Jonathan Higginbotham

Word count: 635 Kaylene T. White

FHS-2450-F15

Kaplan vs. Masters & Johnsons

Question:
Compare and contrast Kaplan's three-phase model of sexual arousal with Master's and Johnson's
four-stage model. Explain, from your informal perspective, the strengths and weaknesses of each.
Answer:
To compare and contrast two things we first need to know what it is were comparing and
contrasting. Kaplans model of sexual arousal consists of three stages, orgasm, excitement, and desire.
(Crooks & Baur, 2014, pg. 162) Even though she invested extensive research and time into developing
her well known model of sexual arousal there are some pros and some cons that come along with it. One
of the pros was that she was able to separate different sexual responses from genital changes, the way
Masters & Johnsons never mentioned. I have read in previous chapters that males were well aware of
being sexually aroused by certain images, while their female counterparts claimed that they werent
aroused but physiologically they were. Kaplan also suggested that sexual difficulties tend to fall into one
the three groups, while functioning normally in the other two. (Crooks & Baur, 2014, pg.162)
While many welcome her research and her model with open arms there were many gaps that
existed. I noticed that many people do not fall within some of the groups of her model of sexual arousal,
as the text book states However, it is now realized that simply adding a desire phase does not necessarily
provide a complete model of human sexual arousal and response. (Crooks & Baur, 2014, pg. 163) Which
means not everybody will follow the model, someone I know, who is a married woman, states that she
engages in marital sex even though she has no desire to become aroused. With all the stats listed in the
book showing the cons of her model it is safe to assume that the model itself is unfit to span across
multiple demographics.
Masters & Johnsons four phase model on the other hand is a more in depth, and a possibly more
concise model in my own opinion. Even though Masters & Johnsons combine initial sexual arousal and
genital changes in one grouping, they go on to state that becoming sexually aroused starts with two

Jonathan Higginbotham
Word count: 635 Kaylene T. White
FHS-2450-F15
physiological responses to stimuli. Those would be called Vasocongestion (enlarging of the blood
vessels) and Myotonia (muscle tension). (Crooks & Baur, 2014, pg. 163-164) By combining these two
groups and identifying the two main responses they were able to stretch their model to cover many more
demographics, unlike Kaplans model. The next phase the model shows would be the plateau phase in
which both sexes reach a certain level of arousal and stimulation but not yet reach the orgasm level. They
studied the physiological changes that take place within the body during this time, they looked at things
like blood pressure, heart rate, vasocongestion. But they noticed that there was no new data while the
participants were in the plateau phase. (Crooks & Baur, 2014, pg. 164)
In my own opinion Masters and Johnsons four phase model is more accurate when dealing with
the broad spectrum of people in the world. They were able to look at not only what happens before,
during arousal but after during the refractory period experienced by every person. But there are some gaps
in this model as well. One thing that doesnt sit well with me is the fact that there is little knowledge
about the Plateau phase. Another gap in their model that stops it from being extremely applicable to the
general public is the fact that they list both male and female orgasms to be the same or similar, this
particular topic has been highly debated for many years, as they received their results from college
students. (Crooks & Baur, 2014, pg. 167) Which is not a very good sample group, by doing this they left
out many people who dont fit the group of college student, and for this mistake I believe they have a
huge error in their data concerning the Orgasm phase.

Jonathan Higginbotham
Word count: 635 Kaylene T. White
FHS-2450-F15

Reference List
Crooks, R., & Baur, K. (2014). Our Sexuality (12th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth