title: Factors involved in sexual desire: environmental cues and their impact

authors: Conaglen, Helen M.

abstract: Since the initial clinical description of sexual desire problems in the 1970s, increasing numbers of people have reported difficulties in this area of sexual functioning. Reports on treatment efficacy point to the difficulties in treating these disorders. One possible reason for the lack of clearly efficacious treatments might be the limited understanding of this phenomenon we call sexual desire, and the factors that affect it.

The present project utilized a package of self-report measures to investigate participants’ sexual desire, and other personal characteristics such as sexual anxiety, mood, mood awareness, body esteem, and social desirability - qualities previously suggested as relating to sexual desire. These measures were combined in two of the studies with tasks involving differentiated responding to pictorial and semantic stimuli. Participants completed picture ratings and recognition tasks involving sexual, neutral, non-sexual and unpleasant slides from the International Affective Picture System. One experiment also included lexical decision tasks involving romantic, neutral, and sexual words to ascertain whether this paradigm offered additional information about how responding in persons with varying levels of sexual desire might differ. The combination of survey and information processing techniques enabled an exploration of some of the fundamental responses hitherto assumed to be associated with variation in libido, but not previously demonstrated empirically. The main hypothesis tested was that persons with low self-report sexual desire respond differently to cues of a sexual nature than do other people.

The findings suggest that mood, as determined using the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule was not significantly correlated with sexual desire levels, but sexual anxiety was strongly correlated. Those with lower levels of self-reported sexual desire also recorded lower levels of mood awareness. Individuals reporting low sexual desire completed picture recognition tasks more quickly, but the lexical decision tasks were carried out more slowly.

A further ancillary finding from these tasks was that there was a significant delay in time taken by all participants to respond to the sexual pictures in the recognition task compared to responses to the other types of pictures. There was a delay in the lexical decision task with respect to sexual words too, but this did not reach statistically significant levels. These tasks did not provide a useful means of differentiating persons of varying sexual desire levels.

Sexual desire levels were found to significantly affect the ratings given sexual, but not any other type of pictures in this protocol. Interest ratings varied with desire levels, and ratings given sexual words with respect to emotional content were also significantly different for those with varying desire levels. These aspects of the protocol yielded the most meaningful results. 

Overall, this project has demonstrated the principal hypothesis—that people with lower sexual desire respond differently to cues of a sexual nature. It has also clarified the relationships between the measures employed, in a volunteer non-clinical sample, and suggests an approach for further investigating the phenomenon of sexual desire in a clinically diagnosed population. Expansion of the picture rating aspects of the experiment could yield a greater understanding of desire and how problems in this area are manifest, and therefore best treated.

text: Factors involved in sexual desire: environmental cues and their impact Since the initial clinical description of sexual desire problems in the 1970s, increasing numbers of people have reported difficulties in this area of sexual functioning. Reports on treatment efficacy point to the difficulties in treating these disorders. One possible reason for the lack of clearly efficacious treatments might be the limited understanding of this phenomenon we call sexual desire, and the factors that affect it.

The present project utilized a package of self-report measures to investigate participants’ sexual desire, and other personal characteristics such as sexual anxiety, mood, mood awareness, body esteem, and social desirability - qualities previously suggested as relating to sexual desire. These measures were combined in two of the studies with tasks involving differentiated responding to pictorial and semantic stimuli. Participants completed picture ratings and recognition tasks involving sexual, neutral, non-sexual and unpleasant slides from the International Affective Picture System. One experiment also included lexical decision tasks involving romantic, neutral, and sexual words to ascertain whether this paradigm offered additional information about how responding in persons with varying levels of sexual desire might differ. The combination of survey and information processing techniques enabled an exploration of some of the fundamental responses hitherto assumed to be associated with variation in libido, but not previously demonstrated empirically. The main hypothesis tested was that persons with low self-report sexual desire respond differently to cues of a sexual nature than do other people.

