IDENTIFY AND DISCUSS THE FOUR THEORETICAL EXPLANATIONS FOT THE Essay

IDENTIFY AND DISCUSS THE FOUR THEORETICAL EXPLANATIONS FOT THE POTENTIAL CAUSES OF PEDOPHILIA - Essay Example These explanations include emotional congruence, blockage, sexual arousal, and disinhibition theories (Bartol & Bartol, 2014). The underlying pillar of theories of emotional congruence is the assumption that pedophiles exhibit childish emotional interests and as such prefer an environment that suits children. Theories of emotional congruence try to figure out why a person would find it emotionally pleasing to relate sexually with a child. These theories highlight the existence of a match between the emotional needs of an adult and the features of a child. Most emotional congruence theories have a psychoanalytic background and center around arrested psychological development where pedophiles see themselves as children. The arrested psychological development perspective explains why pedophiles exhibit emotional pleasure when relating with children. Another perspective of emotional congruence theories argues that due to loss of efficacy and low self-esteem, pedophiles fancy social relations with children as it makes them feel powerful and exert control over the relationship (Bartol & Bartol, 2014). Sexual arousal theories try to find out why some physical characteristics of children sexually arouse pedophiles. Pedophiles tend to generate sexual arousal from certain characteristics of children that a normal man would not generate. Penile tumescence measures sexual arousal to sexual fantasies of children. One group of these theories argues that it is a normal childhood experience to engage in sexual play with playmates. However, pedophiles find the childhood experience to be more emotionally pleasing than adult sexual experiences. Consequently, the pedophile may dislike adult sexual contact and in the process end up masturbating while fantasizing on the pleasant childhood sexual experiences. Masturbation not only becomes an avenue of releasing sexual tension but also strengthens the attraction to children. In the end,