Transcript Sex, Love, and Gender

Adapted from:
David Myers
Psychology 8th Edition


XX=girl, XY=boy
Everyone receives X chromosome from
mother
› A sex gene present in both males and
females

Men receive Y chromosome from father
› A single sex gene which causes testes to
develop

Hormones
› Testosterone – principal male hormone, which is
produced heavily due to the Y chromosomes
 Females also have testosterone, but less of it.
› Estrogen - hormone secreted in greater amounts
by females than by males
 Seven
weeks after
conception, you
were anatomically
indistinguishable from
someone of the other
sex.
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Girls a few weeks more mature
neurologically at birth.
Boys weigh a half pound more
Girls 1st word at 11 -12 months, boys 1 month
later
18 months 87 words girls, 41.8 boys
African Americans walk 9-10 months
Caucasians walk 12 months
Potty training girls 36 months, boys 38
months
Puberty can start – girls 9-10, boys 11-12
 Boys
play in large groups
with an activity focus competitive
 Girls have smaller groups,
often only one friend –
imitative of social relationships
 As teens, women spend
more time with friends and
less time alone. When on
the computer, spend less
time playing games and
more time e-mailing friends

They tend and befriend, turning to others
for support
› Use conversation to explore relationships
while men use it to communicate solutions.
› Express emotions freely
Are more concerned with
making connections.
 Make 63% of telephone calls
and stay on the phone longer.
 When wanting understanding and
someone with whom to share worries
and hurts, both sexes usually turn to
women

 Be
open to spirituality
 Be open and responsive
to feedback
 Dream equally of men and women
 Smell faint odors
 Be offered help in some situations
 Are
more concerned with viewing self
as individuals
 Are more skeptical
 Admit to more aggression than
women (ratio for murderers 9:1)
 Male answer syndrome - a
phenomenon in which males are
more likely to hazard answers rather
than admit they don’t know.

Leadership tends to go to males – occupy 84%
of seats in world’s government
› Men tend to be more directive, even autocratic
› Women tend to be more democratic,
more welcoming of subordinate’s
participation in decision making
› Men more likely to utter opinions
› Women more likely to express support
Men act powerful: talk assertively, interrupt,
initiate touching, smile less, and stare
 Gender differences in power lessen with
maturity

› Middle age women become more assertive
› Men become more empathic
 Women
more vulnerable to…
› Depression and anxiety
› Eating disorders (ten times greater risk than
men)
 Men
more likely to…
› Commit suicide or suffer alcoholism
› Have autism, color-blindness, hyperactivity
(as children)
› Have antisocial personality disorder (as
adults)
 As
friends, women are more intimate
than men; they talk more often and
more openly
 Men enjoy doing activities side by side,
while women would rather talk face-toface.

The current concept of attractiveness in
Kenya, Morocco, and Scandinavia

Alfred Kipling conducted the first
recorded sexual “survey,” which was
very shocking to the conservative 1940s
audience
› Most of men and nearly half the women
reported having premarital sex
› Most women and virtually all men
reported having masturbated

Recorded the physiological responses
of volunteers who masturbated or had
intercourse
› 382 female and 312 male volunteers
› A typical sample, consisting only of people
able and willing to display arousal and
orgasm while being observed in a
laboratory

Monitored or filmed more than 10,000
sexual “cycles
› Sexual Response Cycle - the four stages of
sexual responding - excitement, plateau,
orgasm, and resolution
› During resolution phase, male enters a
refractory period - a resting period during
which a man cannot achieve another
orgasm

Sexual disorders - a problem that
consistently impairs sexual arousal or
functioning, such as premature
ejaculation, erectile dysfunction, and
orgasmic disorder
› Most women who experience problems
relate it to their emotional relationship with
their partner, not to the physical aspects

Testosterone-replacement patch
restored sexual activity, arousal, and
pleasure for over 500 naturally
menopausal women

