Transcript Welcome to psy 383 Psychology of Human Sexuality

Gender Identity and Roles
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Sex chromosomes—XX, XY
Y is smaller—carries less information
Occasionally some other combination occurs
 XXY—Klinefelter’s—a male will have an extra
female chromosome
○ Abnormal testes, no sperm, low testosterone, breast
enlargement, mild retardation
○ 1/500 males
 XYY—Supermale—tall, large ears, lower IQ
○ Originally thought to be more violent due to testosterone
○ Actually just more likely to get caught
 XO—Turner Syndrome—1/2000 to 1/5000 girls
○ Short in stature
○ Infertile due to ovaries not developing correctly
Prenatal sexual differentiation
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Single cell divides and divides and divides
 By 28 days after conception, embryo is 1 cm long
 But male/female identical except for chromosome
 By 7th week, begin to see structures that will someday be
male or female
○ Embryo has gonads, two sets of ducts (Mullerian and Wolffian)
and external genitals (genital tubercle, folds, swelling)
 Gonads—in 7th week after conception, begin
differentiating
○ Male 1st, female somewhat later with ovaries at 10 or 11 weeks
○ On Y chromosome, find testis determining factor (TDF)
○ Wolffian ducts—in men, TDF encodes anti-Mullerian hormone
 Woffian ducts turn into epididymus, vas deferens, and ejaculatory duct
 Tubercle—glans penis
 Folds—shaft of penis
 Swelling—scrotum
○ Mullerian ducts—in males degenerate
 In women, turn into fallopian tubes, uterus, upper part of vagina
 Tubercle—clitoris
 Folds—inner lips
 Swelling—outer lips
○ By 4 mos, gender of child is apparent by appearance of genitals
Errors in prenatal gender
differentiation
 Money (1987) noted 8 variables of gender
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Chromosomal
Gonadal (testes vs. ovaries)
Prenatal hormonal gender
Prenatal and neonatal brain hormonalization
Internal accessory organs
External genital appearance
Pubertal hormonal gender
Assigned gender/gender identity
 In most cases, all 8 agree. However, any
one of many accidents can cause this to go
astray
Pseudohermaphrodites
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An individual who has a mix of male and female reproductive
structures so that gender at birth isn’t clear
 Androgenital syndrome—internal sexual structures, but masculinized
external genitals—clitoris resembles a small penis
○ Almost always have a female gender role
 Androgen-insensitivity syndrome—XY males with less than normal
prenatal sensitivity to androgens.
○ Feminized external genitals but no uterus or fallopian tubes
○ Also no male duct system—epididymus, vas, seminal vesicles, ejaculatory
duct, etc
 Dominican Republic Syndrome—genetic endocrine problem.
○ Dihydrotestosterone deficiency
○ Appear at birth to be females—have vaginal pouch and clitoris-sized penis
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<.9 cm clitoris, >2.5 cm penis
○ At puberty, penis develops and psychological orientation changes. Most
are heterosexual males
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Gender role?
○ More recent research suggests that gender-reassigned kids (re-assigned
before 18 months) aren’t happy about it
○ Reiner (2000)—brain has already by masculinized (Legato, 2000)
Transgenderism
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Gender identity disorder—person is distressed with
gender and believes he or she is trapped in the body of
the wrong gender
Gender dysphoria
Male to female—3x as common as female to male.
Don’t consider selves to be homosexual
Found throughout history
Typically show cross-gender preferences in play and
dress early in childhood
There is no clear causes or understanding of this
disorder
 Psychotherapy typically fails
 May be influenced by prenatal hormonal imbalances
 Also possible that some are treated inappropriately or
ambiguously by parents
Sex reassignment surgery
Counseling to assure adjustment (not
someone who is lonely or schizophrenic)
 Hormone tx—estrogen or androgen
 Real life test—live 1-2 years as new gender
 Surgery
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○ Male—remove genitalia without severing nerves, then
artificial vagina is created with skin of penis. Use
device to dilate it for next 6 mos so it doesn’t close
○ Female—penis and scrotum constructed from tissues in
genital area. Need implants to stiffen penis
Hormones for life
 Outcome—Lundstrom et al (1984)
international literature—90% happy with
surgery, + results
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 Better looking resultsmore + outcome
Gender roles and stereotypes
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Gender roles: set of norms or culturally defined
expectations that define how people of one gender
ought to behave
Stereotypes: A fixed, oversimplified, conventional idea
about a group of people
Generally, people believe that men and women differ
psychologically.
1993 Gallup poll—56 % men, 73% women believe that
men and women are basically different.
Stereotypes haven’t changed much over last 25 years
Fairly constant across cultures
 Williams and Best (1994)—survey of 30 countries. Same
adjectives kept coming up to describe men and women
Cognitive abilities
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Verbal
 Girls are superior, even in infancy
 But difference is small—1% due to gender
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Visuo-spatial
 Boys superior after age 10
 Consistent differences found only for ability to mentally rotate
