Relación entre insatisfacción sexual, hipersexualidad e inflexibilidad psicológica

Abstract

This thesis arises from the concern about the psychological support people with hypersexuality could need. More and more people are suffering the consequences of lacking control of their sexual impulses, leading to an increase of sexually transmitted diseases or the miss care of valued aspects of the person´s life. It is urgent to identify the processes responsible for the behavioural changes so effective interventions can be proposed. Following the extensive literature review that has been carried out, two studies are presented. The first one is a descriptive and correlational study, which aimed at identifying the mediating role of psychological flexibility in hypersexuality. This study concluded that sexual satisfaction positively correlates with body awareness and mindfulness skills and negatively with psychological inflexibility, cognitive fusion and bodily dissociation, being that one the variable with greater weight. Hypersexuality is also associated to psychological inflexibility, cognitive fusion and bodily dissociation and negatively to mindfulness, being psychological inflexibility the variable with greater weight. The second study is a clinical study which showed the usefulness of an individual and online intervention protocol based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy administered over eight sessions to fifteen people (three members of the pilot open trial and twelve more of the clinical trial). The intervention was followed by a reduction in the levels of hypersexuality, psychological inflexibility, cognitive fusion, and bodily dissociation and an increase in sexual satisfaction, body awareness, and mindfulness skills on most participants. In addition, the relevance of the values tracked increased significantly between pre-treatment and posttreatment, and the intensity and interference of the sexual impulse, the time spent planning and practicing sex, the frequency of erotic encounters (both face-to-face and online), masturbation, and, above all, the practice of chemsex were reduced after treatment and during the follow-up phase. It can be concluded that both studies show that hypersexual behaviours are closely related to the control, reduction or suppression of aversive emotional states and provide justification for training in psychological flexibility to help people who need to learn to manage their sexual impulses in a healthier way. It is hoped that these studies, on one hand, can serve as an inspiration to researchers interested in the field of sexuality and, on the other, contribute to increasing the effectiveness of psychological interventions on people with hypersexuality