Fluctuations in male hormones are partly
a response to sexual stimulation.
› Men’s testosterone levels rose with social
arousal (talking to another man), but they
rose much higher when talking with a female

If hormonal surge is not allowed, the
normal development of sex
characteristics and sexual desire does
not occur
› Example: during the 1600s and 1700s, pre-
pubertal boys were castrated to preserve
their soprano voices for Italian opera

Sexually explicit materials are sold mostly to
men
› Surprisingly, most women (at least the less
inhibited women to volunteer to participate in
the studies) report or exhibit nearly as much
arousal to the same stimuli

With repeated exposure, the emotional
response to any erotic stimulus often lessens
› At the time mildly erotic stimulus:
 When women’s hemlines first reached the
knee, an exposed leg
 A modest two-piece swimsuit,
 Movie scenes of a mere kiss
 Images
of sexually attractive women
and men may lead people to
devalue their own partner and
relationships
 Viewing X-rated sex films tends to
diminish people’s satisfaction with
their own sexual partners
 Researchers suspect that reading or
watching erotica may create
expectations that few men and
women can fulfill
 About
95% of both men and women
say they have had sexual fantasies
› However, men (whether gay or straight)
fantasize about sex more often, more
physically, and less romantically
› They also prefer less personal and fasterpaced sex content in books and videos
 3%
of American women born before
1900, had premarital sex by age 18
 50% of US high school students in 1995
 Only 2.5% of over 4 thousand
unmarried Chinese students entering
Hong Kong’s six universities
 Compared
with European teens,
American teens have…
› lower rates of intercourse and
contraceptive use
› higher rates of teen pregnancy and
abortion
 Only
one-third of sexuality active male
teens use condoms consistently

Ignorance
› Most teens overestimate their peers’ sexual
activity, which may influence their own behavior

Guilt related to sexual activity
› 72% of American girls aged 12-17 who have had
sex said they regretted it
› Not wanting to appear deliberately sexual or
promiscuous, teens may hesitate to carry and
produce a condom

Minimal communication about birth
control
› Uncomfortable discussing contraception with
parents, partners, and peers

Alcohol use
› Sexually active teens are typically alcohol-using
teens
› Those who use alcohol prior to sex are less likely
to use condoms
› Alcohol tends to break down normal restraints, a
phenomenon well known to sexually coercive
males.

Mass media norms of unprotected
promiscuity
› According to Planned Parenthood, TV and
movie portrayals of unsafe sex without
consequence amounts to a campaign of “sex
disinformation”
 Over
the course of year, Jamal has
sex with 9 people, each of whom has
sex with 9 other people, who in turn
have sex with 9 others. How many
“phantom” sex partners will Jamal
have?
› 511 - more than five times the estimate
given by the average student
 Given
these odds, the rapid spread of
Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) is
not surprising
 Have
a higher than average
intelligence
 Be actively religious
 Have a father presence
 Participate in volunteer work
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Sexual Orientation - an enduring sexual
attraction toward members of either one’s
own sex (homosexuality) or the other sex
(heterosexual)
3-4% of men and 1-2% of women are gay
Most homosexual people report not
becoming aware of same sex attraction
during puberty and not thinking of
themselves as gay until age 20
Sexual orientation is neither willfully chosen
nor willfully changed
Sexual orientation in some ways is like
handedness: most people are one way,
some the other. A very few are truly
ambidextrous

Women’s sexual orientation tends to be
less strongly felt and potentially more
fluid and changeable than men’s
› More likely to feel bisexual attractions
Lesbian women are more likely to enter
a committed long-term love relationship
compared to gay men
 Gays suffer elevated rates of depression
and risk of suicide attempts
 Mental health professionals are now
more accepting of sexual orientation

› They dropped homosexuality from their list of
“mental illnesses
Homosexuality appears to run in families
 Fraternal birthorder effect - men who
have older brothers somewhat more
likely to be gay