objects
 Perhaps women are people-oriented and men are object-oriented
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Math
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After age 12, boys excel, but evidence isn’t very consistent
Women do better in math class and some standardized tests
Among the gifted, men outperform women by a lot
Computational vs. abstract skills
Keys
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Differences are small—1% due to gender
Educational factors are much stronger
Role of cultural expectations
Boys are more likely to have school problems, reading disabilities,
speech delays
Personality
Showed people a video of a baby. ½ told it was a girl. ½ told a boy.
 Similar study with toddlers showed similar effects.
 Empathy
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Women self-report more empathy and are described by others that way
Men- more likely to help in masculine appropriate situations
Women in more feminine appropriate situations.
Women are better at reading emotions—may account for differences in
empathy
 When observing others, no physio differences in response to emotions
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Fear
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Aggression
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Males in all cultures are more physically aggressive
Slight difference in verbal aggression
No difference in covert aggression
Communication
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In young kids, no observable differences
In older kids, girls report more fears
Women are more self-disclosing
Men talk more and interrupt more
Women are better at identifying non-verbals
Seeking health care
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Men are less likely to seek routine and non-routine care
Preferences for men and women
Women are nearly 5x more likely to
show an automatic preference for their
own gender than men are to show
favoritism for their own gender
(Rudman& Goodwin, 2004)
 Both males and females assoc positive
words with women more than men
 Men and women both prefer their
mothers over fathers
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Gender differences in sexuality
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Largest difference in sexuality—masturbation
Attitudes about casual sex
 Men more approving, women disapproving
 “For you, is an emotional involvement a prerequisite for sex?”
○ Always—45 % women, 8 % men
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Arousal to erotica
 Little differences between genders
 Julie Heiman—presented students with one of 4 tapes: erotic,
romantic (no sex), erotic/romantic, and control
○ Explicit hetero sex most arousing for men and women
○ Both males and females found female-initiated, female-centered to be
most arousing
○ Women were sometimes not aware of physio arousal, accuracy increased
when instructed to focus on own bodies
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Men more consistently have orgasms, during intercourse
and masturbation
Male gender role more likely to have risky sex
Number of sexual partners
Why are these differences here?
 Bio factors
○ Anatomy—women’s genitals are not in plain view
○ Hormones—testosterone plays a big role in sexual beh
and women have less
 Cultural factors
 Cognition—fear of pregnancy
 Erotic dependency—women rely on men to
learn about sex
 Social desirability
○ Alexander & Fisher (2003)—bogus pipeline
 Differences smaller in anonymous and even smaller in bogus
pipeline
 Women’s reports varied more than men’s as a result of testing
condition
From where does gender typing
come?
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Biological perspective
 Evolution
 Prenatal brain organization/hormone exposure
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Socialization
 The ways in which society conveys to the
individual its norms or expectations for behavior
 Parents
 Schools
○ Less sexist than you might think, but some beh persists
○ Early years, spend more time on things girls are already
good at
 Media
○ Back in 1971, 89% of commercials were narrated by
men. This has not appreciably changed.
 Peers
Cognitive-developmental theory
 Kohlberg—children are active participants
○ Form schemas about gender
○ To be gender-typed, kids need to learn 3 things
 Gender identity—usually acquired by age 3
 Gender stability—that people stay one gender for a lifetime—dev
by age 4 or 5
 Gender constancy—age 7 or 8—recognition that gender doesn’t
change even if people change clothes or behavior
○ Once kids learn these things, they are motivated to learn
and behave in gender appropriate ways
 Gender Schema Theory
○ Goes one step further to address why gender is important
○ Dev by Sandra Bem
○ Gender schema—a way to organize perceptions of the
world
○ Gender gains prominence as an organizer for kids
because of society’s emphasis on it
○ Research supports that kids process this way
 Boys and girls make errors in remembering gender-inconsistent
beh
Androgyny
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Masculinity and femininity as independent
constructs
Can possess high amounts of each and use
traits of each as necessary
1/3 of college students are androgynous
Feminine women—take a back seat in groups,
laugh in conforming way
Masculine and androgynous—better mental
well being, adolescents--more popular and
higher self-esteem
Androgynous—more comfortable with
sexuality
Gender cross-culturally
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Masculine
