Psychosocial

Perspective in
Gender and
Sexuality
Unit III
LESSON 8: Gender and Sexuality as a
Psychosocial Issue
Learning Objectives:
1. Define the term “psychosocial”
2. Discuss the psychological dimension of gender and
sexuality.
3. Reflect upon one’s responsibility in ensuring
psychological wellness in the aspect of gender and
development.
Definition of
terms:
● Psychosocial - a term to psychological and social factors and
the interaction of these factors.
● Psychosocial issues - needs and concerns relating to one or all of
the psychosocial dimensions.

Major psychosocial issues included family problems,

depression,
anxiety, substance abuse, sexual abuse, and
violence.
● Reproductive role - the social script ascribed to individuals
pertaining to their role in child bearing or child rearing and
related tasks such as maintaining the household.
● Productive role - the social script ascribed to individuals pertaining
to their role in the economic production and related tasks such as
engaging in public affairs and the living in the world of work.
PSYCHOSOCIAL
● Psychosocial Perspective - the perspective of exploring and understanding
human sexuality in the lens of psychological social processes.

● Psychological - pertains to anything associated with mental process

and behaviour.
● Social - pertains to anything associated with human relationships,
connection and interaction.

Psychology is a field of science which concerns itself with how people think and feel
and how thoughts and feelings interact and lead to behavior.

Sociology is a field of science which concerns itself with the human person’s
realities and experience as part of groups and institutions.
3 primary psychological
domains:
1. Affect
2. Behavior
3. Cognition
Understanding Psychosocial
dimension
● Sex refers to the biological aspects of a person due
to their anatomy.
● Gender is socially constructed (presumed after a sex
is

assigned) and leads to labels such as masculinity

or femininity and their related behaviors.
 According to genderspectrum.org, gender results from the
complex interrelationship of three dimensions – body, identity, and
● body, concerns our physical body, how we experience it, how society
social.
genders bodies, and the way in which others interact with us based on our
body.
● gender identity or our internal perception and expression of who we are as
a person.
● social gender or the manner in which we present our gender in the world,
but also how other people, society, and culture affect our concept of
gender.
AWARENESS
Awareness is our conscious understanding of
something.

SELF AWARENESS
OTHER
AWARENESS
INTIMACY AND RELATIONSHIP
Human Relationship- a bond formed between two or more people,
manifested through communication and interaction.
EXAMPLE: Family, friends, romantic relationships, etc.

Intimacy- knowing others and allowing others to know you.

WELL-BEING AS A PSYCHOSOCIAL
GOAL
Well-being - the state of being comfortable, healthy, or happy.

“2 sides of well being”:

1. Objective well being
● Does the physical environment allow expression of diversity? Does the physical
infrastructure mitigate any possibility of abuse and violence related to gender?
● Are materials resources (money, properties) equitably available to men, women and other
people with different genders? Are these resources sufficient for them?
● Are there health systems which cater to gender related needs? Are there wellness
programs that support women, men and people of different genders?

2. Subjective well being

● How far is your sense of satisfaction about the various areas of your life as a sexual
being?
● Is your purpose as a person clear to you and if not yet, what are you doing to clarify
this purpose?
DIMENSIONS OF WELL-
BEING
● Physical - physical/biological health
● Emotional - positive feelings; mood stability
● Mental - clarity of mind; healthy thought process
● Material - available and adequate financial and other resources
● Social - healthy and positive interaction and relationship with
others
Reference:
“A GENDER AND SOCIETY: A Human Ecological Approach” by Atty. Eric Paul D.
Peralta, Nephataly Joel B. Botor and Dr. Teri Marie P. Laude.

https://opente
xt.wsu.edu
LOVE ,
INTIMACY &
RELATIONSHI
P
Lesson 9
LESSON OBJECTIVES :
1. Define terms such as “love,” “attraction,” “intimacy,” “relationship,” and
other related terms;
2. Discuss different theories of love;
3. identify needs, issues, and concerns experienced by people who are in
a romantic relationship, and
4. Reflect upon one’s attitudes towards love, intimacy, and relationship.
Introduction
● In February 15, 2015, an article featuring a study by McCann World Group,
among 30,000 respondents from 29 countries, came out of a national newspaper,
bannering the title “Filipinos most expressive about love among Asia Pacific
countries-study” (Hegina 2015).

