4 - PROBLEMS- LEARNING SEXUAL BEHAVIOUR IN HUMANS

Question 1

problem 1

what is sexual behaviour in humans?

Answer 1

• no clear distinction
• not easy to classify
• only pregnancy and childbirth are sex specific

Question 2

problem 2

how could we study it?

Answer 2

• memory and learning research investigates how clearly defines information or skills are learnt
• eg mirror drawing
• can be controlled
• sexual learning however involves learning broad and ill defined set of information and behaviours
• can’t be done in a lab
• can’t study systematically

Question 3

problem 3

where can we study it?

Answer 3

• no large scale systematic studies in humans exist
• unethical
• cannot raise children in different ways to see how they’d behave sexually as adults
• not practical - would have to wait 15+ years

Question 4

evidence against:

5alpha- reductase syndrome

Answer 4

• girls turning into boys a puberty
• no problems adapting to male typical sexual behaviour
• suggests this is somehow present in their brains can be switched on with sufficient testosterone at puberty
• if learning plays a role in sexual behaviour - they should struggle to adopt male-typical roles because they’ve raised like a girl
• only found in selective communities - so maybe peers and parents expect the change

Question 5

evidence against:

CAH syndrome

Answer 5

• girls with pathologically increases androgen levels (prenatal)
• masculinised genitalia
• might display strong make you all playing behaviour (despite being discouraged to do so - encouraged to act like a girl)
• might not be more likely to be lesbian (but you’d predict it as it’s male behaviour)

Question 6

evidence against:

children raised by homosexual couples

Answer 6

• NOT more likely to become homosexual
• but sexual learning depends on peer interactions rather than explicit teaching/role models
• evidence against the theory that adult sexual behaviour is acquired through leaning pre-pubertal