Meredith Chivers

Meredith L. Chivers is a Canadian sexologist and clinical psychologist noted for her research on female sexuality, sexual orientation, paraphilias, sex differences, gender identity, and the physiology of sexual arousal. She is an associate professor in the Department of Psychology at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.

Education and career Chivers attended the University of Guelph for her undergraduate agree. In 2003, she earned her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Northwestern University. She has been a faculty member at Queen's University since 2009, where she is director of the Sexuality and Gender Lab.

Research

Chivers's research interests include sexual attractions, sexual response, sexual functioning, and the psychophysiology of sexual arousal.

After reports that women respond with vaginal lubrication even to stimuli depicting rape, Chivers hypothesized that the lubrication might not relate only to female sexual desire, that it is also a separate system, an evolutionary adaptive one, that protect females from damage in sexual violence.

Selected works Seto, M. C., Lalumière, M. L., Harris, G. T., & Chivers, M. L. (2012). The sexual responses of sexual sadists. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 121, 739–753. . Chivers, M. L., Pittini, R., Villegas, L., Grigoriadis, S., Ross, L. E. (2011). The relationship between sexual function and depressive symptomatology in postpartum women: A pilot study. Journal of Sexual Medicine, 8, 792–799. . Chivers, M. L. (2010). A brief update on the specificity of sexual arousal. Sexual and Relationship Therapy, 25, 407–414. . Salonia, A., Giraldi, A., Chivers, M. L., Georgiadis, J., Levin, R., Maravilla, K., & McCarthy, M. (2010). Physiology of women's sexual function: Basic knowledge and new findings. Journal of Sexual Medicine, 7, 2637–2660. . Chivers, M. L., & Rosen. R. (2010). PDE-5 Inhibitors and female sexual response: Faulty protocols or paradigms? Journal of Sexual Medicine, 7, 858–872. . Chivers, M. L., Seto, M. C., Lalumière, M. L, Laan, E., & Grimbos, T. (2010). Agreement of genital and subjective measures of sexual arousal in men and women: A meta-analysis. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 39, 5–56. . Chivers, M. L., Seto, M. C., & Blanchard, R. (2007). Gender and sexual orientation differences in sexual response to the sexual activities versus the gender of actors in sexual films. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93, 1108–1121. . Chivers, M. L., & Bailey, J. M. (2005). A sex difference in features that elicit genital response. Biological Psychology, 70, 115–120. . Rieger, G., Chivers, M. L., & Bailey, J. M. (2005). Sexual arousal patterns of bisexual men. Psychological Science, 16, 579–584. . Lawrence, A., Latty, E., Chivers, M. L., & Bailey, J. M. (2005). Measurement of sexual arousal in postoperative male-to-female transsexuals using vaginal photoplethysmography. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 34, 135–145. . Chivers, M. L., Rieger, G., Latty, E., & Bailey, J. M. (2004). A sex difference in the specificity of sexual arousal. Psychological Science, 15, 736–744. . Chivers, M. L., & Blanchard, R. (1996). Prostitution advertisements suggest association of transvestism and masochism. Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy, 22, 97–102. .