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Discoblog
« Just Like Lady Gaga, Paper Wasps Don’t Want No Paper Gangsters
“Kids Can Be So Cruel” Science: Squinting Kids Get Fewer Party Invites »

NCBI ROFL: Are there different types of female orgasm?

switch“In attempt to identify and validate different types of orgasms which females have during sex with a partner, data collected by Mah and Binik (2002) on the dimensional phenomenology of female orgasm were subjected to a typological analysis. A total of 503 women provided adjectival descriptions of orgasms experienced either with a partner (n = 276) or while alone (n = 227). Latent-class analysis revealed four orgasm types which varied systematically in terms of pleasure and sensations engendered. Two types, collectively labelled “good-sex orgasms,” received higher pleasure and sensation ratings than solitary-masturbatory ones, whereas two other types, collectively labelled “not-as-good-sex orgasms,” received lower ratings. These two higher-order groupings differed on a number of psychological, physical and relationship factors examined for purposes of validating the typology. Evolutionary thinking regarding the function of female orgasm informed discussion of the findings. Future research directions were outlined, especially the need to examine whether the same individual experiences different types of orgasms with partners with different characteristics, as evolutionary theorizing predicts should be the case.”

orgasmtypes

Photo: flickr/bbaunach

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Discoblog: NCBI ROFL: The G-Spot: nature vs. nurture.

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August 20th, 2010 9:00 AM by ncbi rofl in NCBI ROFL, penis friday, scientist...or perv? | 9 comments | RSS feed | Trackback >

  • Chris

    My research is so boring by comparison

  • http://www.vandaagvrouwenversieren.nl jonathan

    i have bin told there are six?
    do you know the six im talking about?

  • http://figleaf.blogspot.com figleaf

    Not to sound cynical or anything here but unless the topic is the evolution of language I’m not sure what possible bearing self-description of orgasms could possibly have on the natural selection of human beings. Male or female.

    It’s not that behavior can never be evolved (though see also Carl Zimmer on the importance of accounting for the null hypothesis — http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/2010/07/30/darwin-sex-and-dada/). Instead it’s that anyone who imagines they can derive clues to evolutionary behavior from an n=500 survey… ugh! Words fail me.

    Let’s put it this way. I know the standards for calling one’s self an evolutionary psychologist are extraordinarily low but… do you think there are many linguists, deconstructionists, or even English majors who get a paper published in a “peer-reviewed” journal with only ~500 survey respondents? Or, as another blogger, Anthony McCarthy put it the other day, would your average parapsychology researcher have the audacity to submit, let alone a parapsychology journal with standards low enough to accept, a paper based on that quantity… let alone quality… of data?

    I didn’t think so.

    Actually it’s unlikely that Playboy, Cosmopolitan, or the Monster Truck Gazette would pick it up!

    So does that tell us about the editorial standards of the Archive of Sexual Behavior?

    ROFL? Excellent pick!

    figleaf

  • http://figleaf.blogspot.com figleaf

    On a somewhat less-amusing note, the researchers appear to work out of something called the Institute for the Study of Children. Considering the alternate implications one ardently hopes the institute has a “Study by Adolescent Schoolboys” department.

    figleaf

  • http://andeatingit2.com Joanna Cake

    There is no doubt in my mind that there are different types of orgasms which give varying degrees of pleasure. Whilst you can get a great deal of stimulation from masturbation, there is nothing quite like a joint effort and these are currently my favourites http://andeatingit2.com/2010/07/30/vaginal-orgasms/
    And, the more you have, the more intense they become.

  • http://www.vrouwenverleider.nl Vrouwen Versieren

    In my opinion; females have different orgasms depending on the emotional feelings they have of their sex partner.

  • http://www.versiertipsvoormannen.net VersierTipsVoorMannen

    Women can only have perfect orgams if they actually love the person. If o woman is to concetrated about how probably her date makes out easily with other women. You can make sure that she is faking everything

  • http://www.google.com Louis O. Connolly

    The subsequent time I learn a weblog, I hope that it doesnt disappoint me as much as this one. I mean, I know it was my option to learn, but I really thought youd have one thing interesting to say. All I hear is a bunch of whining about something that you possibly can fix when you werent too busy in search of attention.

  • Earrings

    I can-you that there are, at least, 3!  The clit type, the vag type and the g-spt type……I have had them all, including the female ejaculate!  They are all HOT!  I really love sex!  LOVE it!  Whether or not I ORGASM….I love sex…..
     





    • About the Blog

      Discoblog is DISCOVER's compendium of quirky, funny, and surprising science news from the edge of the known universe. It's written by Veronique Greenwood and Valerie Ross. Email tips and suggestions to vgreenwood [at] discovermagazine [dot] com.

      Discoblog also includes the daily feature NCBI ROFL, in which two prone-to-distraction grad students post real scientific articles with funny subjects. Email your tips to ncbirofl [at] gmail.com. Follow the ROFL feed here.

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