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

The term dark personalities refers to a set of socially aversive traits in the subclinical range. Not extreme enough to invite clinical or forensic attention, they can get along (even flourish) in everyday work settings, scholastic settings, and the broader community. Along with my research group, I have studied a constellation of these personalities— Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy, and everyday sadism—under the label “Dark Tetrad.” We have argued that, because of their overlap, these four traits should be studied in concert. Recently developed inventories now facilitate identification of the unique contributions of each trait. The present review highlights key advances and controversies emerging from work on these malevolent, yet fascinating, characters.

/pdf/toward-a-taxonomy-of-dark-personalities-509eyxyuj3.pdf

Toward a Taxonomy of Dark Personalities

SummaryOngoing political controversies around the world exemplify a long-standing and widespread preoccupation with the acceptability of homosexuality. Nonheterosexual people have seen dramatic surges both in their rights and in positive public opinion in many Western countries. In contrast, in much of Africa, the Middle East, the Caribbean, Oceania, and parts of Asia, homosexual behavior remains illegal and severely punishable, with some countries retaining the death penalty for it. Political controversies about sexual orientation have often overlapped with scientific controversies. That is, participants on both sides of the sociopolitical debates have tended to believe that scientific findings-and scientific truths-about sexual orientation matter a great deal in making political decisions. The most contentious scientific issues have concerned the causes of sexual orientation-that is, why are some people heterosexual, others bisexual, and others homosexual? The actual relevance of these issues to social, political, and ethical decisions is often poorly justified, however.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1529100616637616

Sexual Orientation, Controversy, and Science:

In this article, I outline a general framework for the evolutionary analysis of mental disorders based on the concepts of life history theory. I synthesize and extend a large body of work showing that individual differences in life history strategy set the stage for the development of psychopathology. My analysis centers on the novel distinction between fast spectrum and slow spectrum disorders. I describe four main causal pathways from life history strategies to psychopathology, argue that psychopathology can arise at both ends of the fast–slow continuum of life history variation, and provide heuristic criteria for classifying disorders as fast or slow spectrum pathologies. I then apply the fast–slow distinction to a diverse sample of common mental disorders: externalizing disorders, schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorders, eating disorders, and depression. The framework integrates previously disconnected models of psychopathology within a common frame of reference and...

An Evolutionary Life History Framework for Psychopathology

Against Our Will Men Women And Rape

Vaginal vasocongestion and lubrication serve to prepare the vaginal lumen for sexual activity. Lubrication is important for sexual functioning and difficulties with lubrication are one of the most commonly reported symptoms of sexual dysfunction. Few studies have empirically examined how vasocongestion and lubrication relate to one another and there are currently no well-established measures of lubrication. In this study, we designed and tested a simple method to assess lubrication at the vaginal introitus in 19 healthy women, using litmus test strips. We examined the relationship between lubrication and vaginal vasocongestion (measured with a photoplethysmograph) when elicited by audiovisual sexual stimuli (male–female sexual interactions). Lubrication was elicited by the sexual stimuli and was strongly correlated with reports of sexual arousal. Unexpectedly, lubrication was not correlated with vasocongestion, even though the latter was also elicited by the sexual stimuli. We discuss the implications of these findings for informing our understanding of the female sexual response and the potential clinical and scientific utility of this new measure.

Assessment of Introital Lubrication

In a recent study, we found a negative association between psychopathy and violence against genetic relatives. We interpreted this result as a form of nepotism and argued that it failed to support the hypothesis that psychopathy is a mental disorder, suggesting instead that it supports the hypothesis that psychopathy is an evolved life history strategy. This interpretation and subsequent arguments have been challenged in a number of ways. Here, we identify several misunderstandings regarding the harmful dysfunction definition of mental disorder as it applies to psychopathy and regarding the meaning of nepotism. Furthermore, we examine the evidence provided by our critics that psychopathy is associated with other disorders, and we offer a comment on their alternative model of psychopathy. We conclude that there remains little evidence that psychopathy is the product of dysfunctional mechanisms.

