Models of Sexual Response in Humans

Choi, In Kwang

Abstract

Sexual behavior is crucial in life, yet comparatively little is known about the mechanisms in the sexual response in humans. A lot of theories and models have been developed to explain about the process of the sexual response in humans. The first model of sexual function was described by Masters and Johnson, defined the four-phase model (phases of excitation, plateau, orgasm and resolution). Helen Kaplan proposed a slightly different model of human sexual response by adding the conception of the desire phase. Some years later, a new model of circular sexual response pattern was described by Whipple and Brash-McGreer, who acknowledged the cyclic nature of women's sexual response. Basson presented an alternative model of women's normative sexual function, which featured a responsive form of desire in women's sexual response. Bancroft developed a new theoretical model, the Dual Control Model, which postulates sexual response and arousal is ultimately determined by the balance between the sexual activation or excitation system and the sexual inhibition system. The Sexual Tipping Point is a model created by Perelman, suggesting that a sexual response is determined by a balance between excitatory or inhibitory factors that may be psychological, organic, psychosocial, or cultural. A comprehensive understanding of sexual response and function is of paramount importance for the psychiatrist to study sex, offer counseling to the patient on sex, and practice sex therapy. In this literature, models of sexual response would be reviewed to understand the knowledge of the sexual functioning in humans.