Chapter 2 reading notes

Monday, September 18, 2017

10:30 PM
Theoretical approaches to understanding human sexuality
 A theory consists of a set of ideas or concepts that are used to explain a set of observed
facts- provides us with a conceptual framework for explaining and predicting sexual
thoughts, emotions, attitudes and behaviours

Evolutionary theory
 Evolution: the development of a species to its present state which involves adaptations to
its environment
Charles Darwin- survival of the fittest
 Natural selection is the evolutionary process by which adaptive traits enable members of a
species to survive to reproductive age and transmit these traits to future generations
 Better adapted members are more likely to survive to reproduce and transmit their traits
to succeeding generations
 Some scientists suggest that there is also a genetic basis to social behaviour including
sexual behaviour, among humans and other animals
 Sociobiology is the hypothesis that evolution has shaped human and animal social
behaviours
 According to the application of evolutionary theory to human sexuality- because men and
women play very different biological roles in reproduction, they also have different
strategies for passing on their genes
Buss and Shmitt (2011)
 Distinguish between short term and long term mating strategies
 According to the evolutionary theory, men are naturally more promiscuous than women
because they are the genetic heirs of ancestors whose reproductive success was related to
the number of women they could impregnate.
 Women can produce only a few offspring in their lifetimes, thus the theory goes that they
have to be more selecting with respect to their mating partners. Women's reproductive
success is enhance by mating with the fittest male
 According to this theory men will be more attracted to women who appear most likely to
be fertile (ex. Physically healthy and young) and women will be more attracted to men
who posses the resources (ex. Food or money)

Sigmund Freud and psychoanalytic theory

Psychoanalysis: proposes that human behaviour represents the outcome of clashing inner
forces
 Freud believed that we are all born with biologically based sex drives that must be
channeled through socially approved outlets if family and social life are to carry on
without undue conflicts
 The conscious level corresponds to our state of present awareness and the unconscious
mind refers to the darker reaches of the mind that lie outside of our direct awareness
Erogenous zones: parts of the body, including but not limited to the sex organs that are
responsive to sexual stimulation
Psychosexual development: the process by which sexual feelings shift from one erogenous zone
to another
  Children undergo 5 stages of developlment; oral, anal, phallic, latency and genital
 Freud believed that it was normal for children to develop erotic feelings towards the
parent of the other sex during the phallic stage

Social cognitive theory: a cognitively oriented learning theory in which observational learning,
values and expectations play key roles in determining behaviour
 Observational learning refers to acquiring knowledge and skills through observing others

Sexual script theory: a theory that examines sexuality from the standpoint of culturally learned
scripts that specify how men and women should behave sexually
 Cognitive schema that provide individuals with a learned set of instructions for how to act
in sexual situations
 Sexual script influence people on 3 levels….
1. Cultural level: the individual learns general social rules for how sexual interactions should
unfold
2. Interpersonal level: people apply the cultural scripts they have learned to their own
sexual interaction with partners
3. Intrapsychic level: individuals cognitively internalize the cultural scripts and personalize
them according to their own values, preferences and circumstances
Traditional sexual script: a sexual script based on stereotypical standards for sexual behaviour
that dictates that males take an assertive role in heterosexual interaction while women take a
respective and passive role
 Specifies that men should have a higher sex drive than women, be the initiators of sexual
activity and be responsible for mutual pleasure of the couple

Social exchange theory

A theory that examines sexuality within relationships in terms of rewards and costs
A. Social beaviour is a series of exchanges
B. Individuals attempt to maximize their rewards and minimize their costs
C. When individuals receive rewards from others, they feel obligated to reciprocate
 Sexual satisfaction within the couple is higher the more the partners perceive their sexual
rewards to be greater than their sexual costs

Feminist theory
Focuses on the subordination of women and the unequal status of girls and women in society
 Feminist theories challenge the very concepts of femininity and masculinity because their
existence tends to suggest that there is some sort of biological or "actual" basis to the
distinction. They suggest that femininity and masculinity might be purely social
constructions that have the effect of giving women second-class citizenship and in some
eras or parts in the world, no citizenship
Sexual objectification: treating a person as an object for the purpose of sexual gratification

Queer theory
Challenges heteronormativity and heterosexism
 Challenges the assumption that people are accurately categorized as either naturally
heterosexual or gay/lesbian
  According to this theory, the concepts of heterosexuality and homosexuality are social
constructs that ignore commonly experiences mismatches among people's anatomic sex,
societies gender roles, and individuals sexual desires

A scientific approach to human sexuality

 Scientists/researchers who study human sexuality take an empirical approach, meaning
they base their knowledge on research evidence, rather than on intuition, faith or
superstition
The scientific method is a systematic way of gathering scientific evidence and testing
assumptions through research. Its elements include:
1. Formulating a research question
2. Faming the research questions in the form of a hypothesis
3. Testing the hypothesis
4. Drawing conclusions

Goals of the science of human sexuality

 To describe, explain, predict and control the events of sexual behaviours
 To understand a sexual behaviour, we must first be able to describe it
 The scientific approach to human sexuality examines sexual behaviours through
techniques as varied as the field study, the survey, the individual case study and the
laboratory experiment