Literature summary of Psychology of Sexuality

Psychology of sexuality – Literature

Chapter 1: Theoretical perspectives on human sexuality.................................................2

Chapter 2: Sexology research: History, methods, and ethics............................................4

Chapter 3: Human sexual anatomy........................................................................................... 6

Chapter 4: Human sexual response: Understanding arousal and orgasm.................10

Chapter 5: Gender and gender identity................................................................................. 13

Chapter 6: Sexual orientation................................................................................................... 16

Chapter 7: The laws of attraction............................................................................................ 18

Chapter 8: Intimate relationships: Sex, love, and commitment....................................20

Chapter 9: Sexual behaviours................................................................................................... 24

Chapter 10: Lifespan sexual development...........................................................................26

Chapter 11: Sex education, contraception, and pregnancy.............................................28

Chapter 13: Sexual dysfunction and sex therapy...............................................................30

Chapter 14: Variations in sexual behaviour........................................................................34

Chapter 15: Sex laws, sexual victimization, and the sexual marketplace..................36

,Chapter 1: Theoretical perspectives on human sexuality
 What drives us to have sex?
 Psychological influences
 E.g. mood states, levels of cognitive alertness, our attitudes toward sex and relationships,
others’ expectations for our behaviour, associations learned through reinforcements
 These factors can be transitory (change from moment to moment) or relatively stable
characteristics
 The effects are bidirectional: Psychology shapes sexual behaviour, but sexual behaviour
also shapes our psychology
 Cultural and societal influences
 There do not appear to be many (if any) truly universal principles of sexuality
 Religion is one of the reasons why there is so much cultural variability, but also science
and the popular media play important roles
 Biological and evolutionary influences
 On some level, all behaviour is biologically caused
 There is little that is unique about humans’ sexual activities, suggesting evolution also
plays an important role in these behaviours
 Major theoretical perspectives on human sexuality
 Psychoanalytic theory (Freud)
 Human behaviour is driven by two factors: sex (libido) and death (thanatos)
 Personality structure consisting of the id (pleasure principle), ego (reality principle), and
superego (our conscience) drives behaviour
 Sexual abnormalities arise when individuals become fixated during one of the
psychosexual stages of development
 Cognitive-behavioural and learning theories
 Classical conditioning (Pavlov)
 Operant conditioning (Skinner)
 Social or observational learning (e.g. Bandura’s Bobo doll experiment, media, porno)
 Exchange theories
 Exchange of recourses is fundamental to social relationships: Behaviour is driven by
perceived costs and benefits derived from trades occurring between partners
 To determine whether outcomes are good, we hold them up to some comparison level
 Personality theories: Relatively stable individual traits generate consistent patterns of
behaviour across situations (e.g. Big Five; erotophilia (strong, positive emotions and attitudes
toward sex) vs. erotophobia (strong, negative emotions and attitudes toward sex); sensation
seeking; sociosexuality = A person’s willingness to have sex in the absence of commitment)

,  Evolutionary theory
 Human beings are motivated to produce as many of their own offspring as possible: We
have evolved preferences for physical and psychological traits and characteristics in
sexual partners that promote reproductive success
 Men and women have developed different approaches to mating
 Sexual strategies theory: Differences because the parental investment required to
produce a child differs across the sexes
 However, why do variations in sexual orientation exist?
 The perspective of this text: Biopsychosocial model

, Chapter 2: Sexology research: History, methods, and ethics
 A brief history of sexology = The scientific study of sex
 The goal of sexology is to increase our understanding of all aspects of human sexuality
 Sample selection
 Researchers must identify a target population
 Then, researchers choose a sample
 Convenience samples (individuals who are most readily accessible for research purposes)
 Advantage: Study can be completed quickly and easily without spending much money
 Disadvantage: Is the sample representative enough of the target population?
 Random selection (identifying all members of the target population and contacting a
subset of them at random to participate)
 If applied correctly, conclusions are more generalizable
 Much more challenging to implement
 Non-experimental research
 Survey research
 Strengths:
 Quick, easy way of collecting (more diverse) data; enhanced anonymity and privacy
 Several modes of administration
 Limitations:
 Nonresponse (may hurt the representativeness of the sample)
 Self-selection = All the ways that research volunteers differ from non-volunteers
 Social desirability and other response biases
 Difficult to write a good survey (use of terms, no leading or double-barred questions,
order of questions)
 Examples of major sex surveys (p. 35-37)
 The Kinsey reports
 The National Health and Social Life Survey (NHSLS)
 The National Survey of Sexual Health and Behaviour (NSSHB)
 Direct observation
 Strengths:
 Less chance of response biases
 Observations can be preserved on film
 Limitations:
 Self-selection
 Reactivity (participants sometimes alter their behaviour when others are watching)
 Expensive, and variables need to carefully operationalized