› Odds of homosexuality are 3% among first sons
› Increase to 4% among second sons and over 5%
for third sons

Homosexual behavior does not indicate
homosexual orientation
› Even in tribal cultures where homosexual
behavior is expected of all boys before
marriage, heterosexuality still prevails
 Some
degree of homosexuality seems
to be a natural part of the animal
world
› Penguins, Wendell and Cass, spent
several years as devoted same-sex
partners at the New York Aquarium
› At least occasional same-sex
relations have be observed in
several hundred species,
including grizzlies, gorillas,
monkeys, flamingos, and owls

A gay scientist, LeVay postulated that
homosexuality is not just psychological.
The physiological effects were shown in
sections of the hypothalamus
› The cell cluster was reliably larger in
heterosexual men than in women and
homosexual men.

Although, he did admit that sexual
behavior patterns may have influenced the
brain’s anatomy
 Can
you tell which of the
four figures can be rotated
to match the target figure
at the top?
› Straight males tend to find this
an easier task than do straight
females, with gays and
lesbians intermediate
 Acceptance
is more common among
women, among those with a gay or
lesbian friend or relative, and
among younger adults
 Among entering collegians,
support for laws prohibiting
homosexual relationships has
plummeted since 1987
› This is not a result of liberalization of all sex-
related attitudes. For example from 1973 to
2000 agreement that extramarital sex is
“always wrong” increased from 69.6% to 79.4%
 Alleviates
parent’s concerns about
their children being influenced by gay
teachers and role models
 Raises the possibility that genetic
markers of sexual orientation could
someday be identified through fetal
testing, and a fetus could be aborted
simply for being predisposed to an
unwanted orientation
 Two
types of love
› Temporary passionate love
› More enduring companionate love
Passionate love - an aroused state of
intense positive absorption in another,
usually present at the beginning of a
love relationship
 Theory of emotion:

› Emotions have two ingredients - physical arousal
plus cognitive appraisal
› Arousal from any source can enhance one
emotion or another

College men were aroused by fright and
then introduced to an attractive woman
› Those who were stirred up attributed some of
that arousal to the woman they were talking to
and felt more attracted to her

Adrenaline makes the heart grow fonder

Companionate love - the deep
affectionate attachment we feel for
those with whom our lives are intertwined
› Happens as passionate love matures

Recognizing the short duration of
passionate love, some societies have
deemed such feelings an irrational
reason for marrying
› In Non-Western cultures, people rate love less
important for marriage and have lower divorce
rates

Equity - a condition in which people
receive from a relationship in proportion
to what they give to it
› When a couple shares decision making, their
chances for sustained and satisfying
companionate love are good

Self-disclosure - revealing intimate
aspects of oneself to others
 Marriage
bonds are more likely to last
when couples marry after age 20 and
are well educated
 Twice the rate of divorce from 40
years ago
› Reflecting women’s lessened economical
dependence on men and people’s rising
expectations
› US and Canada almost have 1 divorce per 2
marriages
Adult bonds of love are most satisfying
and enduring when marked by a
similarity of interests and values, a sharing
of emotional and material support, and
intimate self-disclosure
 Couples who cohabited before
marriage had higher rates of divorce
and marital dysfunction.
 40% of married adults report being “very
happy,” compared to 23% of unmarried
adults

 Have
a five-to-one ratio of positive to
negative interactions
› Positive: smiling, touching, complimenting,
and laughing
› Negative: sarcasm, criticism, and insults
 Learn
to fight fair and state their
feelings without insulting
 Steer conflict away from chaos
› “I’ll just be quiet for a moment and listen”
› “I know it’s not your fault”
› When children begin to absorb time,
money, and emotional energy, the
couple’s marital satisfaction may decline
 Especially, among women who tend to carry
the traditional burden of doing chores at
home.
› When children leave home, empty nest is
typically a happy place
 Couple experience a “postlaunch
honeymoon”