Award Date

1-1-2004

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Psychology

First Committee Member

Marta Meana

Number of Pages

108

Abstract

The fact that sexual experiences, comprising cognitive, affective, and behavioral components, are private and socio-culturally laden has limited the types of methodology useful in exploring their characteristics. Eye-tracking methodology has the capacity to overcome some methodological difficulties We presented men and women with erotic and non-erotic pictures to examine the oft-published gender difference in self-reported attentional focus to erotica (i.e., men are most interested in body parts, and women are most interested in romantic context). After adjusting for scene region size, we found no gender differences in the amount of time that men and women looked at different aspects of an erotic image. Both men and women focused more on faces than on bodies or contextual cues. Significant differences were also found in attention to erotic and non-erotic pictures, providing support for eye-tracking's usefulness in sexuality research. Results are interpreted using the Information Processing Approach, and future directions are suggested.

Keywords

Comparing; Erotic; Eye; Gender; Processing; Research; Sex; Stimuli; Tracking

Controlled Subject

Clinical psychology; Cognitive psychology; Psychology, Experimental

File Format

pdf

File Size

2170.88 KB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

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