“Perrotta Individual Sexual Matrix Questionnaire” (PSM-Q): Technical updates and clinical research

Giulio Perrotta; Giulio Perrotta

ISSN: 2690-0815

International Journal of Sexual and Reproductive Health Care

Research Article Open Access Peer-Reviewed

“Perrotta Individual Sexual Matrix Questionnaire” (PSM-Q): Technical updates and clinical research

Giulio Perrotta*

Author and article information

Psychologist sp.ing in Strategic Psychotherapy, Forensic Criminologist, Legal Advisor sp.ed SSPL, Researcher, Essayist, Institute for the study of psychotherapies - ISP, Via San Martino della Battaglia no. 31, 00185, Rome, Italy

*Corresponding author: Dr. Giulio Perrotta, Psychologist sp.ing in Strategic Psychotherapy, Forensic Criminologist, Legal Advisor sp.ed SSPL, Researcher, Essayist, Institute for the study of psychotherapies - ISP, Via San Martino della Battaglia no. 31, 00185, Rome, Italy, E-mail: info@giulioperrotta.com

DOI: 10.17352/ijsrhc.000025

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0229-5562

Received: 07 July, 2021 | Accepted: 23 July, 2021 | Published: 24 July, 2021

Keywords: Dysfunctional sexual behavior; Paraphilias; Sexual fantasies; PSM-1; PSM-Q

Cite this as

Perrotta G (2021) “Perrotta Individual Sexual Matrix Questionnaire” (PSM-Q): Technical updates and clinical research. Int J Sex Reprod Health Care 4(1): 062-066. DOI: 10.17352/ijsrhc.000025

Abstract

Purpose: With regard to studies on sexual behaviors, this research proposes a series of updates to the previous edition in order to improve its administration; at the same time, a sample of the population is administered to test its reliability, usefulness and psychometric consistency.

Methods: Clinical interview with administration of the “Perrotta Individual Sexual Matrix Questionnaire” (PSM-Q), updated.

Results: Once the questionnaire was completed, it was tested on a population sample of 600 subjects, so distributed: the clinical group composed of 300 subjects, of which 150 male and 150 female, and the control group composed of 300 subjects, of which 150 male and 150 female. In particular: in the “control group”, no psychopathological disorder was detected, and the sexual behaviors detected did not meet the requirements of paraphiliac disorder; in the “clinical group”, on the other hand, 70% (210/300, 118 men and 92 women) confirmed their psychopathological condition, identifying, thanks to the questionnaires administered, a better framing of their state of health, facilitating the psychotherapeutic approach and the remaining 30% (90/300, 32 men and 58 women), on the other hand, repositioned their sexual dimension by virtue of a different framing, including a psychopathological one, confirming the usefulness of the questionnaires administered precisely in a psychodiagnostic key.

Conclusions: The present research improves on previously published work (Perrotta Individual Sexual Matrix Questionnaire”, PSM-1) and frames it in the conscious and functional use of patients who manifest symptomatology of a sexual nature or with sexual involvement. In fact, the use of the questionnaires provided is functional to frame in a more detailed and methodological way the sexual universe of the patient, through the compilation of sections B, C and D (first part), while the compilation of sections D (second part) and E helps the therapist to designate in a direct and clear way about the habitual sexual behavior and the relational style of the couple; finally, it will be the duty of the therapist to apply the diagnostic criteria of the DSM-V in order to identify the presence or absence of any paraphilias that have in themselves the characteristics of a paraphiliac disorder properly determined.

Main article text

Contents of the manuscript

Introduction and updates

In light of the clinical practice of the last three years [1-65], to the results obtained from the research on sexual fantasies [64] and individual sexual matrix [65-70] and on the importance of centering the diagnosis correctly [71-76], to work on it in psychotherapy [77-79], the present research updates the previously published instrument (Perrotta Individual Sexual Matrix Questionnaire”, PSM-1), in “section D” of the same precisely on sexual behaviors, in order to better classify and organize them both functionally and temporally.

Appendix no. 1: “Perrotta Individual Sexual Matrix Questionnaire” (PSM-Q).

Practical application of PSM-Q. Research

The selected population sample is 600 participants, so distributed: the “clinical group” composed of 300 subjects, of which 150 male and 150 female, and the “control group” composed of 300 subjects, of which 150 male and 150 female. Both groups range in age from 18 years old to 75 years old.

The selected setting, taking into account the protracted pandemic period (already in progress since the beginning of the present research), is the online platform via Skype and Videocall Whatsapp, both for the clinical interview and for the administration.

The present research work was carried out from July 2020 to June 2021.

All participants were guaranteed anonymity.

The selected population sample (“clinical group”) is divided as follows:

Participation requirements have been established as follows:

a) For the “clinical group”: age between 18 and 75 years; residence or domicile in Italy for at least 5 years; absence of neurodegenerative diagnosis; diagnosis of paraphiliac disorder or confirmation of attitude to sexual behavior capable of provoking negative emotions in the subject, even in the absence of specific psychopathological diagnosis.

b) For the “control group”: age between 18 and 75 years; residence or domicile in Italy for at least 5 years; absence of neurodegenerative diagnosis; absence of diagnosis of paraphiliac disorder or statement of absence of attitude to sexual behavior capable of provoking negative emotions in the subject, even in the absence of specific psychopathological diagnosis.

Once the population sample had been selected, which met the required requirements, the first practical phase of the research was carried out with the execution of the clinical interview, asking the participants to omit any information (at this stage) about the previous psychopathological diagnosis suffered, so as not to induce the writer into any conditioning.

The second phases of the research concluded with the initialling and interpretation, in the telematic presence with the interviewed subject, of the Perrotta Individual Sexual Matrix Questionnaire (PSM-Q).

The third phases of the research concluded with analysis of the results obtained. Specifically, the use of the PSM-Q revealed the following:

a) In the “control group”, no psychopathological disorder was detected, and the sexual behaviors detected did not meet the requirements of paraphiliac disorder.

b) In the “clinical group”, on the other hand, 70% (210/300, 118 men and 92 women) confirmed their psychopathological condition, identifying, thanks to the questionnaires administered, a better framing of their state of health, facilitating the psychotherapeutic approach; the remaining 30% (90/300, 32 men and 58 women), on the other hand, repositioned their sexual dimension by virtue of a different framing, including a psychopathological one, confirming the usefulness of the questionnaires administered precisely in a psychodiagnostic key.

The limits of this research are:

1) The use of a population sample that is not sufficiently representative, although the results were very encouraging.

2) The PSM-Q is not yet standardised psychometric instruments but are proposed, despite the excellent results obtained and already published in international scientific journals [64,67-71].

As PSM-Q is a free psychodiagnostic tool, this research has no financial backer and does not present any conflicts of interest. In this research, the requirements of the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki were met.

Conclusion

The present research improves on previously published work (Perrotta Individual Sexual Matrix Questionnaire”, PSM-1) and frames it in the conscious and functional use of patients who manifest symptomatology of a sexual nature or with sexual involvement. In fact, the use of the questionnaires provided is functional to frame in a more detailed and methodological way the sexual universe of the patient, through the compilation of sections B, C and D (first part), while the compilation of sections D (second part) and E helps the therapist to designate in a direct and clear way about the habitual sexual behavior and the relational style of the couple; finally, it will be the duty of the therapist to apply the diagnostic criteria of the DSM-V in order to identify the presence or absence of any paraphilias that have in themselves the characteristics of a paraphiliac disorder properly determined.

Appendix

References

Copyright

© 2021 Perrotta G. This is an open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.