Abstract
The sexual response includes an emotional component, but it is not clear whether this component is specific to sex and whether it is best explained by dimensional or discrete emotion theories. To determine whether the emotional component of the sexual response is distinct from other emotions, participants (n = 1099) rated 1450 sexual and non-sexual words according to dimensional theories of emotion (using scales of valence, arousal, and dominance) and according to theories of basic emotion (using scales of happiness, anger, sadness, fear, and disgust). In addition, ratings were provided for newly developed scales of sexual valence, arousal, and energy. A factor analysis produced four factors, together accounting for 91.5% of the variance in participant ratings. Using logistic regression analysis, we found that one word category or factor, labeled “sexual,” was predicted only by the new sexual arousal and energy scales. The remaining three factors, labeled “disgusting,” “happy,” and “basic aversive” were best predicted by basic (or discrete) emotion ratings. Dimensional ratings of valence, sexual valence, and arousal were not predictive of any of the four categories. These results suggest that the addition of sexually specific emotions to basic emotion theories is justified and needed to account fully for emotional responses to sexual stimuli. In addition, the findings provide initial validation for the Indiana Sexual and Affective Words Set (ISAWS), supporting its use in future studies.
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Notes
The complete supplementary database of words and ratings is available from the corresponding author upon request.
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Acknowledgments
This research was supported, in part, by the IUB Faculty Research Support Program, the Indiana University GPSO Research Grant, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Capstone Independent Research Opportunity Program, and by a Friends of the Kinsey Institute Research Grant. The authors thank Sharada Subramanian and Amy Zhang for their assistance with this project, and Kathryn Macapagal and Ross VanDerKlok for assistance with the article.
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Appendix
Appendix
This appendix accompanies the Indiana Sexual and Affective Word Set (ISAWS), a set of 1450 English words. Example data included are ratings on five basic emotion scales, three emotional dimension scales, and three sexual emotion scales. Basic emotions include happiness, anger, sadness, fear, and disgust (as used in Mikels et al., 2005; Stevenson & James, 2008; Stevenson et al., 2007), emotional dimensions include valence, arousal, and dominance (as used in Bradley & Lang, 1999a, 1999b; Lang et al., 2005), and sexual emotions include sexual valence, sexual arousal, and sexual energy. Ratings were collected on 1099 students from Indiana University (516 female, 583 male, M age = 20 years). Full accounts of ratings for all 1450 words on each rating scale are available upon request from the authors in document or spreadsheet format.
Rating Scales
Rating scales for the five basic emotions of happiness, anger, sadness, fear, and disgust, emotional dimensions of arousal and dominance, and sexual-emotion dimensions of sexual arousal and sexual energy were unipolar scales from 1 (not at all…) to 9 (extremely…). Rating scales for the emotional dimension of valence and sexual-emotion dimension of sexual valence were bipolar scales ranging from 1 (extremely negative or extremely sexually negative) to 9 (extremely positive or extremely sexually positive), centered around 5 (neutral or sexually neutral). In the case that a participant did not know the word, a rating of 0 was given, and the rating was not used in mean, SD, or sex-difference calculations.
Recognition Rates
Recognition rates were calculated for each word based on the number of participants that rated the word 1-9 relative to the number of participants that rated the word 0, indicating they did not know that word. All Ns reported, as well as means, standard deviations, and sex differences, are based on the number of ratings from 1 to 9. That is, a rating of 0 by a participant was not taken into consideration for any statistic except for recognition rate.
Sex Differences
Sex differences were calculated by running a simple t-test on the raw ratings from males versus those from females. T-scores for each word are presented in the tables with all participants included. Sex-difference t-scores are reported using male-female means, and as such, a positive t-score indicates a higher rating by males, and a negative t-score indicates a higher rating by females. Using the sex-specific means, SDs, and number of ratings per sex, experimenters can calculate any level of sex difference desired for a given experimental usage of the words. This allows researchers to choose words that do not contain significant sex differences at a level of the experimenter’s choosing.
Table Organization
Examples of nine tables can be found below, with all tables found in online supplemental materials in both text and Microsoft Excel formats. These nine tables contain information on each word in the ISAWS, separated by sex (female, male, and both) and separated by emotional theory (basic, dimensional, and sexual). Words are organized according to their ISAWS number, which cluster words into semantically similar groups (i.e. words 2000–2015 are all names for male genitalia).
Appendix Table 1: Table 1 includes ratings on individual words from all subjects on the basic emotion scales. Columns include the word rated, the ISAWS number, and the recognition rate of the word. Means, SDs, and sex difference t-scores are provided for happiness, fear, anger, disgust, and sadness. A range of Ns has been provided (individual Ns for each basic emotion were omitted due to lack of space, but are included in the Excel sheets available in conjunction with this technical report).
Appendix Table 2: Table 2 includes ratings on individual words from only female subjects on the basic emotion scales. Columns include the word rated, the ISAWS number, word length, and the recognition rate of the word by females. Means, SDs, and Ns are provided for happiness, fear, anger, disgust, and sadness.
Appendix Table 3: Table 3 includes ratings on individual words from only male subjects on the basic emotion scales. Columns include the word rated, the ISAWS number, word length, and the recognition rate of the word by males. Means, SDs, and Ns are provided for happiness, fear, anger, disgust, and sadness.
Appendix Table 4: Table 4 includes ratings on individual words from all subjects on the emotion dimension scales. Columns include the word rated, the ISAWS number, word length, and the recognition rate of the word. Means, SDs, Ns, and sex difference t-scores are provided for valence, arousal, and dominance.
Appendix Table 5: Table 5 includes ratings on individual words from only female subjects on the emotion dimension scales. Columns include the word rated, the ISAWS number, word length, and the recognition rate of the word. Means, SDs, and Ns are provided for valence, arousal, and dominance.
Appendix Table 6: Table 6 includes ratings on individual words from only male subjects on the emotion dimension scales. Columns include the word rated, the ISAWS number, word length, and the recognition rate of the word. Means, SDs, and Ns are provided for valence, arousal, and dominance.
Appendix Table 7: Table 7 includes ratings on individual words from all subjects on the sexual-emotion dimension scales. Columns include the word rated, the ISAWS number, word length, and the recognition rate of the word. Means, SDs, Ns, and sex difference t-scores are provided for sexual valence, sexual arousal, and sexual energy.
Appendix Table 8: Table 8 includes ratings on individual words from only female subjects on the sexual-emotion dimension scales. Columns include the word rated, the ISAWS number, word length, and the recognition rate of the word. Means, SDs, and Ns are provided for sexual valence, sexual arousal, and sexual energy.
Appendix Table 9: Table 9 includes ratings on individual words from only male subjects on the sexual-emotion dimension scales. Columns include the word rated, the ISAWS number, word length, and the recognition rate of the word. Means, SDs, and Ns are provided for sexual valence, sexual arousal, and sexual energy.
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Stevenson, R.A., Stevenson, L.D., Rupp, H.A. et al. Incorporating Emotions Specific to the Sexual Response into Theories of Emotion Using the Indiana Sexual and Affective Word Set. Arch Sex Behav 40, 59–78 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-010-9669-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-010-9669-1