/pdf/psychopathy-adaptation-and-disorder-zxmou20lop.pdf

Psychopathy, adaptation, and disorder

Research on samples of men and women from the general population suggests that paraphilic interests and behaviours are more common in men than in women, but the reasons for this sex difference are unclear. In addition, there is little research on how paraphilic interests lead to engagement in paraphilic behaviours. In this study, we assessed the frequency of engagement in a broad range of paraphilic behaviours in a nonclinical sample of men and women. We expected that men would report engaging in paraphilic behaviours more frequently than women. We also examined whether sex drive explained the sex difference in the frequency of engagement in paraphilic behaviours, as well as whether the relationship between paraphilic interests and frequency of engagement in paraphilic behaviours was stronger at high levels of sex drive. A sample of 305 men and 710 women completed an online survey assessing paraphilic interests and behaviours as well as three measures of sex drive. As expected, sex differences were found, with men reporting more frequent engagement in most paraphilic behaviours. After controlling for socially desirable responding, sex drive fully accounted for the male-biased sex differences. One measure of sex drive–the Sexual Behaviour and Desire Questionnaire–moderated the relationship between paraphilic interests and frequency of engagement in paraphilic behaviours, such that paraphilic interests were most strongly associated with paraphilic behaviours at high levels of sex drive. Taken together, these findings provide further support for the importance of sex drive in understanding the paraphilias.

The effects of sex drive and paraphilic interests on paraphilic behaviours in a nonclinical sample of men and women

Research conducted in our laboratory and in other laboratories has revealed that (1) women’s genital responses to visual and auditory stimuli are strongly affected by the presence of sexual cues, but that (2) specific sexual cues (e.g., gender of actors, the presence of sexual violence) often have little impact on the magnitude of the responses—that is, similar genital responses are observed to very different sexual stimuli. In addition, (3) women’s genital responses do not strongly correspond with self-reported sexual partner and activity preferences, or (4) with self-reported sexual arousal during the presentation of sexual stimuli. Taken together, these facts represent a puzzle, especially considering that men’s genital responses are highly affected by specific sexual cues and strongly correspond to stated preferences and self-reported sexual arousal. One hypothesis to explain female low cue-specificity and low concordance (relative to men) is the preparation hypothesis: Women’s indiscriminate genital responses serve a protective function. That is, they do not indicate or necessarily promote sexual interest and motivation, but rather prepare the vaginal lumen for possible sexual activity and therefore prevent injuries that may occur as a result of penetration. We review evidence for and against this hypothesis. We conclude that the evidence is favorable but not entirely convincing, and more work is required to reach a firm conclusion. We offer directions for future research.

The Empirical Status of the Preparation Hypothesis: Explicating Women's Genital Responses to Sexual Stimuli in the Laboratory.

Delay discounting—preference for immediate, smaller rewards over distal, larger rewards—has been argued to be part of the “generality of deviance”, which describes the co-occurrence of various forms of impulsive and risky behaviors among individuals. Some studies have linked laboratory-measured delay discounting to behaviors, traits, attitudes, and outcomes associated with risk, but these associations have been inconsistent. Furthermore, many of these studies have been conducted with exclusively undergraduate samples, or in samples offering low statistical power. In a large community sample (n = 328) diverse in age and socioeconomic status, we examined associations between two measures of behavioral delay discounting (single-shot and canonical k-parameter estimation) and behavioral risk-taking, personality traits associated with risk, domain-specific risk attitudes, gambling and problem gambling, antisocial behavior, and criminal outcomes. In addition, we explored whether a novel response time latency measure of delay discounting explained variance in these risk-related outcomes. Results indicated that behavioral delay discounting was consistently associated with all variables related to impulse control: high trait impulsivity, low trait self-control, risk-averse attitudes toward financial investment, risk-prone attitudes toward gambling and health/safety risks, gambling and problem gambling, antisocial conduct, and criminal outcomes. Latency-measured delay discounting was inconsistently associated with behavioral delay discounting and risk-related measures. Together, results suggest that delay discounting is associated with poor impulse control consistent with a generality of deviance account. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Martin L. Lalumière

Papers

Assessment of Introital Lubrication

Psychopathy, adaptation, and disorder

The effects of sex drive and paraphilic interests on paraphilic behaviours in a nonclinical sample of men and women

The Empirical Status of the Preparation Hypothesis: Explicating Women's Genital Responses to Sexual Stimuli in the Laboratory.

Associations Between Delay Discounting and Risk‐Related Behaviors, Traits, Attitudes, and Outcomes