Occurrence and development of online porn addiction: individual susceptibility factors, strengthening mechanisms and neural mechanisms: The Initiation and Development of Cybersex Addiction: Individual Vulnerability, Reinforcement Mechanism and Neural Mechanism (2019)

Summary:

1 Introduction

The emergence of the Internet has changed the way people consume porn. In the past, people mainly watch pornographic performances such as striptease for pornography through browsing paper pornography (Hilton, 2013), and today’s traditional porn consumption is gradually replaced by the following online pornography: browsing pornographic images, porn videos, pornography, etc. Materials; talking about sexual conversations, engaging interactions with others, looking for offline sexual partners or accessing sexual services (Daneback, Ross, & Månsson, 2006; Griffiths, 2001; Young, 2008) (This article focuses on over-browding networks Internet pornography caused by pornography). The rapid development and comprehensive coverage of the Internet has greatly promoted pornography. Compared with the young men of the 1970s, young men in the 21st century increased their porn consumption by 16% because they started to contact the Internet during their teenage years. And the corresponding increase in pornography among women increased by 8% (Jacobs, 2015). The Internet provides people with an opportunity to continuously browse for novelty pornography. Compared to pornography that has been repeatedly viewed, when a man sees a new porn, his sexual excitement and penile erection are significantly increased. (Koukounas & Over, 2000). This phenomenon is mainly related to the biological basis known as the Coolidge effect – men can’t re-sex with the same woman immediately after ejaculation, and if they can get different women, then after ejaculation The refractory period will shorten or disappear completely (Hergenhahn & Olson, 2003). The Kulich effect and the provision of a large number of novel pornography on the Internet have accelerated the emergence of cybersex addiction (CA), a network activity that is the most important activity in an individual’s life, even though its use has been on the individual’s social function. , occupational function, leisure life caused violations, but individuals still can not restrain their impulse to be involved in online pornography, and more and more online pornography to get rid of negative emotions. Once stopped or reduced the use of online pornography, physical and psychological serious discomfort can occur (Cavaglion, 2009; Griffiths, 2004). (The following is the “network pornography problem”, “problem network pornography” or the research according to the network pornography related scale, or the self-reported users have troubles with online pornography, in this paper they are considered to be CA preference Or CA patients). Data from 2000 show that about 1% of Internet pornography people suffer from online pornography due to excessive addiction to online pornography (Cooper, Delmonico, & Burg, 2000). In recent years, studies have found that 4.9% of women, 12.9% of men have mild online pornography, 1.8% of women, and 4.9% of men have serious online pornography (Ross, Mansson, & Daneback, 2012). From these two data, we can speculate that due to the rapid development of the network, the number of people suffering from CA will continue to increase in the future. To this end, exploring the mechanism of CA is extremely urgent for the prevention and treatment of CA. Previous studies have mainly focused on the use of online pornography in the crowd. CA has had a heated discussion on the negative effects of individual sexuality, sexual behavior, sexual function, marriage, family, work, etc. and the individual traits of CA-oriented individuals (Cavrieli, 2013; Majeres, 2016; Manning, 2006; Owens, Behun, Manning, & Reid, 2012); and there are only a handful of studies exploring its mechanisms, until some scholars have begun to focus on this issue in recent years. In this paper, through the combing of relevant empirical research and theoretical models, the occurrence and development of CA are discussed from three aspects: individual susceptibility factors, strengthening mechanism and neural mechanism. Finally, the prospect of future research is put forward.

2. Individual susceptibility factors of online porn addiction

2.1. Personality factors

The susceptible personality factors of CA individuals include CA-related specific personality traits and general disorder personality traits (Brand, Young, & Laier, 2014; Brand, Young, Laier, Wolfling, & Potenza, 2016). The former includes traits such as narcissistic personality, sexual sensation seeking, sexual excitability, and dysfunctional use of sex. The latter refers to personality traits such as neuroticism and low self-esteem.

Milam (2015) found that online pornography time was positively correlated with individual narcissism. The formation of narcissistic personality may be related to the unfortunate childhood growth of individuals such as parental care, which makes them emotionally neglected and even sexually abused (Milam, 2015). Perry and Accordino et al. (2007) found that college students’ erotic addiction scales with high scores on the Sexual Aptitude Scale were also high. High-sex sensation seekers often need more sexual stimuli to achieve their optimal level of arousal (Larsen & Buss, 2008) and are therefore susceptible to CA. Brand et al. (2011) found that individual sexual arousal scores on erotic images and individual mental health predict the development of CA symptoms. Further, the research team found that sexual abuse traits and sexual excitability traits were associated with CA propensity, and sexual abuse traits mediate sexual excitability traits and CA propensity (Laier & Brand, 2014; Laier, Pekal, & Brand, 2015). Individuals with sexual abuse and high sexual excitement may not be able to control their own sexual behaviors, have sexual orientations to alleviate their negative emotions or reduce their tendency to stress, and when they are unable to directly engage in sexual activity, they may use online pornography. Use to meet your own needs. In addition, individuals with traits such as neuroticism and low self-esteem may be able to get rid of their negative emotions through online pornography due to negative evaluation of themselves and lack of social support, etc. (Grubbs, Stauner, Exline, Pargament, & Lindberg, 2015; Kor Et al., 2014).