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Feminine
 Japan
 Sweden
 Austria
 Norway
 Venezuela
 Netherlands
 Italy
 Denmark
 Switzerland
 Costa Rica
 Mexico
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US #15 masculine
Key differences
 Masculine
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Big and fast—beautiful
Economic growth
Women’s lib—women move to be like men
Dominant values—success, progress
Boys and girls study different subjects
Equity
 Femininity
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Slow and small-beautiful
Environment
Women and men become like each other
Dominant values—caring for others, perseverance
Study same subjects
Equality
Pheromones
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Chemical substances secreted externally that convey
information/cause responses in other members of the same
species
Detected by vomeronasal organ in nonhuman mammals and
in humans
 Specialized olfactory structure
 Currently no studies specifically linking VNO activity and
changes in beh in humans
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What we do know
 A woman’s sexual exposure to a man at least once a week is
assoc with increased freq of regular menstrual cycles; increase
of fertile-type basal temp and double the estrogen level in the
luteal phase (Cutler et al, 1998)
 Cutler, Friedman, & McCoy (1998) exposed men to male
pheromones in double-blind study. Pheromone users increase
in
○ Sexual intercourse
○ Petting/kissing
○ Informal dates
 Women with pheromones also increase sexual behavior
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Women who live together menstrual synchrony
Aphrodisiacs
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Spanish Fly—extracted from a Spanish beetle—now nearly
extinct
 Now synthesized as a wart remover
 No aphrodisiac properties
 Can damage the urinary tract and cause severe tissue damage
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Placebo effect
 Foods thought to have aphrodisiac properties
○ Oysters, clams, bulls’ testicles, celery stalks, ground up reindeer antlers
and rhino horns, potatoes
○ None have any effect
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Yohimbine
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From African yohimbe tree
Stimulates blood flow to genitals
Used before Viagra
Toxic
Viagra—causes body to react, but still need sexual arousal
Exercise—increases sexual drive in both genders
Anaphrodisiacs
Tranquilizers, barbiturates—Decrease sexual
desire and impair sexual functioning, but can
increase sexual arousal by lowering
inhibition
 SSRIs—decrease sexual desire
 Nicotine—constriction of blood vessels,
decreases testosterone
 Alcohol—expectancy effects, but is a
depressant
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 At low levels, people behave as they think they
should—lower inhibitions, increased risky
behavior
Masters and Johnson
1966 Human Sexual Response
 382 women, 312 men
 10,000 cycles of arousal
 4 stages
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Basic physio processes
 Vasocongestion—large amt of blood flows into a
region as a result of the dilation of blood
vessels, particularly in the genitals, swelling or
erection results
 Myotonia—muscle contraction
Excitement
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Beginning of erotic arousal
Males—scrotum thickens, pulled closer to body, spermatic
cords shorten
 Erection occurs very rapidly (corpora cavernosa and corpus spongiosum
fill with blood)
 Age, alcohol, fatigue make it occur more slowly
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Females-lubrication of the vagina (fluids seep through semipermeable vaginal membrane)
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Begins 10-30 sec after onset of arousing stimuli
Tip of clitoris swells
Nipples become erect due to contractions of surrounding muscles
Breasts may swell
Labia minora swell and open up
Vagina expands, cervix and uterus pull up to make a larger cervical
opening
Both men and women—may have sex flush—looks like
measles on upper abdomen and chest, increase in bp and
pulse
Plateau
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Vasocongestion at peak
Males
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Penis completely erect, may fluctuate some
Glans swells
Testes may be 50% larger than unaroused
Preejaculate—few drops from Cowper’s gland
Women
○ Orgasmic platform—swelling or thickening of tissues
surrounding outer 1/3 of vagina so that vaginal entrance
is actually smaller—increases gripping
○ Clitoris retracts into body
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Men and women—further increase in
breathing, bp and pulse
Orgasm
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Male
 Rhythmic contractions at .8 sec intervals
 2 stages
 Vas, seminal vesicles and prostate contract to force ejaculate into a bulb at
the base of urethra
 Ejaculatory inevitability—ejaculation can’t be stopped
 Urethral bulb and penis contract rhythmically forcing semen through urethra
and out the opening
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Female
 Basically similar—series of rhythmic contractions of the
orgasmic platform
 About .8 sec interval
 3-4 in mild orgasm, 12 in intense
 Uterus contracts top down in waves
 Male and female—sharp increase in pulse, bp, breathing,
muscles contract throughout body—in face, arms, legs, hands
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Sensation is similar for males and females as judged by
