Comparing a Pictorial Stroop Task to Viewing Time Measures of Sexual Interest

This study investigated the ability of two viewing time (VT) methodologies and a pictorial Stroop task to differentiate sexual interest in a group of nonoffending heterosexual and homosexual men. The two VT methodologies were investigated given the lack of consistency among published studies supporting this method. The results indicated that the VT methodology in which participants are asked to browse through some images is slightly superior to the method in which participants are asked to rate their attractiveness to the images. The results also indicated that the Pictorial Stroop Task did not adequately differentiate between age categories of sexual interest within the two groups. The results have implications for the methodology used in VT tasks. Keywords assessment, psychometric properties, sexual interests, viewing time Singer (1984) presents a model of the process of sexual arousal, in which he identifies three independent, yet generally sequential, components of the erotic response. The first stage, “the aesthetic response, ” he proposes, is an emotional reaction to spotting an attractive face or figure. This emotional response produces an increase in attention toward the object of attraction. The second stage, “the approach response, ” progresses from the first and involves a physical approach toward the object of attraction. Th