Reducing deviant sexual arousal in adolescent child molesters: Cognitive interference and habituation strategies.
Item
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Title
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Reducing deviant sexual arousal in adolescent child molesters: Cognitive interference and habituation strategies.
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Identifier
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AAI8914794
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identifier
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8914794
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Creator
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Stein, Robert Martin.
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Contributor
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Adviser: John S. Antrobus
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Date
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1988
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Psychology, Experimental | Psychology, Clinical
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Abstract
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There are a considerable number of sexual offenses committed by adolescent boys against young female children. Laboratory measurement of the penile erection response, using slides across a generalization gradient of age, is the best method of assessing sexual arousal patterns in adolescent child molesters.;The most effective treatment for deviant sexual arousal is satiation therapy, a treatment that involves reducing the reinforcing value of deviant sexual stimuli through repetition.;The present study, with a group of 21 male adolescent child molesters, used a satiation procedure and a distraction procedure to determine their effectiveness in reducing deviant sexual arousal.;Subjects were divided into three groups. All were assessed pre-treatment by measuring penile erection responses to an across age generalization gradient assessment, using color slides. Each group then underwent three treatment sessions.;The first group was exposed to repeated presentations of a slide of a deviant target (a nude pre-pubescent girl) for twelve, two-minute trials. Following each trial, any erection response was allowed to return to baseline.;The second group also was exposed to twelve, two-minute presentations of a deviant target. During the final thirty seconds of each two-minute trial, each subject in the second group engaged in a distraction task, namely, to verbalize a sexually neutral audiotape as he heard it presented to him.;The third group was a control group. The procedure for this group was identical to the second group, but the audiotape described a sexual interaction between an adolescent boy and a pre-pubescent girl.;Following treatment, all subjects were assessed again with the generalization gradient assessment.;Results indicated that, as expected, the first two groups showed significantly lower erection responses to slides of pre-pubescent girls at post-assessment, with the greatest effect for the group that engaged in the distraction task. The control group did not show a significant difference. Within session, subjects who engaged in the distraction task showed a decrease in erection response during the task. The control group subjects showed an increase in erectile responsiveness during verbalization of the deviant audiotape.;The study demonstrated that a short-term intervention that combines repetition and distraction can be effective in reducing erectile response to deviant targets in a laboratory setting.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