written responses
Resolution
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Body returns to unaroused state
Female
 First—reduction in swelling of breasts, makes nipples seem
more erect as they are now standing out more
 Sex flush goes away
 5-10 sec post orgasm, clitoris goes back to normal position.
Takes longer to go back to normal size
 Orgasmic platform relaxes, shrinks, ballooning of vagina
diminishes, uterus shrinks
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Males
 Detumescence—loss of erection—2 stages
 1st—rapid—penis still enlarged following emptying of corpora
cavernosa
 2nd—glans and corpus spongiosum empty more slowly
 Refractory period
○ Incapable of having an erection—length varies, longer with age
○ No such period in womenpossibility of multiple orgasms—some
men also have this possibility. In some it is learned, others innate
Criticisms of Masters and
Johnson
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Ignores cognitive and subjective aspects
 Doesn’t explain how
 Men can have erections without arousal
 People have high desire but no erection or lubrication
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Only studied highly sexual people—what
about those with low desire?
Kaplan’s three stages of sexual
response
 Desire—psychological
 Excitement—physiological,
primarily
vasocongestion
 Orgasm—physiological, primarily
muscle contractions
 Makes it convenient to describe
sexual dysfunctions
 Three stages are relatively
independent
Love and attraction
Physical attractiveness
 Major determinant of interpersonal and
sexual attraction (Hensley, 1992)
 Hatfield and Sprecher (1986)—the key
factor in considering partners for dates,
sex, marriage
 Women who are attractive get asked on
more dates
 What is attractive?
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Barbie (Norton et al, 1996)
Probability for body shape less than
1/100,000
 Mattel has said that they visualize Barbie as
an aspirational role model
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Model
Bust 87.4
Waist 65.7
Hips 93.1
Ankle 21.7
Avg
Barbie
Anorexics
90.3
69.8
97.9
22.0
82.3
40.7
72.7
15.6
79.9
66.2
93.1
20.0
Ken
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About 1/50
Chest
Waist
Hips
Thigh
Footballers
Real People
Ken
92.3
75.1
91.2
54.4
91.2
80.9
93.7
53.0
75.0
56.5
72.0
41.3
Attractiveness
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Taller men are considered more attractive, but not taller
women.
 Relative height is also important
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Slender ideal—stronger for whites
Women’s belief that men prefer large breasts is exaggerated.
 Women stated ideal breast is larger than average.
 Men preferred women with still larger breasts, but not as big as
women believe they preferred.
 Men also thought their peers would pick bustier women.
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Men prefer women to be heavier than women think they
would.
Women prefer men to be leaner than men think.
Men think their present shape is close to ideal.
 Women see themselves as too heavy
Attractiveness is affected by
other things
Both genders rate attractiveness higher when people
are smiling
 Gender role expectations
 Names affect perceptions of physical appeal
 Mere exposure affect
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 Tendency to like a person more if we have been exposed
to him/her repeatedly.
 >50% meet at school, work, church, party with friends
 NHSLS---meet spouse through mutual friends (35 %),
self-introduction (32 %)
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Matching sounding names (Jones et al 2005)—
Selectively hard to get
Menpower, money—looks are less important
Good mood heightens attraction
Long vs. short-term relationships
Want in a meaningful relationship
Women Men
Honesty
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1
Fidelity
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3
Personality 3
2
Warmth
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5
Kindness
5
6
Tenderness 6
8
Sensitivity
7
4
Gentleness 8
10
Character
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7
Patience
10
9
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Sexual relationship wish list
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Women
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Men
 Attractiveness
 Build/figure
 Sexuality
 Sexuality
 Warmth
 Attractiveness
 Personality
 Facial
 Tenderness
 Buttocks
 Gentleness
 Weight
 Sensitivity
 Legs
 Kindness
 Breath
 Build/figure
 Skin
 Character
 Breasts
Other studies of long term
relationships
Men—youth, physical attractiveness,
cooking, frugality
 Women—vocational status, earning
potential, dependability, expressiveness,
kindness, consideration, fondness for
children
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Personal Ad Research
(Wiederman)
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More men than women request attractive mate
More men than women request attractive body shape
More women than men request financial security
More women than men request earning capacity, education,
IQ, ambition
Women were more likely than men to describe own physical
attractiveness
Men were more likely than women to describe themselves as
financially stable
Men were somewhat more likely to describe own earning
potential
Men more likely to seek erotic relationships
Women generally sought someone their own age or older
Men generally sought someone their own age or younger
Becker et al (2000)
