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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1990

Self-reported frequency of sexual urges, fantasies, and masturbatory fantasies in heterosexual males and females.

The frequency of sexual imagery outside of sexual behavior was assessed. In addition, an attempt was made to determine the viability of a distinction between internally generated sexual thoughts (fantasy) and externally provoked sexual thoughts (urge). After a 3-day practice period, 49 male and 47 female heterosexual undergraduates self-monitored the frequency of fantasies, urges, and masturbatory fantasies for 7 consecutive days. The most significant finding was that men reported a significantly greater frequency of sexual urges and masturbatory fantasies than women. No gender differences emerged with respect to fantasies. These findings suggest that a distinction between internally and externally generated sexual imagery is viable and may be useful in future studies examining the frequency, functions, and determinants of sexual imagery.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

Sexual fantasies of heterosexual and homosexual men.

Heterosexual men and homosexual men rated how arousing different sexual fantasies were and how often they had used these fantasies over the previous year. Within each group, sensual and genital same-orientation fantasies were more arousing than either public-sex or dominance-submissive fantasies, which in turn were more arousing than aggressive-sex fantasies. For both heterosexual and homosexual men the extent to which a fantasy was arousing correlated with the person's experience of the activity depicted in the fantasy. The frequency of use of a fantasy correlated positively with its arousal level but not always substantially so. The results are discussed in the context of the mediating role of fantasy in human sexual arousal.

Adult↗
PubMed1977

Gender-specific variances in sexual fantasy.

Six sexual fantasy categories were derived by inductive content analysis, based upon the starting criterion that fantasy is a dynamic and interactional event. Detailed narrative descriptions of sexual fantasy in three conditions, including 'Daydream,' 'masturbatory,' and "During Sex Relations' were obtained from 48 male and 45 female volunteer graduate students. Detailed narrative descriptions of sexual fantasies were collected by administration of sexual fantasy questionnaires. While the intention was to empirically derive sexual fantasy categories which could be used for personality assessment of gender identity, the hypothesis predicted gender-specific variances in fantasy productions according to derived fantasy categories. Results indicated that significantly more females than males fantasized themselves as recipients of sexual activity from fantasized sexual objects, while males fantasized the sexual object as recipients of sexual activity. Marginal tendencies toward reversal of this gender pattern occurred in the 'Mastubatory' condition for males, and in the 'Daydream' sexual fantasy condition for females.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

Guilt reactions to sexual fantasies during intercourse.

This study explored how guilt feelings about having sexual fantasies during intercourse are related to frequency of fantasizing, to sexual satisfaction and sexual dysfunction, and to different beliefs about the cause, transgressive nature, and consequences of such fantasizing behavior. Drawing from a sample of 178 men and women with intercourse experience (means age = 27), 84% reported that they fantasized at least some of the time during sexual intercourse. From this sample, those who reported feeling most guilty about having sexual fantasies during intercourse (1 SD or more above the mean, n = 39) were compared to those who felt least guilty (1 SD or more below the mean, n = 43). Those subjects who felt guilty reported having significantly fewer sexual fantasies during intercourse than those who felt the least guilty. They also reported higher levels of sexual dissatisfaction and dysfunction. The high-guilt subjects believed that sexual fantasies during intercourse were significantly more abnormal, immoral, uncommon, socially unacceptable, and harmful to themselves, their partner, and their relationship regardless of whether their partner knew that such fantasies occurred. They also reported that the cause of their fantasizing during intercourse reflected significantly more negatively on their sexual behavior and their general character than did the low-guilt group. No statistically significant differences were found between groups on the causal attribution dimensions of internality, stability, or globality of such fantasies. In general, these findings suggest that guilt reactions about sexual fantasies during intercourse are related to beliefs that such fantasies are deviant and harmful and that such guilt reactions are negatively related to sexual satisfaction and adjustment.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1992

Effects of fantasy contexts on children's learning and motivation: making learning more fun.

Two studies examined the effects of embedding instructional materials in relevant fantasy contexts on children's motivation and learning. In Study 1, Ss showed marked preferences for computer-based educational programs that involved fantasy elements. In Study 2, Ss worked with these programs for 5 hr. One program presented purely abstract problems. Others presented identical problems within fantasy contexts. Some Ss chose among 3 fantasies; others were assigned identical fantasies. Tests on the material occurred before, immediately after, and 2 weeks after the experimental sessions. Ss showed significantly greater learning and transfer in the fantasy than in the no-fantasy conditions. Having a choice of fantasies made no difference. Motivational and individualization strategies for enhancing interest and promoting learning are discussed.

Achievement↗
PubMed1992

Associations between sexual experiences and fantasies in a nonpatient population: a preliminary study.

