Qualitative study of the relationship between the use of pornography and sexual fantasy

Cilj ovog kvalitativnog istraživanja bio je dobiti uvid u odnos pornografije i seksualnog maštanja, odnosno saznati kako osobe percipiraju ta dva ponašanja zasebno te ovisno jedno o drugom, i kako su se ta dva ponašanja razvojno mijenjala. Također, pokušalo se ispitati na koji način je odabir formata u kojem se pornografija koristi povezan sa seksualnim maštanjem. U istraživanju je sudjelovalo osam muških osoba u dobnom rasponu od 23 do 46 godina te šest ženskih osoba u dobnom rasponu od 19 do 31 godina, a podaci su prikupljani dubinskim polustrukturiranim intervjuima. Rezultati ukazuju na prepoznate brojne pozitivne i negativne aspekte oba ponašanja, pri čemu se pozitivni aspekti znatno preklapaju. Navedeno je brojčano više negativnih aspekata pornografije u odnosu na seksualno maštanje. Sudionici i sudionice percipiraju pornografiju i seksualno maštanje kao dva ponašanja koja se ponekad isprepliću, odnosno nadopunjuju jedno drugo u oba smjera, a ponekad su potpuno odvojena i koriste se zasebno. Preferencija ponašanja ovisi o mnogim okolinskim i osobnim čimbenicima. Odnos ova dva seksualna ponašanja se pokazao različit u različitim razdobljima života, a dominacija jednog od ponašanja u nekom razdoblju je mogla interferirati s drugim ponašanjem, no nije značilo njegov potpuni nestanak. Također, pokazalo se da nekim osobama odabir formata pornografije koji nije audiovizualni (npr. vizualni, auditivni ili tekstualni) može pružiti više prostora za seksualno maštanje.The aim of this qualitative research study was to gain more insight into the relationship between pornography and sexual fantasy, by exploring perception of those two behaviors separately and in relation to each other, with special focus on how they change throughout the lifespan. Furthermore, the role of the format in which participants consume pornography was examined in regard to sexual fantasy. There were eight male participants between the age of 23 and 46 and six female participants between the age of 19 and 31, data was collected by semi-structured in-depth interviews. Results suggest that participants recognized positive as well as negative aspects of both pornography and sexual fantasy, with a lot of similarities in positive aspects. The number of negative aspects was bigger for pornography compared to sexual fantasy. Participants perceive those two behaviors as sometimes intertwined, meaning that they can complement each other, but on the other hand they can also be separate and can be used with different purposes, which will depend on various internal and external factors. Moreover, their relationship was different during various periods of participant's lifespan. Bigger frequency of one of the behaviors sometimes did interfere with the other, but never to the point of complete termination. In addition, it has been shown that for some participants the choice of a non-audiovisual pornography gave them more room for creating sexual fantasy