● Robert Sternberg, a psychologist renowned for his theory of love asked, in his
1986 paper: "What does it mean "to love" someone?
LOVE AS A HUMAN EXPERIENCE
Love is a human experience differently defined and
conceptualized.
LOVE AS A CULTURE UNIVERSAL
Love is construed as a culture universal. A culture universal is a phenomenon experienced
similarly by people across time and cultures. This means that humans, whether those who
lived in the past or who are living now and regardless of their geographic location and socio-
cultural identities, have experienced love, in one way or another.

LOVE AS A SOCIAL PHENOMENON

Likewise, love is viewed as a social phenomenon. Social phenomena are events of
experiences which ensue within our interaction and relationship with other people.

Loving entails communication-the process of giving and receiving information between and
among people. It also entails the use of a language-symbols that are culturally agreed upon
as possessing certain meanings and that are used by people to express certain realities
and worldviews.
LOVE AS AN EMOTION
Love is also construed as an emotion. Emotions are physiological responses that we
evaluate psychologically as we experience particular life events.

Basic emotions: joy, sadness, fear, disgust, and anger among others.

LOVE AS A NEUROBIOLOGICAL EVENT

With recent advancements in science, love, now, can be studied as a neurobiological event.

Neurobiologically, the experience of love is associated with various parts of our brain. For
instance, the loving experience is commonly associated with the activation of the ventral
tegmental area (VTA) of our brain which is just right behind our left eyes. It is also associated
with the increased amount in endorphins-hormones believed to provide humans a good mood
Theorizing Love
Since love is a rather complex idea, which can be described, defined
and experienced in myriad of ways, several theories and frameworks
offer diverse perspectives on how it can be understood and explained.
Psychodynamic view on love
Psychodynamic theory is a collective term, which pertains to the
psychoanalytic tradition forwarded by Sigmund Freud(a Viennese
neurologist), as well as the succeeding theories that support, redefine, or
refute his propositions.
Color wheel of love
John Alan Lee (1973), a Canadian psychologist, suggested that there are different
types of love. The primary types are: eros (sexual and romantic), philia (friendly),
and storge (parental/filial love). The secondary types are: pragma (practical love),
agape (universal love), and philautia (self love).
 Triangular model of love
One of the most popular theories of love is the
triangular model by Sternberg (1986). A
psychologist. This theory looks at love from a
psychometric stance, which means that it is
generally concerned about trying to measure
love as a psychological variable and in
determining the various dimensions and
facets that love has as experienced by
people.

According to Sternberg (1986), love has three interlocking dimensions namely:

•Passion - refers to the physical/emotional aspect.
•Intimacy - pertains to the psychological/relational aspect.
•Commitment - pertains to the agency component, that is the choice we make with
regards to engaging and maintaining the loving relationship.
Romantic and companionate love
Hatfield and Rapson (1978, 1993) - suggests that there are two general types of love: romantic
love and companionate love. Romantic love is characterized by intense passion “a state of
intense longing for union with your partner” (Hatfield and Rapson 1987, 1993). Companionate
love, on the other hand, is characterized by intense intimacy emotional closeness-which is also
characteristic of liking.

Love Languages
Gary Chapman (a world-renown author) - suggested that people have various ways through
which we give and receive love. He referred to these unique ways as love languages. Chapman
(1995) posited that there are generally five love languages namely, words of affirmation, touch,
time, gifts, and acts of service.

People whose love language is words of affirmation tend to verbally express their thoughts
and feelings of love towards the people they love.
Love and Intimate Relationship
Aristotle referred humans as “social animals”
Social connection is necessary for our growth as
individuals

George Levinger postulated that there are 5 stages of intimate relationships go

through:
1. Acquaintances
2. Buildup
3. Consolidation or Continuation
4. Deterioration or decline
5. Ending or Termination

● We can also call this as ABCDE of intimate relationships.

1. Acquaintances
Intimate human relationship start in acquaintances. We meet up through circumstances and
first learn about basic information about one another. Crucial at this stage is attraction.

2. Buildup
Some acquaintances build up into deeper relationship. Frequency of interaction increases. This
is the stage when two persons tests their boundaries.

3. Consolidation or Continuation
This stage is when people commit to a long term relationship with one another (either
through a personal agreement).

4. Decline or Deterioration
Unfortunately, some intimate relationships are unable to sustain and maintain their
commitments or attraction. There is already a change in priorities between the individual
couple, and conjoint value of relationships is not anymore sufficient.
5. Ending
Finally, for those intimate partnership who are unable to address the causes and
circumstances leading to the deterioration of their relationship, the stages culminate into
ending or Termination of contracts.

Humans are social beings and at the end of this nature, is relating and connecting with others.
Central to understanding human relationships is the concept of love, an experience so abstract
yet so meaningful to many people.

We are all encouraged to reflect about our human relationships with the goal of forging
healthy, successful and nurturing connection with others.
Reference:
“A GENDER AND SOCIETY: A Human Ecological Approach” by Atty. Eric Paul D.
Peralta, Nephataly Joel B. Botor and Dr. Teri Marie P. Laude.
 Lesson 10:
Sex and
Senses
Learning objectives:
1. Discuss the human senses in the context
of sexual response; and
2. Show appreciation of how sensorium
contributes to our experiences of
human sexuality.
Definition of Terms:
Sensorium - the totality of our senses and perception; a conglomerate of the individual
sense organs.

Olfaction - sense of smell.

Tactile - something associated with touch.

Pheromone - a substance believed to be emitted by organisms and which is thought to
be influencing social behaviors.

Major Histocompatibility Complex - a set of protein molecules associated with

the immune system.
HUMAN AFFECT AND
THE SENSES
Human - hailed as rational beings who are making choices and are behaving through a set
of rational choices made from higher order thinking

Affect - emotions and feelings

The limbic system - the emotional part of our brain which is more primitive compared to
the ones responsible for higher order thinking (e.g., neocortex).

Affective Primacy Hypothesis (Zajonc 1980) - cognitive processing (i.e., higher

order thinking) plays a lesser role compared to our emotional responses in eliciting
behavior.
SENSES AND SEXUALITY
Visual Experience
Visual culture - an essential element of our society
Visual memory - deemed superior to other forms

Study of Rupp and Wallen (2007)

● men respond more to visual sexual stimuli and tend to be influenced by the sex of the
actors in a sexual scenario.
● women were found to be more influenced by context, although they, too, are responsive to
the sexual content of a visual stimuli.
Peterson and Janssen 2007 - these studies established that either gender (heterosexual
men and women) respond more intensely on materials filmed and chosen by people of similar
gender.
Lann and Everaerd 1995 - women tend to pay more attention to contextual and
nonsexual cues than men and thus are putting prime on subjective valuing of
circumstances.
Olfactory Experience
Humans and apes are generally believed to be microsmatic (lesser levels of olfaction) compared
to their non-ape counterparts.
Recent studies in the field of human sexuality show that while we humans have limited
olfaction, sense of smell may play an important part in our sexual response.

Study of Muscallera, Arantes, and Koncsol (2011) – explored on the preferred scent
among heterosexual and homosexual males and females.

Following possibilities identified as to how human olfaction

influence sexuality:
1. Signature odor – the unique way that each individual
smells which is associated with the Major
Histocomparability Complex, a set of proteins signaling
our immune system the
presence of foreign substance.
2. Pheromones – substances excreted by our glands which
signals mood and affects social behaviors.
Bethe (an entomologist) – suggested that there are hormones emitted outwards the body
called ectohormones. In a few decades, the term was replaced with the word pheromones,
and eventually, the concept was generalized to be true also to mammals.

McClintock effect (1971) or Menstrual synchrony – the observation that females in the
dormitory usually would have their menstruation at nearly the same time – was thought to be
due to pheromones.

Cutley 1999 – human pheromones is thought to act as attractants (of the opposite sex),
repellants (of the same sex), stabilizer of mother-infant bond, and modulators of menstrual
cycle.

Chemicals that thought to be human hormones:

1. Androstadienone (AND) – testosterone-like substance found in male sweat, saliva, and
urine.
2. Estrataenol (EST) – an estrogen-like found in female urine.
3. I-pyyroline – a substance found in human semen, pubic sweat, and smegma.
Tactile Experiences
Touch- observed to be an element of
intimacy. Skin- largest bodily organ
Elements of touch: When we touch, our body produces a
1. Tactile element
hormone called oxytocin – it is referred
2. Thermal element
to as love hormone because it is
3. Vibrational element
believed to influence tribal behaviors and
Primary erogenous zones: material bonding.
● Mouth
● Anus
● Genitals
● Nipples
Secondary erogenous zones:
● Back
● Cheek
● Neck
● Buttocks
Auditory Experience
Social interactions are not only visual, but also auditory processes.
Our human language often have verbal counterpart to the written
language.

Sounds - give additional context to sexual situations.

Summary
The senses are the windows to our consciousness. We are aware, we
learn, we experience because we can receive information from the
environment through our sense organs.
Reference:
“A GENDER AND SOCIETY: A Human Ecological Approach” by Atty. Eric Paul D.
Peralta, Nephataly Joel B. Botor and Dr. Teri Marie P. Laude.
Thank you!
Prepared by Group 2