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Replicated
 Men more likely to seek physical attractiveness and
attractive body shape and to offer status/financial
resources and height and to request younger partners
 Women were more likely than men to stipulate height,
status/financial resources and employment.
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Then looked at which ads were accessed to
respond
 Men seeking women--# of responses was related to
whether advertisers offered height and weight, to
advertisers’ ages and negatively assoc with whether
advertisers stipulated attractive body shape
 Women seeking men—number of accesses was related to
whether advertisers offered attractive body shape and to
whether advertisers stipulated attractive body shape and
status/financial resources.
From where do our standards
come?
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Evolutionary forces
 Youth and health more important for
womenreproductive potential
 Man’s reproductive value—financial/support/resources
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But…
 We marry/seek people similar to ourselves in
attractiveness—not the most attractive person. Same with
SES
 Matching hypothesis
○ Similar in attractiveness, wealth, weight, attitudes, education,
ethnicity (94% of white men are partnered with white women),
religion, age (within 5 years)
○ We assume people we find attractive share similar attitudes
 Reciprocity—we like people who like us
Love
Janus survey: 96% of men, 98% of
women say love is important.
 Jankowiak and Fisher, 1992—HRAF
study—147/166 cultures—romantic love
was present. In the remaining cultures,
probably absent due to study methods,
according to the authors.
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Are you in love?
Greek heritage
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We use the same word to describe all
types of love, but Greeks separated it out.
Storge—loving attachment or deep
friendship or nonsexual affection
(friends/parents)
Agape—selfless love—generosity and
charity, epitomized by anonymous
donations of money or giving
Philia—friendship love, liking and respect,
not desire
Eros—closest to modern day passion
Romance
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Majority believe romantic love is a prerequisite
to marriage
 Young people say it is the single most important
reason
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Who is more romantic?
 Men
○ Fall in love earlier in a relationship
○ Cling longer to a dying affair
○ 3x as many men as women commit suicide after
disastrous love affair
○ Among singles, 82 % of men and 77 % of women describe
themselves as romantic
○ Among marrieds, 72 % of men, 79 % of women describe
themselves as romantic
○ But---men are also more likely to feel lucid
 That is, view relationship as playful enjoyment of a game
 View sex as a pleasant pastime
What qualities do you want in a
mate?
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If someone had all of them, but you didn’t love
them, would you marry anyway?
○ 1960s—70% women said yes, 40 % men
○ By mid-1980s, <20 % said yes
Both men and women value “dyadic attachment”
which is essentially nest building or coupling—
an emphasis on being together and sharing
 Women value egalitarianism and autonomy in
relationships more than men do
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 Speculation is that men assume they’ll have
autonomy and women don’t
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Women are more pragmatic about love
 Have a shopping list of criteria
Theories of love
 Equity
Theory—Hatfield
 Two-component Theory of Love—
Berscheid and Hatfield
 Physiological arousal
 Attribution
 Bridge studies—more sexual imagery in
questionnaires filled out by men on high
bridge.
○ Also more likely to call with follow-up
questions
Styles of Love (Hendrick and
Hendrick, 1986)
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Questionnaire id’d 6 kinds of love among college students
Romantic love
Game-playing love
Friendship
Logical love
Possessive, excited love
Selfless love
Men—more likely to have romantic or game-playing love
Women—friendly, logical, or possessive styles
Couples with romantic and selfless styles—more likely to stay
together
 One study of 101 college student couples over 4 years (Sprecher et al)
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59 ended relationship by end of study
People did not end because of disappearance of love (still felt love for the other)
Rather, dissatisfaction or unhappiness that developed over time
For those who stayed together, commitment, love and satisfaction grew over time
Sternberg’s Triangular Theory of
Love
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3 fundamental components
Intimacy—emotional component—sense of sharing one’s self
Passion—motivational component—physical attraction and drive
for sexual expression
Commitment—both short and long term
Represented in triangle
 When all three are balance in importance—equilateral
 Want your triangle to match your partner’s triangle
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Types of love
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Nonlove
Liking-i
Infatuation-p
Empty love-c
Romantic love-i and p
Companionate love-i and c
Fatuous love-p and c (foolish)
Consummate love—all 3
Attachment Theory of Love
 Quality
of early attachment affects
how we will be able to form
relationships in the future
 Styles
 Secure—53% of adults
 Avoidant—26%
 Anxious-ambivalent—20%
Building relationships

