User:Malkinann/Sandbox

Models of pornography use

There are several models about how pornography is used by people - the arousal model, the catharsis model, in which pornography is seen as an outlet, a conflict model, a cultural climate model, the imitation model, where what is seen in pornography is imitated, the sexual script model, and the social learning model, where behaviours that are shown to be rewarded are imitated.

Arousal model
In this model, pornography acts "to intensify one's motivation to act in a particular way", but any behaviour following is modified by the individual's past, ego controls, and personal values.

Catharsis model
The catharsis model of pornography states that "pornography is a harmless outlet for sexual aggressions", and stems from psychoanalytic theory. In 1959, the Kronhausens proposed that "comic magazines" and hardcore pornography would act as a "safety valve of the sexual deviant and potential sex offender". In 1971, Mosler exposed men to erotic pornography, with less-closeups of genitalia and more focus on the relationship between the partners, and asked them about their attitudes to women. He found that these men were less likely to show violent tendencies than a control group. In 1973, Howard et al. exposed subjects to 90 minutes of pornography daily for 15 days and concluded that this lead to declining interest in pornography.

McCormack writes that the findings of the 1970 US President's Commission on Obscenity and Pornography were used to support the catharsis model.

Conflict model
Pauline Bart and Margaret Jozsa proposed that pornography is a conflict arena where men and women have different interests.

Cultural climate model
The cultural climate model says that pornography helps to create "an environment in which violence against women becomes acceptable".

Imitation model
In the imitation model, derived from behaviorism, it is thought that pornography users "imitate what they see", and that pornography acts as a primer on "sexually unacceptable behavior, including sexual violence". In this model, rapists in rape pornography function "as a role model for porn devotees". Critics of this model state that viewers are aware of the difference between reality and pornographic fantasy. McCormack criticised this model as being more based on ideology than on scientific grounds.

Sexual script model
The sexual script model proposes that pornography has become a form of sex education, especially for adolescents, and provides "information about gender roles and sexuality that rarely includes affection, relationships, expressions of love, or foreplay and afterplay."

Social learning model
Based on the work of Albert Bandura, the social learning model of pornography use is like the imitation model, but states that only behaviour that is shown to be rewarded is imitated. Allen et al. present Check and Malamuth's proposition that pornography can contribute to dysfunctional patterns by showing rewards from violent behaviour. For example, if rape pornography depicts the woman as coming to enjoy the rape, (see rape myth) the male viewer learns that this leads to gratification for both partners, "and is more likely to imitate it". Pornography can also be used in therapy for anorgasmic women who find it difficult to relax during intercourse, and can teach viewers beneficial as well as negative behaviours.