Meredith L. Chivers, PhD, CPsych, presents: Sexual desire emerges from arousal; Examining responsive sexual desire among cisgender women with and without sexual difficulties

Contemporary models of sexual response describe desire as responsive, triggered by incentivized sexual cues, and emerging from sexual arousal.  Symptoms of Female Sexual Interest and Arousal Disorder (FSIAD) include reduced capacity for responsive sexual desire; however, this hypothesis has not been experimentally tested.  Given nonincentivized cues are capable of eliciting women’s sexual arousal, do they also elicit responsive desire? Which aspects of sexual arousal – genital responses, subjective arousal, or their correlation (sexual concordance) – are associated with responsive sexual desire?  In this talk, Dr. Chivers will discuss research examining responsive desire and discuss implications for theory and treatment of FSIAD. 

Dr. Meredith L. Chivers is an Associate Professor in Psychology, Queen’s National Scholar, Director of the Sexuality and Gender Laboratory (Sagelab), and a Member of the Centre for Neuroscience at Queen’s University (Kingston, Canada).  She received her PhD in clinical psychology from Northwestern University in 2003, was trained in sexual psychophysiology at the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University, and completed her clinical residency and post-doctoral fellowships at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH)/University of Toronto.  Dr. Chivers is President-Elect for the International Academy of Sex Research, a registered Psychologist, and serves on the editorial boards for many academic sexuality research journals including the Archives of Sexual Behavior and the Journal of Sex Research.  Dr. Chivers is an international leader in sexual response research.  She has published over 100 articles, won several awards for her foundational science, and her research has been widely covered by international media such as the New York Times, and featured in numerous PBS, CBC, and BBC documentary and television programs.  Work in the Sagelab is supported by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.  The focus of Sagelab research is gendered/sexed sexuality, including sexual response, sexual attractions, and sexual functioning, with a focus on women.

Wednesday, April 13, 2022 - 12:00pm to 1:00pm