2.2. Cognitive factors

Cognitive factors mainly include individuals’ maladaptive-cognition (Davis, 2001) and cognitive biases on the use of online pornography. The individuals with the general disorder personality traits mentioned above often feel lonely and self-doubt because of lack of social support, but form an unreasonable cognition of themselves and the outside world in their hearts, and think that they are not appreciated in real life. And pay attention to turn to the network, use cyber pornography to escape from reality and seek liberation. This process leads to the implicit connection between online pornography and positive emotions (Snagowski, Wegmann, Pekal, Laier, & Brand, 2015). CA tendencies tend to have high expectations for online pornography—network pornography enables them to gain sexual gratification, relieve stress, and eliminate negative emotional experiences; it is accustomed to using online pornography as a coping mechanism.

2.3. Physiological and psychological structure

The physiological and psychological structure mainly includes the early childhood experience, biological factors, psychopathological factors and other inducing factors. Individuals with similar physiological and psychological structures to sexual addiction individuals may be more susceptible to CA (Cooper, Putnam, Planchon, & Boies, 1999; Putnam, 2000) due to network accessibility, anonymity, affordability Affordability (Carter & Tiffany, 1999) makes such individuals likely to be involved in dangerous online sexual behavior anytime and anywhere, and then frequently use online pornography to addiction. Such individuals often have unfortunate experiences of childhood growth – physical, sexual, family, and social trauma (Blain, Muench, Morgenstern, & Parsons, 2012; Howard, 2007); serotonin, testosterone, etc. Level abnormalities (Kafka & Prentky, 1992; Rickards & Laaser, 1999; Samenow, 2010), and suffering from mood disorders, anxiety disorders (Nair, Pawar, Kalra, & Shah, 2013) or drug dependence (Antonio et al., 2017; Hartman, Ho, Arbour, Hambley, & Lawson, 2012).

3. Strengthening mechanism of online porn addiction symptoms

The occurrence and development of CA symptoms can be divided into two stages: classical conditioning and operational conditioning (Putnam, 2000). The former is accompanied by the gradual sensitization of clues related to online pornography. The aforementioned individual susceptibility factors – personality Factors, cognitive factors, and physiological and psychological structures may enhance individual sensitization to online pornography-related clues (Brand, Young, et al., 2016). The sensitization of these related clues further induces individuals’ strong desire for online pornography. (craving); the latter is accompanied by damage to the individual’s executive function and leads to the enhancement of individual susceptibility factors. The interaction between clue-induced hunger and executive function of individual decline promotes the development of CA symptoms.

Initially, individuals used network devices to search for and watch pornographic materials. Network devices were used as a neutral stimulus. After multiple connections with pornographic stimuli, they established a stimulus-response connection with sexual arousal to form a classic. Conditional reflex (Snagowski, Laier, Duka, & Brand, 2016; Putnam, 2000). Frequent use of online pornography has reinforced the stimuli associated with online pornography and sexual arousal stimulating-response-stimulation between physiology and psychological reactions, leading to these cues more inducing individual sexual desire (Laier, Pawlikowski, Pekal, Schulte, & Brand, 2013; Laier , Pekal, & Brand, 2014; Young, 2008). Laier and Pawlikowski et al. (2013) used a cue-reactivity paradigm to test heterosexual men as a subject, and found that online pornography users showed stronger libido after watching pornographic images than healthy online porn users. Awakening and masturbation needs. Prause and Pfaus (2015) also found that heterosexual men who browse pornographic materials more often experience stronger sexual arousal after watching pornography. In heterosexual women, compared to women who do not use online pornography, women who use online pornography consider pornographic images to be more awakened, and report more sexual arousal and masturbation after viewing pornographic images (Laier) , Pekal, et al., 2014).