The findings suggest that mood, as determined using the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule was not significantly correlated with sexual desire levels, but sexual anxiety was strongly correlated. Those with lower levels of self-reported sexual desire also recorded lower levels of mood awareness. Individuals reporting low sexual desire completed picture recognition tasks more quickly, but the lexical decision tasks were carried out more slowly.

A further ancillary finding from these tasks was that there was a significant delay in time taken by all participants to respond to the sexual pictures in the recognition task compared to responses to the other types of pictures. There was a delay in the lexical decision task with respect to sexual words too, but this did not reach statistically significant levels. These tasks did not provide a useful means of differentiating persons of varying sexual desire levels.

Sexual desire levels were found to significantly affect the ratings given sexual, but not any other type of pictures in this protocol. Interest ratings varied with desire levels, and ratings given sexual words with respect to emotional content were also significantly different for those with varying desire levels. These aspects of the protocol yielded the most meaningful results. 

Overall, this project has demonstrated the principal hypothesis—that people with lower sexual desire respond differently to cues of a sexual nature. It has also clarified the relationships between the measures employed, in a volunteer non-clinical sample, and suggests an approach for further investigating the phenomenon of sexual desire in a clinically diagnosed population. Expansion of the picture rating aspects of the experiment could yield a greater understanding of desire and how problems in this area are manifest, and therefore best treated.

year: 1999

title: Total site targeting with stream specific minimum temperature difference

authors: Fodor, Zsófia

subjects: Exchanger area

abstract: The paper focuses on extending traditional Total Site Integration methodology to produce more meaningful utility and heat recovery targets for the process design. The traditional methodology leads to inadequate results due to inaccurate estimation of the overall Total Site heat recovery targets. The new methodology is a further development of a recently extended traditional pinch methodology. The previous extension was on the introduction of using an individual minimum temperature difference (δTmin) for different processes so that the δTmin is more representative of the specific process. Further this paper deals with stream specific δT min inside each process by setting different δT contribution (δTcont) and also using different δTcont between the process streams and the utility systems. The paper describes the further extended methodology called stream specific targeting methodology. A case study applying data from a real diary factory is used to show the differences between the traditional, process specific and stream specific total site targeting methodologies. The extended methodology gives more meaningful results at the end of the targeting with this avoiding the over or under estimated heat exchanger areas in the process design.

text: Total site targeting with stream specific minimum temperature difference The paper focuses on extending traditional Total Site Integration methodology to produce more meaningful utility and heat recovery targets for the process design. The traditional methodology leads to inadequate results due to inaccurate estimation of the overall Total Site heat recovery targets. The new methodology is a further development of a recently extended traditional pinch methodology. The previous extension was on the introduction of using an individual minimum temperature difference (δTmin) for different processes so that the δTmin is more representative of the specific process. Further this paper deals with stream specific δT min inside each process by setting different δT contribution (δTcont) and also using different δTcont between the process streams and the utility systems. The paper describes the further extended methodology called stream specific targeting methodology. A case study applying data from a real diary factory is used to show the differences between the traditional, process specific and stream specific total site targeting methodologies. The extended methodology gives more meaningful results at the end of the targeting with this avoiding the over or under estimated heat exchanger areas in the process design.

year: 2012

title: Do two rights fix a wrong? A study of employee and organizational responses to abusive supervision in New Zealand