Begin with surface contact—look for
overlapping interests and attitudes
 Small talk—helps us determine if
relationship is worth pursuing
 This is not insincere—tests ground
 Opening lines—again—not insincere
 Self-disclosure
○ Early disclosers are rated as less mature, less
genuine than late disclosers
○ People are more likely to want to pursue future
relationship with late disclosers
○ Gender differences in self-disclosure
Social-Exchange Theory
Development of a relationship reflects
the rewards and costs of maintaining the
relationship vs. ending it
 Communication problems—another
common cause
 Availability of alternatives also affects
likelihood of continuing relationship

Jealousy
 One
of the most commonly mentioned
reasons why relationships fail
 Can lead to loss of feelings of
affection, insecurity, anxiety, low selfesteem
 Gender difference
 Men—sexual infidelity
 Women—emotional infidelity
Relationship attitudes

Mismatched couples on gender-role
attitudes are less satisfied with
relationship
 More likely to break up

Among college students, men’s selfesteem—but not sat with relationship—
is related to women’s sat with rel.
 This is not true in reverse

Married men have greater life
satisfaction than unmarried men
Communication

Men talk more than women—more often, longer,
interrupt more, control topic more
 Hold the floor if they don’t know what to say—um, ah
 Men are more successful at interrupting women than
other women
 Women interrupt largely to express agreement—
encourages men to talk more

Women’s speech is more tentative
 More likely to use correct grammar and to articulate
correctly


Men have 3 pitches to speech, women have 4
In relationships—women create intimacy through
speech and self-disclosure
 Men create intimacy through sex
Loneliness

Lonely people







Few social activities
Shallow relationships
Loneliness peaks in adolescence
Decreased marital satisfaction
More depression
Lower self-esteem
Causes









Lack of social skills
Lack of interest in other people
Lack of empathy
Fear of rejection
Failure to disclose personal info to potential friends
Cynicism about human nature
Demanding too much too soon
General pessimism
External LOC
Intimacy
Emotional closeness and connectedness that
are marked by the sharing of inmost thoughts
and feelings
 People trust their partners when they make
sincere investments in the relationship
 Mutual cyclical growth