After that, when individuals use network equipment, they are prone to sexual arousal physiological reactions. Sexual awakening further promotes individual online porn consumption. In the process of individuals using online pornography to achieve their goals, the high expectations of online pornography and this coping mechanism are being strengthened. Individual narcissistic personality, sexual sensation seeking, sexual excitement sensitivity, sexual abuse traits and other CA-related specific personality traits are positively strengthened; while psychopathological qualities such as anxiety, depression, etc. and general disorder personality traits because of online pornography Temporarily weakened (negative reinforcement) using (Brand et al., 2014; Laier & Brand, 2014). This series of intensification processes is accompanied by damage to the individual’s executive function. Studies have shown that sexual arousal caused by online pornography can interfere with the general cognitive and executive functions of individual working memory, decision-making ability (Laier, Pawlikowski, & Brand, 2014; Laier, Schulte, & Brand, 2013). Schiebener and Laier et al. (2015) found that individuals with higher scores on the CA Symptom Scale (s-IAT sex) had better execution and control skills than individuals with lower scores when involved in cognitive tasks related to pornography. The decline is more significant. In addition, this study and another study (Snagowski & Brand, 2015) found that individuals with high CA tendencies approached or were far from pornographic material, and this approaching/distance tendency just confirmed the craving for erotic material. Individuals perform competition between functions.

4. The neural mechanism of online porn addiction

The research on neural mechanism mainly found that the increase of the desire of individuals for online pornography and the decline of pleasure when using online pornography promoted the development of CA symptoms. At the same time, the use of clues induced by online pornography and the tendency of CA to perform individual decline Evidence support.

First, Steele et al. (2013) found that individuals with viewing of visual sexual stimuli (VSS) induced a greater amplitude of the P300 component when viewing erotic images than when viewing neutral images. The results seem to confirm the notion that online pornography leads to an individual’s hunger for online pornography, but Steele’s research lacks normal subjects for reference; in addition, LPP components appear later than P300 ( Late positive potential is associated with the stimulation of significant material processing and better reflects the individual’s desire to watch pornographic material (Hilton, 2014) (the greater the individual’s desire to watch pornography, the greater the LPP volatility). In this regard, Prause and Steele et al. (2015) added individuals who viewed less pornographic material to VSS individuals in the improvement experiment, and found that subjects who had excessively viewed pornographic material problems and reported more sexual desire were watching erotic images. The induced LPP amplitude is smaller, and this result seems to be contrary to the idea that online pornography-related clues induce a sense of craving. Actually, some scholars have pointed out that the erotic images used in the study by Prause and Steele may be an addiction in itself. Consumer goods, not addictive clues (Gola et al., 2017; Gola, Wordecha, Marchewka, & Sescousse, 2016). Therefore, according to the Theory of Incentive-Salience Theory (IST) in drug addiction, as the degree of addiction deepens, the clues of addiction can induce the addicted desire of addicted individuals to become more and more addicted. (Berridge, 2012; Robinson, Fischer, Ahuja, Lesser, & Maniates, 2015), but the addiction to the addicted individuals has gradually decreased, and the decrease in LPP amplitude indicates that CA may be addicted to drugs. There are some similarities, and subsequent research by Gola et al. (2017) supports this view. The experiment was conducted by 28 heterosexual men seeking treatment for problematic pornography use (PPU) and 24 heterosexual men without PPU symptoms. They were asked to complete the Incentive delay task and found The ventral striatum (the area in the brain related to the reward response mechanism and motivational behavior that reflects the psychological cravings of the cyber pornography) of the PPU was obtained when the subjects were presented with predictive erotic images. A greater degree of activation, and the degree of activation of the ventral striatum is also related to the severity of the PPU and the weekly erotic use of the subject, the number of weekly masturbation; but in the presence of erotic images, the two groups of relevant brain regions There was no significant difference in activation. Kuhn and Gallinat (2014) also found that the more people who watched pornography, the more people who watch pornographic videos, the other part of the striatum that responds to sexual stimuli – the shell nucleus ( Left putamen) The weaker the activation, the smaller the capacity of the right caudate in the striatum. IST theory reveals an important driving force for the development of CA symptoms. When CA tends to frequently browse online pornography, repeated repeated dopamine surges keep the brain in a state of excitement. In the long run, the brain is slow and shrinking; but the temptation of the environment has made their desire for online pornography stronger and stronger. Once ordinary pornography can’t cause “sexual interest” in CA patients, they may spend more time and money searching for more tasteful and renewed online pornography to evoke sexual desire. As the study found, healthy adult males have a greater degree of activation of the ventral striatum when viewing more erotic images than the normal erotic images, and the more severe the individual reported CA symptoms, the ventral side in both cases The greater the difference in striatum activation (Brand, Snagowski, Laier, & Maderwald, 2016). And studies have shown that the more healthy adult males watching pornography, the worse the functional connection between the right caudate nucleus of the brain and the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) (related to cognitive control). Kuhn & Gallinat, 2014). As such, the decline in cognitive control caused by frequent pornography is more likely to cause CAs to use Internet pornography.

