Masters and Johnson: The Linear Model · Clinical Exercise

The Physiology and the Claim

Masters and Johnson observed things and Masters and Johnson claimed things, and the two have very different shelf lives. Eight statements to sort, and a client who is using their model as a scoring rubric without ever having heard of them.

What this exercise practises

Separating a model's measurements from its assertions, recognising the claims a model makes by implication rather than in words, and reading a recruitment criterion for what it structurally prevents a study from seeing.

This is the first exercise in the module and the shortest. The distinction it practises is the one every section after it depends on.

Estimated time to complete this exercise: 15 minutes

1Observation or claim
2The criterion
3The client
4Close

Before you begin

How this one works

This is the shortest exercise in the module and it carries the distinction everything after it depends on. Masters and Johnson observed things and Masters and Johnson claimed things, and the two have very different shelf lives.
Part 1 gives you eight statements to sort. Some are measurements. Some are the model talking. Three of the claims were never stated outright, which is what made them durable.
Parts 2 and 3 are single questions. The second one is about a client, because the reason this distinction matters is that the claims are still in the room with you.
Nothing is graded and nothing is recorded. Reloading starts it again.

The physiology is real. The sequencing, while common, is not universal. Holding both halves of that at once is the whole skill, and collapsing it in either direction is the error: dismissing the work because the model is dated, or treating the model as a standard because the measurements were sound.

References

  1. Basson, R. (2000). The female sexual response: A different model. Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy, 26(1), 51–65. https://doi.org/10.1080/009262300278641
  2. Kaplan, H. S. (1979). Disorders of sexual desire and other new concepts and techniques in sex therapy. Brunner/Mazel.
  3. Masters, W. H., & Johnson, V. E. (1966). Human sexual response. Little, Brown.