膨脹問題: 勃起缺乏 - 社會心理原因

惡性循環: 害怕失敗
一些男子是如此地不自信，以至於發展到在性交中害怕失敗。其他的男子恰恰對自己過於苛求，並且會考驗自己的性反應，由此把每一次的性偶遇變成了一場論輸贏的戰鬥。還有一些人試圖通過飲酒來“使自己的本錢變得更硬”。自然而然地，這些策略只會招致失敗，並由此使偶爾的功能障礙發展成了慢性疾病。有的男子的性高潮總是比他的性伴來的過早，這樣一來同樣的命運可能會降臨到他們的頭上。也有某些男子不能從情感上擺脫自己的一個或兩個性伴的控制，有一些由禁欲主義教養出的人已經對自己的性感受感到心神不寧。某些男子因為有同性戀性興趣，要進行陰道性交 可能比較困難；有些男子只不過缺乏性行為經驗而害怕失敗。上述所有的男子可能最終感到自己不能勃起或不能維持勃起，因而斷定自己不能投入性交活動。事實上，只要他們有四分之一的時間發生了定期的勃起缺乏，這就嚴重到足以需要特殊的性治療了。像由馬斯特斯和詹森開發的這樣的性治療療程，在恢復男子健康的性反應方面已經取得了非常大的成功。不過，這種成功的性治療極大地依賴於性伴雙方的合作。

Problems of Tumescence: Lack of Erection - Psychosocial Causes

A Vicious Circle: Fear of Failure
Some men are so insecure that they develop a fear of failure. Others just demand too much of themselves and begin to put their own responses to the test, thus turning every sexual encounter into a win-or-lose battle. Still others try to "stiffen their resolve" by drinking. Naturally, these stratagems only invite defeat, and thus the occasional problem turns into a chronic condition. The same fate may befall a man whose orgasm always occurs much sooner than that of his partner. There are also some men who are unable to free themselves emotionally from the domination of one or both of their parents, and there are those whose puritanical upbringing has left them uncomfortable with their sexual feelings. Furthermore, certain men may have difficulty starting coitus because of homosexual interests, and others are simply overwhelmed by their sexual inexperience. All of these men may eventually find themselves unable to have or hold an erection that would allow them to engage in coitus. As a matter of fact, as soon as they regularly fail more than one fourth of the time, their problem is serious enough to demand special therapy. Treatment programs, such as that developed by Masters and Johnson, have been quite successful in restoring a man's healthy sexual responses. This success depends, however, largely on the cooperation of both sexual partners.