5. Summary and outlook

In view of the universality of online pornography and the serious harm of excessive online pornography to individuals and society, the exploration of the mechanism of online pornography addiction has great practical significance. This article describes the individual susceptibility factors, the strengthening mechanism of CA symptoms, and the neural mechanism of CA. It was found that some individuals became susceptible populations of CA because of their unique personality, cognition, and physiological and psychological factors. On the one hand, individual susceptibility factors promote sensitization of online pornography-related clues, and on the other hand, its repeated use of online pornography to meet its own needs in turn reinforces individual susceptibility factors. At the same time, the cravings of cravings are getting stronger and stronger. The susceptible individuals spend a lot of time searching for new and different online pornography materials under the dual factors of temptation and functional impairment. However, this satisfaction is getting weaker and weaker. In a vicious circle, they need a larger amount of novel online pornography material to meet their physiological, psychological, and sensory needs. After reducing or excluding cyber pornography, individuals may experience withdrawal symptoms such as depression, anxiety, erectile dysfunction, lack of sexual life, unconsciousness, difficulty concentrating in the short term (Ballester-Arnal, Castro-Calvo, Gil-Llario, & Giménez-García, 2014; Carvalheira, Traeen, & Stulhofer, 2015; Grubbs et al., 2015; Park et al., 2016; Poulsen, Busby, & Galovan, 2013). In order to escape these withdrawal symptoms, or due to other life stress events, individuals are deeply immersed in the abyss of online pornography and gradually lose interest in other matters of life.

Through combing and summarizing the existing research, we find that some research fields related to the formation mechanism of CA have not been paid attention to by researchers, but they have important research value and can be explored in a more comprehensive and in-depth study in future research.

First, the lack of genetic and stress susceptibility in the individual susceptibility factors summarized in this paper and the study of external factors such as environmental factors that induce CA. Although studies have shown that 48% of individual differences in Internet addiction can be attributed to genetic factors (Deryakulu & Ursavaş, 2014; Li, Chen, Li, & Li, 2014; Vink, van Beijsterveldt, Huppertz, Bartels, & Boomsma, 2016), but the correlation between the formation of CA and heredity has not been confirmed by research, and susceptible individuals with different types of network addiction may have their specific genetic characterization. In addition, studies have confirmed that stress susceptibility is a potential pre-factor for online game addiction. Online game addicts report more serious daily stressful experiences, and it is concluded that stress susceptibility may also be an important factor in promoting CA development. (Kaess et al., 2017; Yu, Mao, & Wu, 2018). In addition, external factors such as the social environment in which individuals live – whether they live alone or the social environment in which they live, may also affect the development of CA symptoms.

Second, the study of the mechanism of CA is mainly concerned with heterosexual male groups, while heterosexual women, homosexuals, bisexual groups and sexually impaired groups more vulnerable to online pornography may have different CA mechanisms than heterosexual men. More research is needed for future research. First, gender differences are more pronounced among problematic online porn users. Studies have shown that the proportion of people with cyber-sexual use among men is three to five times that of women (Ballester-Arnal et al., 2014). What is the cause of this gender difference? Physiological differences between men and women may be one of the reasons. Animal experiments have shown that the Kulich effect leading to CA formation is also shown in females but weaker than males (Lester & Gorzalka, 1988). In addition, differences in sensitivity to audiovisual stimuli may also be responsible for gender differences in online pornography. The input of a large amount of online pornographic information may provide a source of sexual fantasy in the brain, and sexual fantasies can awaken and increase sexual desire, and thus may promote online porn consumption. Studies have shown that men respond more strongly to visually explicit material (Rupp & Wallen, 2007; Wehrum et al., 2013), and their sexual fantasies tend to focus on visual imagery (Bhintade, 2006). And female sexual fantasies focus on imaginary sexual stimuli in the mind (Joyal, Amélie, & Vanessa, 2015). An auditory event-related potential study (Oliver, Meana, & Snyder, 2016) found that for men, the N1 component of the audition was positively correlated with the sexual arousal caused by watching pornographic movies when completing the oddball paradigm. (Complete the stimulation sequence task while watching pornography); for women, the P3b component of hearing is negatively correlated with porn consumption. This suggests that the neuroprocessing mechanisms of male and female use of online pornography may be different, and future research may explore the causes of gender differences in online pornography from the perspective of sensitivity differences in audiovisual stimuli. In addition, groups with different sexual orientations use cyber porn for different purposes and situations (Green, Carnes, Carnes, & Weinman, 2012), and the mechanisms of addiction may also differ. Those with physical distortions and unhealed sexual dysfunction are high-risk groups of CA (He Jinbo, Li Bingbing, Guo Yongyu, & Jiang Guangrong, 2010). Due to the inability to perform normal sexual activities, this type of special population may use online pornography as a substitute for their normal sexual life. The CA symptoms caused by their unique physiological and psychological causes are worthy of further study.

Fund project

Funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 81601166).

NOTES

^* Corresponding author.

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