We have been interested in devising some methodology short of psychoanalytic therapy to study the relationship of conscious fantasy to personality trends and behavior. Presented here is a pilot study, utilizing the questionnaire technique, the sample consisting of 193 students enrolled at one prestigious urban university, that reports on the prevalence and content of conscious sexual fantasies in a normal (nonpatient) population and their relationship to sexual behaviors. Factor analysis suggested four experience and four fantasy clusters. Those individuals who score high on one experience factor are apt to score high on all other experience factors as well. The same is true of the fantasy factors. Our findings indicate that low sexual activity and low levels of sexual fantasy go together, whereas more sexual experience is connected to a greater range of sexual fantasy. Consequently, erotic fantasies cannot be viewed as compensation for lack of sexual outlet. Instead, there is a positive correlation between the two domains of sexual fantasies and sexual behaviors. Our overall results lead us to conclude that by and large, people are sexual generalists not specialists.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Fantasy formation: a child analyst's perspective.

Unconscious fantasy is the principal unit of psychoanalytic investigation. Though individual fantasies, either conscious or unconscious, may emphasize drive, defense, or superego interests, all fantasy life develops from a limited number of themes; these themes concern drive-related issues, experiences of helplessness, or combinations of both. Fantasy formation and fantasy content undergo developmental change. Sensorimotor, behavioral memories occur prior to fantasy and are influential in determining repetitive behavioral enactments. The complexities of infant behavior do not require the postulation of fantasy or representational memory. A complex, innate, instinctual organization of the newborn, similar in many respects to that of other newborn mammals, and distinct from the psychological organization of the older infant, is suggested as an explanation of these phenomena.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1991

History of child sexual abuse and adult sexual fantasies.

The study investigated the hypothesis that women with a history of childhood sexual abuse would report different sexual fantasies from women with no childhood sexual abuse. Women with a history of abuse had more force in their fantasies, had more sexually explicit fantasies, began having sexual fantasies at a younger age, and had more fantasies with the theme of being under someone's control. Women with a history of childhood physical abuse did not have a similar pattern. It was suggested that the sexual fantasies may reflect the sexualizing effect of childhood sexual experiences and that fantasies of the abusive experience may become intrusive.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1991

On some relationships of fantasies of perfection to the calamities of childhood.

In this paper narcissism conceived of as a fantasy of perfection is further redefined within an evolving structural model of psychic conflict. In pursuit of this goal a number of related propositions are explored. 1. A fantasy of perfection is best thought of as a compromise formation. 2. Fantasies of perfection have a development that is influenced, in part, by the development of the calamities of childhood. 3. Fantasies of perfection function as defences to diminish unpleasure associated with conflict. From this perspective a fantasy of perfection is a component of compromise formations. 4. The threat of the loss of the fantasy of perfection evokes anxiety while the sense the loss has occurred is associated with the experience of depressive affect. 5. Fantasies of perfection are important aspects of the compromise formations that constitute the superego. They are also important components of masochistic and narcissistic compromise formations characteristic of aspects of the ego. These compromise formations are intimately related to defensive identificatory relationships between the ego and superego. Analytic data are presented to demonstrate the value of these theoretical considerations.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Male sexual fantasy: multidimensionality in content.

Sixty-six men provided ratings of the extent to which they regarded fantasies depicting nominated sexual activities as sexually arousing. A Male Sexual Fantasy Questionnaire (MSFQ) with five subscales was constructed following factor analysis of these ratings. The subscales yield separate scores for fantasies representing sensual, genital, public sex, sexual dominance-submission, and sexual aggression themes. Levels of penile tumescence recorded while men engaged in fantasies depicting content represented in the MSFQ correlated with the extent to which these men earlier had rated these same fantasies as sexually arousing. Since ratings on the MSFQ did not correlate substantially or consistently with scores on the Betts Questionnaire Upon Mental Imagery, the Imaginal Processes Inventory, and the Gordon Test of Visual Imagery Control, sexual fantasy may be mediated by processes different from those involved in non-sexual imagery and daydreaming. The need to validate use of the MSFQ in several clinical contexts is noted.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1991

On fantasies of self-creation.

The authors present a psychoanalytic study of fantasies of self-creation. These fantasies constitute important mental structures shaping the lives of many individuals. Although hitherto unreported in the clinical literature, artists have made rich use of self-creation fantasies, and we therefore begin our investigation with representative portraits of self-creators by Milton, Goethe, and two modernists, Luigi Pirandello and F. Scott Fitzgerald. We then describe the psychoanalyses of two men whose lives were shaped and organized by self-creation fantasies, showing the clinical value of uncovering and analyzing these fantasies. We offer some preliminary observations on the cultural significance of self-creation fantasies and their impact on the analyst and the analytic enterprise.

