● The psychology of sex
○ External stimuli
■ Can influence sexual desire
● Rape acceptance- increase male’s willingness to hurt women
● Devaluing partner- viewing very attractive women then seeing
their own partners as less so
● Diminished satisfaction- with your own sex life
○ Imagined stimuli- happens a lot, the brain is important
○ Teen pregnancy
■ Caused by minimal comm about birth control, guilt related to sex, alc use,
romanticism of not using a condom
■ High intelligence, religious affiliation, father, stop this
● Sexual orientation
○ The numbers
■ 2-4% of people are exclusively homosexual
○ Origins of sexual orientation- it’s not environmental, but biological
■ Other species- exists
■ Gay/straight brain differences- structure affects sexuality- hypothalamus
for example
■ Gen influences- seems to run in families, kin selection, fertile females
theory, twins more likely to be gay than siblings to both be gay
■ Prenatal influences- exposure to hormone levels typically experienced by
female to males makes it more likely, progressive brothers are more likely
to be gay
○ Gay-straight trait differences
■ Gay men usually shorter and lighter
■ Straight women and gays are better spatially than straight men
● Evolutionary explanation of human sexuality
○ Male-female differences in sexuality
■ Men are more sex-focused than women
○ Natural selection and mating preferences
■ Women will prefer a man who can protect for baby and provide
■ Men want younger women who will be fertile
○ Critiquing the evolutionary perspective
■ Says that social script and learning theory is better
■ Gives way to not having to be moral and blaming it on evolution
○ External stimuli
■ Can influence sexual desire
● Rape acceptance- increase male’s willingness to hurt women
● Devaluing partner- viewing very attractive women then seeing
their own partners as less so
● Diminished satisfaction- with your own sex life
○ Imagined stimuli- happens a lot, the brain is important
○ Teen pregnancy
■ Caused by minimal comm about birth control, guilt related to sex, alc use,
romanticism of not using a condom
■ High intelligence, religious affiliation, father, stop this
● Sexual orientation
○ The numbers
■ 2-4% of people are exclusively homosexual
○ Origins of sexual orientation- it’s not environmental, but biological
■ Other species- exists
■ Gay/straight brain differences- structure affects sexuality- hypothalamus
for example
■ Gen influences- seems to run in families, kin selection, fertile females
theory, twins more likely to be gay than siblings to both be gay
■ Prenatal influences- exposure to hormone levels typically experienced by
female to males makes it more likely, progressive brothers are more likely
to be gay
○ Gay-straight trait differences
■ Gay men usually shorter and lighter
■ Straight women and gays are better spatially than straight men
● Evolutionary explanation of human sexuality
○ Male-female differences in sexuality
■ Men are more sex-focused than women
○ Natural selection and mating preferences
■ Women will prefer a man who can protect for baby and provide
■ Men want younger women who will be fertile
○ Critiquing the evolutionary perspective
■ Says that social script and learning theory is better
■ Gives way to not having to be moral and blaming it on evolution
