“Love is a conflict between reflexes and reflection.”
Hirschfeld, 1935
“The living world is a continuum in each and every one of its aspects.
The sooner we learn this concerning human sexual behavior the sooner we shall reach
a sound understanding of the realities of sex.”
Kinsey, Pomeroy, & Martin, 1948
What is the Dual Control Model of Sexual Response?
The Dual Control Model of Sexual Response proposes that sexual arousal and related processes are dependent on the balance between sexual excitation and sexual inhibition.
Research has shown that these two systems operate independently of each other and that their sensitivities vary from person to person.
You could compare it to the combination of a gas pedal and a brake pedal in a car.
The Dual Control Model for Sexual Response has garnered two distinguished scientific awards: The Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality (SSSS) awarded the Hugo G. Beigel Research Award to Erick Janssen (Vorst, H., Finn, P., Bancroft, J., co-authors) in 2002 for best article published in the Journal of Sex Research, and in 2009, the Foundation for the Scientific Study of Sexuality (FSSS) awarded the Ira and Harriet Reiss Theory Award to Deanna Carpenter (Janssen, E., Graham, C., Vorst, H., Wicherts, J., co-authors) for best publication in which theoretical explanations of human sexual attitudes and behaviors are developed.
Used by researchers around the globe
Since their first release, the sexual inhibition/excitation questionnaires have been translated into a number of languages, including Dutch, French, Danish, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Polish, German, and Finnish.
Using these questionnaires, researchers around the world are applying the Dual Control Model to better understand such complex issues as sexual difficulties, sexual compulsivity, sexual aggression, and high-risk sexual behaviors. Prior studies have found that while sexual inhibition plays an important protective role in reducing sexual responses in the face of threat or danger, individuals who have high levels of inhibition might be more vulnerable to developing sexual problems, and those with low levels of sexual inhibition may be more likely to engage in sexual behaviors that put themselves or others at risk.
The Dual Control Model has been used to help explain sexual risk-taking, infidelity, sexual aggression, sexual compulsivity, the effects of mood on sexual desire and response, and even sexual satisfaction and compatibility in couples.
Recent scientific uses of the model by researchers from various countries include the following:
In 2014, Belgian researchers published the findings of the first study of the Dual Control Model using a representative national sample. The results showed that variations in sexual excitation and inhibition closely follow a normal distribution and confirmed the variability from earlier studies that relied on convenience samples. A project is underway to translate the Dual Control Model into several South Asian languages including Hindi, Tamil, Urdu, Panjabi, and Sinhalese. The Dual Control Model was part of an Italian study on sexual functioning in women with anxiety disorders. Canadian researchers, in collaboration with others, used the Dual Control Model to study sexual compulsivity in heterosexual married adults. In a Portuguese study, the Dual Control Model was used to explore characteristics of male college students who reported sexual aggression against women. Australian researchers examined changes in sexual excitation and inhibition during treatment of men’s erectile problems with PDE5 inhibitors (such as Viagra and Cialis). The Dual Control Model is also being used in pharmaceutical research: A three-part publication appeared in the Journal of Sexual Medicine last year using the Dual Control Model to propose different treatment approaches for women who may have sexual problems due to low sexual excitation or to high sexual inhibition.
Popular uses
In addition to offering researchers an important theoretical model to explore in trials and studies, the Dual Control Model has proven popular in public media and information sources, usually translated into the metaphor of the gas and brake pedals in a car.
News outlets like CNN and Psychology Today have used the Dual Control Model in articles addressing sexual dysfunctions, or factors of personality or situation that affect human desire, as well as to explain the significance of results from other sex studies. The Dual Control Model also appears in mass-media online health websites to explain a variety of sexual dysfunctions.
The Dual Control Model also plays a role in educational settings. In 2011, author Gary Kelly updated the popular human sexuality college textbook, Sexuality Today, to include the Dual Control Model of Sexual Response, bringing the theory into classroom discussions about the variability of sexual desire.