authors: de Fluiter, Alida Jane

subjects: Abusive supervision

abstract: Organizational justice theories suggest that employees who are abused by their supervisor are likely to respond with lower job and personal outcomes. However, an under-explored area has been the influence of support perceptions. The present study suggests that perceived supervisor support (PSS) and perceived organizational support (POS) may moderate the influence of abusive supervision, and this was tested with three-way interactions. Data was collected from two samples: (1) 100 blue-collar workers in construction and (2) 218 random Maori employees from a variety of industries and professions. Structural equation modeling confirmed the unique constructs of the study measures towards abusive supervision and PSS and POS. Direct effects showed abusive supervision was significant and negative in both samples towards life satisfaction, job satisfaction, and organizational-based self-esteem (OBSE), and significant and positive in both samples towards turnover intentions, anxiety, depression, and insomnia. The results indicated that abusive supervision accounted for large amounts of variance towards all outcomes, with the exception of life satisfaction in study two (7%), and insomnia (8% in study one, and 4% in study two), ranging from 13%-32% variance. Significant three-way interactions were found for all outcomes except turnover intentions and insomnia. The three-way interaction towards life satisfaction in study one indicated that under abusive supervision, respondents with high PSS and high POS experienced the greatest levels of life satisfaction. Similar relationships were found toward depression (study one and two) and anxiety (study one), showing that respondents who experienced high abusive supervision, high PSS, and high POS had the lowest levels of negative mental health outcomes amongst all abused respondents. This suggested a potentially cumulative effect of multiple sources of support. Furthermore, towards job satisfaction in study two, findings show respondents with high abusive supervision and high POS reported the highest job satisfaction, irrespective of levels of PSS. A similar relationship was found toward OBSE in study two, suggesting that of the support variables examined, POS may have greater effect on outcomes, thereby supporting research of Dawley, Andrews and Bucklew (2008) who found POS to be the best predictor of organizational outcomes. Overall, this paper supports the notion that perceptions of support may moderate the influence of abusive supervision perceptions on employee’s work and personal outcomes. The findings show that while abusive supervision can play a dominant role on outcomes, this can be somewhat nullified by greater support from the organization. This has strong implications for firms dealing with problem supervisors, signaling the importance of establishing POS, and emphasizing that creating a supportive organization may be the first step to enabling employees to develop positive work and individual outcomes.

text: Do two rights fix a wrong? A study of employee and organizational responses to abusive supervision in New Zealand Organizational justice theories suggest that employees who are abused by their supervisor are likely to respond with lower job and personal outcomes. However, an under-explored area has been the influence of support perceptions. The present study suggests that perceived supervisor support (PSS) and perceived organizational support (POS) may moderate the influence of abusive supervision, and this was tested with three-way interactions. Data was collected from two samples: (1) 100 blue-collar workers in construction and (2) 218 random Maori employees from a variety of industries and professions. Structural equation modeling confirmed the unique constructs of the study measures towards abusive supervision and PSS and POS. Direct effects showed abusive supervision was significant and negative in both samples towards life satisfaction, job satisfaction, and organizational-based self-esteem (OBSE), and significant and positive in both samples towards turnover intentions, anxiety, depression, and insomnia. The results indicated that abusive supervision accounted for large amounts of variance towards all outcomes, with the exception of life satisfaction in study two (7%), and insomnia (8% in study one, and 4% in study two), ranging from 13%-32% variance. Significant three-way interactions were found for all outcomes except turnover intentions and insomnia. The three-way interaction towards life satisfaction in study one indicated that under abusive supervision, respondents with high PSS and high POS experienced the greatest levels of life satisfaction. Similar relationships were found toward depression (study one and two) and anxiety (study one), showing that respondents who experienced high abusive supervision, high PSS, and high POS had the lowest levels of negative mental health outcomes amongst all abused respondents. This suggested a potentially cumulative effect of multiple sources of support. Furthermore, towards job satisfaction in study two, findings show respondents with high abusive supervision and high POS reported the highest job satisfaction, irrespective of levels of PSS. A similar relationship was found toward OBSE in study two, suggesting that of the support variables examined, POS may have greater effect on outcomes, thereby supporting research of Dawley, Andrews and Bucklew (2008) who found POS to be the best predictor of organizational outcomes. Overall, this paper supports the notion that perceptions of support may moderate the influence of abusive supervision perceptions on employee’s work and personal outcomes. The findings show that while abusive supervision can play a dominant role on outcomes, this can be somewhat nullified by greater support from the organization. This has strong implications for firms dealing with problem supervisors, signaling the importance of establishing POS, and emphasizing that creating a supportive organization may be the first step to enabling employees to develop positive work and individual outcomes.

year: 2011