeal; 75% of men always experience orgasm compared with 28.6% of women, but more nearly equal numbers of men and women declare themselves satisfied with their sexual experiences. The book is, in fact, a

The Social Organization of Sexuality: Sexual Practices in the United States

This study compared group cognitive-behavioral therapy (12-week trial), surface electromyographic biofeedback (12-week trial), and vestibulectomy in the treatment of dyspareunia resulting from vulvar vestibulitis. Subjects were 78 women randomly assigned to one of three treatment conditions and assessed at pretreatment, posttreatment and 6-month follow-up via gynecological examinations, structured interviews and standard questionnaires pertaining to pain (Pain Rating Index and Sensory scale of the McGill Pain Questionnaire, vestibular pain index, pain during intercourse), sexual function (Sexual History Form, frequency of intercourse, Information subscale of the Derogatis Sexual Functioning Inventory), and psychological adjustment (Brief Symptom Inventory). As compared with pretreatment, study completers of all treatment groups reported statistically significant reductions on pain measures at posttreatment and 6-month follow-up, although the vestibulectomy group was significantly more successful than the two other groups. However, the apparent superiority of vestibulectomy needs to be interpreted with caution since seven women who had been assigned to this condition did not go ahead with the intervention. All three groups significantly improved on measures of psychological adjustment and sexual function from pretreatment to 6-month follow-up. Intent-to-treat analysis supported the general pattern of results of analysis by-treatment-received. Findings suggest that women with dyspareunia can benefit from both medical and behavioral interventions.

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A randomized comparison of group cognitive–behavioral therapy, surface electromyographic biofeedback, and vestibulectomy in the treatment of dyspareunia resulting from vulvar vestibulitis

Biopsychosocial profile of women with dyspareunia.

A review of psychosocial outcomes of surgery for morbid obesity

The literature on women's sexual desire is reviewed with an emphasis on definitional challenges, an assessment of the empirical basis for the distinction between spontaneous and responsive desire, a reconsideration of the extent to which women's sexual desire is relational in nature, and an exploration of the incentive value of sex for women as a factor partially independent from the experience of sexual desire. Nine recommendations are made regarding research and diagnostic directions. The article concludes with an appeal for the inclusion of eroticism in research and clinical work on sexual desire.

Marta Meana

Papers

A randomized comparison of group cognitive–behavioral therapy, surface electromyographic biofeedback, and vestibulectomy in the treatment of dyspareunia resulting from vulvar vestibulitis

Biopsychosocial profile of women with dyspareunia.

A review of psychosocial outcomes of surgery for morbid obesity

Elucidating Women's (hetero)Sexual Desire: Definitional Challenges and Content Expansion

Information needs and decisional preferences among women with ovarian cancer.