Adult↗
PubMed1976

Fantasy and self-esteem of renal dialysis patients and their spouses.

The fantasy life and self-esteem of 22 male and 13 female renal dialysis patients and their spouses were examined using a Self-Esteem Evaluation Scale, Empathic Fantasy Scale, and eight portions of the Imaginal Process Inventory reflecting eight types of fantasy use. For the patient group as a whole, a high degree of fantasy behavior was associated with low self-esteem, but the sex of the patient made a difference. Frequency of fantasy was shown to be indicative of poor adjustment for female dialysis patients, but not for male dialysis patients. Results also indicated that patients, without regard to sex, were more prone toward guilt fantasies in which they were punished for some wrongdoing such as feelings of anger toward people involved in their treatment or envy of others who do not suffer their same disability.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1990

Unconscious fantasies, structural theory, and compromise formation.

Although the existence of unconscious fantasies is an empirical assumption, in the clinical situation unconscious fantasies are treated as if they have a concrete existence. Unconscious fantasies form intermediate links in causal chains of which clinical observations constitute one end, and the components of unconscious conflicts, the other. Like all clinical material, fantasies may be affected by actual experiences; they may also be revised, layered, and can function to alter and disguise other fantasies as well as provide gratification. From a technical standpoint, it is most important to analyze their constituents and to adduce their primary purposes in the clinical situation of the moment. The nature of the evidence that identifies the presence of particular unconscious fantasies is discussed. Although a single analytic session is presented by way of illustration, I am convinced that the analyst's entire understanding of the patient inevitably channels his or her interpretive focus on the associational material of each analytic hour.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Narcissism and the use of fantasy.

This study examined the relationship between narcissism and the use of daydreams and fantasy in samples of 129 and 193 subjects. In sample 1, it was found that (1) narcissistic individuals experience achievement, heroic, sexual, hostile, self-revelation, and future-oriented daydreams; and (2) these six types of daydreams represent a coherent "narcissistic" fantasy style. In sample 2, narcissistic individuals who were experiencing higher levels of daily stress report using more self-admiration, power and revenge, and suffering fantasies to cope with stress. The narcissistic theme of entitlement is uniquely related to narcissistic fantasy and the narcissists' use of sustaining fantasies to cope with stress. Results are consistent with clinical literature on the narcissistic personality.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1991

Multidimensionality of the content of female sexual fantasy.

A Female Sexual Fantasy Questionnaire (FSFQ) was developed from factor analysis of ratings through which women indicated the erotic potency of fantasies depicting nominated sexual activities. Five dimensions of sexual fantasy (genital, sensual, sexual power, sexual suffering, forbidden sexual-activity themes) are assessed by FSFQ. The extent to which themes within FSFQ were rated as sexually arousing correlated with the levels of physiological response recorded by vaginal photoplethysmography while women engaged in fantasy employing these themes. Sexual fantasy as assessed by the FSFQ correlated only moderately with scores on measures of non-sexual cognition such as the Imaginal Processes Inventory and the Betts Questionnaire Upon Mental Imagery, and women with high and low scores on FSFQ were not readily differentiated by biographic and demographic variables. Contexts in which the FSFQ can be used are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Fantasy proneness, hypnotizability, and absorption--a re-examination: a brief communication.

In a previous study (Lynn & Rhue, 1986) of fantasy-prone persons, "fantasizers" participated in an 8-10 hour, multi-session study. Group selection was based on scoring in the upper 4% of the college population on the Inventory of Childhood Memories and Imaginings (ICMI) of Wilson and Barber (1981) and conforming to the fantasy-prone personality syndrome (Wilson & Barber, 1981) during an interview. Fantasizers differed from nonfantasizers (lower 4% of population) and medium range scorers on measures of hypnotizability (Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, Form A, Shor & E. Orne, 1962) and absorption (Tellegen Absorption Scale, Tellegen, 1976). In the current study, Ss were selected on the basis of their ICMI scores and participated in a 1-session experiment. As in our first study (Lynn & Rhue, 1986), fantasizers differed from both comparison groups on the measure of absorption and from the nonfantasizers on the measure of hypnotizability. Further, the correlations among fantasy proneness, absorption, and hypnotizability were stable across studies. Fantasy proneness and absorption were not found to be truly discriminable constructs. Unlike our initial study (Lynn & Rhue, 1986), fantasy-prone and medium range Ss were equally hypnotizable. Methodological differences across studies provide a plausible explanation for the disparate results obtained.

Attention↗