Sample Psychology Paper on Sexual Fantasy Atypical Sexual Behaviors

Introduction

Sexual fantasy is an imaginary pattern of thought or mental image that stimulates a person’s sexuality and can enhance sexual arousal. It may be created by an individual’s imagination and maybe triggered internally or externally by stimulations such as pornography or sexual attraction to another person. Atypical sexual behaviors are sexual behaviors that do not fall within societal norms. Those behaviors are motivated by a condition known as paraphilia which is used to describe unusual types of sexual expression.

There are no specific causes of paraphilic sexual preferences in people, although the growing body of studies points out a possible prenatal neurodevelopment correlation. There are clusters of personality traits that may interact with historical events of life in a way that contributes to the development of paraphilia. Nevertheless, the exact process through which the paraphilia develops remains unknown. It is difficult for professionals who specialize in the treatment of sexual issues to devise change strategies for those behaviors without precise information about the causes of those urges and behaviors.

Paraphilia is not automatically considered a mental disorder unless it causes distress to the person displaying the paraphilia or it shows personal harm or risk of harm to others. It is determined by the presence of two criteria that is the nature and whether it causes harm to the person with paraphilia. The individual is diagnosed with paraphilia disorder if they possess both the criterion. There are two types of paraphilia that are, non-coercive paraphilia; in this, partners are willing participants and coercive paraphilia in which an individual is aroused by fantasies or urges to impose pain on others either emotional or physical.