Procedure to validate sexual stimuli: reliability and validity of a set of sexual stimuli in a sample of young colombian heterosexual males.

Abstract

Penile plethysmography – or phallometric assessment – is a very relevant evaluation for sexual health. The objective of this research is to suggest a guideline to validate sexual stimuli and validate a set of sexual stimuli in young heterosexual men. Six videos of 3:15 minute-long were used. A total of 24 men were assessed. Objective sexual arousal, rapid change of peripheral temperature, pulse, the International Index of Erectile Function-5, Self-Assessment Manikin, Multidimensional Scale to Assess Subjective Sexual Arousal and socio-psycho-sexual questions were used. The results showed three sexual excerpts which were clearly superior to the others – something discordant with the subjective opinion of researchers. These three sexual excerpts generated internally consistent measurements; moreover, good indicators of external validity have been observed with statistically significant differences as expected. Furthermore, with healthy young population, it has been shown that the three stimuli produce objective sexual arousal if used together.