 Feeling you need your partner and the relationship
increases commitment to and dependence on the
relationship
 This causes pro-relationship acts
 When the partner sees these acts, they increase
trust
 This increase in trust causes partner to feel they
need you and the relationship and increases
commitment to and dependence on relationship
Keys to intimacy
 Honesty (but not too!)
 Commitment
○ Resolve to continue relationship
○ Relationships do best when partners have
similar level of commitment
 Maintaining individuality
 Communication
○ Potential problems
 Misunderstanding words or phrases
 Words don’t match nonverbal
 Not able/willing to say what they truly feel
Communication skills




Agree on the language to
use
Be aware that there may
be an irrational belief
about the relationship
When getting started, talk
about talking—request
permission to talk
Listening skills






Active listening
Paraphrasing
Ask questions to clarify and draw
other person out
Reinforce partner’s communication
Show that you value partner, even
when you disagree
Use self-disclosure to learn about
partner

Providing information






Delivering criticism









Accentuate the positive
Use verbal cues
Use non-verbals
Be specific in your requests
Use “I “
Evaluate your motives
Right time and place
Be specific
Avoid always and never
Use “I”
Stay in the present
Be constructive
Be positive
Receiving criticism




Clarify what you heard, what you want
to know
Acknowledge criticism, even if you
disagree
If you disagree, use “I” statements and
be specific
Negotiate
Interpersonal sexual behaviors

Erotophobia vs erotophilia
 Negative vs positive views and emotional responses to sex
 Related to difficulty talking about sex, less likely to acquire or
use contraception
 Men tend to be more erotophiliac

Virginity
 Sprecher & Regan (1996)
○ Reasons given by undergrads
 Relationship concerns (not in love or in relationship long enough)
 Fear (STD or pregnancy)
 Personal values/beliefs
 Self-concept issues—feeling shy/undesirable
 Thomsen & Chang (2000)
○ 292 undergrads
○ Most frequent comments about 1st intercourse
 Wished they had waited longer
 Wished they had been in a committed relationship
 Involuntary abstinence
How many people are
homosexual or bisexual

Kinsey continuum
 Scale from 0 to 6 where 0 is exclusively hetero






Kinsey reported that 37 % had experienced male-male
sex and 13% men, 7% women were predominantly
homosexual
10% is too high. How to define?
Self-identified—3% men, 2% women
Sexual behavior in past 5 years—5-11% of men, 2-4%
of women
Sexually attracted, but no sexual interaction—8-9%
men, 8-12% women
May be easier to look at who is exclusively
heterosexual
 92% men, 95% women

Bisexual—1-4%, about 1% have bisexual identity
Cross-cultural perspective
 Ford
and Beach (1951)—76
preliterate societies
 Found homosexual behavior in all
 Viewed as normal in 49
 Never
predominant
 Never greater than 5%
 Always more common in males
Attitudes








52% say homosexuality should be legal, 51% say it is
an acceptable lifestyle
Support for legal rights and non-discrimination is very
high (85%), but support for homosexuality as lifestyle
choice or sanctioned behavior is much lower overall
Age is a major differentiator—younger much more
liberal
Republicans and conservatives are less accepting than
Democrats and liberals
Majority are opposed to gay marriage, about half are
opposed to civil unions
4/10 think that homosexuals should not be allowed to
work as clergy or elementary school teachers
70% or so think that homosexuals should be allowed in
the armed services
46% support adoption rights, 44% do not
Homonegativity
Those with strong gender role identity are more likely
to be homophobic
 Also…

 Fundamentalist religion
 Politically conservative
 Men>women

Sources of homonegativity






Religion varies
Marital and procreative bias
Fear of HIV and AIDS
Rigid gender roles
Psychiatric labeling
Latent homosexual impulses—Adams et al 1996
○ Homophobic men, but not non-homophobic hetero men, were
aroused by male-male videos. Denied feeling aroused
Hate crimes and laws against
homosexuals

As of October 2007, consensual sexual acts between
adults of the same sex were punishable by death in
seven countries:






Iran--Since 1979, executed more than 4,000 people
Mauritania
Nigeria
Saudi Arabia
Sudan
United Arab Emirates
 Yemen

In 1999, the FBI reported that there were 1,317
incidents of violence based on sexual orientation. Of
those, anti-male homosexuality violence characterized
sixty-nine percent of the incidents (Federal Bureau of
Investigation, 2000).
Causes—Biological theory

MZ concordance for sexuality
 52% men
 48% women (Pillard)
 66 % (Whitam et al 1993)

DZ concordance
 22% men, 16% women

Adoptive
 11% men, 6 % women


Also, a chromosomal marker has been noted on the X
chromosome
Prenatal hormonal influences
 Women exposed to DES (estrogen)—more likely to be bi or lesbian
 Stress on mothers during pregnancy increases likelihood of
homosexuality
 Theory—critical period during 2nd month and middle of 5th month

Brain
 Simon LeVay (1991)—hypothalamic section of gay men were similar to
women
○ Flaws—
○ Four attempts at replication—results remain unclear
Psychoanalytic theory

Freud
 Infants are polymorphously perverse—that is, sexuality is
indiscriminate and undifferentiated
 As child grows, sexuality becomes directed at more appropriate
objects (opposite gender), while same gender becomes repressed
 Also comes from negative Oedipus complex—child loves parent of
same gender and comes to identify with parent of opposite gender.
Heterosexual kids repress this, but homosexual ones become fixated
on it.
 Latent homosexuality—repressed homosexual part of personality.

Irving Bieber—compared 100 homosexual and 100 heterosexuals
 All in analysis
 Found dominant mother and weak, passive father
○ Homoseductive mother—man fears heterosexuality because of possessive,
jealous, overly intimate relationship with mother
○ Hated fathers, but wanted fatherly love
○ Research on this—Pillard et al
Learning theories
 Humans
are born undifferentiated
sexually and this becomes channeled
(ie., punished heterosexuality (rape)
or rewarded homosexuality
 However—few rewards in our society for
being homosexual
 Children of gay parents are no more
likely to be homosexual
Two theories of adjustment
Sophie 1985/1986
 First awareness that
one is different
 Test and exploration—
often in teen years
 Identity acceptance—
typically early for boys
 Identity integration—
pride and commitment
to orientation








Cass, 1979
Identity confusion
Identity comparison
Identity tolerance
Identity acceptance
Identity pride
Identity synthesis
Coming out

Deane, 2005
 86% of 800 teens had friend who was openly
gay or lesbian

Flowers and Busten, 2001
 Interviews with 21 gay menfeelings of being
different, alienated, living a lie

Robinson, Walters, Skein, 1989
 Telling parents
○ 402 parents of gay/lesbian
○ 26% suspected before they were told

Telling a spouse?
 20-40% of gay men are married
Gender nonconformity

On average, gay males are more feminine,
lesbian women are more masculine
 Homosexuals also tend to report more behavior like
other gender in childhood

Daewood et al 2000
 Males—homosexual as adults remembering being
children
○ Report feeling different as kids, avoiding competitive
sports, fearing physical injury, avoiding physical fights

Isay, 1990
 Gay males report feeling more sensitivity during
childhood and crying more easily

Bailey & Zucker, 1995
 Lesbians are more likely to report being tomboys,
rough and tumble games, no dresses
Psychological adjustment

Declassified as a psychological disorder in 1973
 Other countries at a different pace (China in 2000,
for example)
More likely to be depressed, anxious, commit
suicide
 More disturbed family relationships
 Gay males—more likely to have eating disorders
 Why?

 Social oppression
○ See higher rates of problems following victimization
 Lifestyle differences (gays in committed relationships
are about as well adjusted as heterosexual married
couples)
Can therapy change sexual
orientation?
Few are interested in changing
 Bell and Wienberg, 1978

White men
Magic pill at birth?28
Magic pill now? 14

AA me White women AA women
23
13
16
5
11
6
Masters and Johnson
 Failure rates of 20% for men, 23% for women
○ At 5 year follow up, 70% were still practicing
heterosexual beh
○ Most were bisexual?
○ More than half were married
○ All were motivated to switch