Chapter 1 Flashcards
What can the word “sex” refer to?
Anatomic sex (female or male)
Anatomic structures called sex organs
The physical activity involving sex organs for reproduction or pleasure.
Human sexuality
refers to the ways in which people experience and express themselves as sexual beings.
Which types of scientists study human sexuality
Anthropologists, biologists, medical researchers, sociologists, and psychologists
Our society is pluralistic. Why does that mean?
It embraces a wide range of sexual attitudes and values.
What shapes people’s sexual attitudes, experiences, and behaviors?
Cultural traditions and beliefs.
According to feminists why is there variability in sexual behavior between males and females?
reflects power rather than choice
Where might our value systems arise from?
Value systems provide a framework for judging the morality of sexual options. They have many sources: parents, peers, religious training, ethic subcultures, the larger culture, and our own appraisal of these influences.
Legalism
Ethical behavior is derived from an external source, such as religion
Situational Ethics
Ethical decision making should be guided by the situation and by genuine love for others
Relativism
There is no objective way of justifying one set of moral values over another.
Hedonism
Pursuit of pleasure is the guide
Asceticism
One denies sexual desires to devote oneself to spiritual pursuits
Utilitarianism
Moral conduct brings about the greatest good for the greatest #
Rationalism
Sexual decision should be based on intellectual and reason, not blind obedience
What do critical thinkers need, to believe something is true?
They don’t believe something is true because an authority figure says it’s true. They demand evidence.
Critical thinking
scrutinizing definitions of terms and evaluating the premises of arguments and their logic.
core: skepticism
- analysis
- probing of claims and arguments
How does history asses sexual behaviors?
By placing them in context
What can history tell us about sexual trends
- there is little evidence of universal sexual trends. Attitudes and behaviors vary extensively from one time and place to another?
Prehistoric sexuality
- Art from stone age suggests that women’s ability to bear children was worshiped
- After ice age, when people raised animals, they realized that women got pregnant after sex with male. This kick-started phallic Worship.
Incest in early society
- may have been first human taboo
- prohibited in all societies but to varying degrees (for example, the aristocracy and royalty were permitted in some cultures, but commoners were not)
phallic worship
Worship of the penis as a symbol of generative poweer
phallic symbol
An image of the penis
incest taboo
The prohibition against intercourse and reproduction among close blood relatives.
Sex for the Aincent hebrews
- sex fulfilled God’s command to be fruitful and multiply, and could be enjoyable, but God put rules in place to keep it moral
Sex for the Aincent greeks
- sexually adventurous as long as it didn’t interfere with family life
pederasty
Sexual love of boys
courtesan
A prostitue- especiially the mistress of a noble or wealthy man
concubine
A secondary wife, usually of inferior legal and social status
bestiality
Sexual relations between a person and an animal
sadism
The practice of achieving sexual gratification through hurting or humiliating others.
fellatio
A sexual activity involving oral contact with the penis
cunnilingus
A sexual activity involving oral contact with the female genitals.
fornication
Sexual intercourse between people who are not married to one another
Sex in Aincent Rome
- upper class was sexually adventurous, less true for the average Romans
Which society do we trace many of our sexual terms to?
Rome
Sex in Islam
- treasures marriage and sexual fulfillment in marriage
- marriage represents the road to virtue
- Men permitted to do more than women (ie have up to four wives while women can only have one husband.
Sex in Aincent India
- sexual pleasure as a spiritual idea
- Hindu sexual practices were codified in a Manuel (the Kama Sutra)
- Saw sex as religious duty
- Indian society grew more restrictive towards sexuality after about 1000CE
Sex in the Aincent Far East
- sexuality was akin to spirituality
- Taoist beloved sex was a sacred duty- a form of worship that led toward harmony with nature and immorality
- Men have sex to absorb the yin
- Unacceptable for man to wastefully spill his seed (masturbation, wasteful ejaculation)
Sex in the Victorian period
- Prim and proper on the surface
- Women viewed it as a marital duty to satisfy their husband’s cravings
- Women not believed to experience sexual pleasure (even though they did)
- A lot of prostitution
Havelock Ellis
published ‘Studies in the Psychology of Sex.
- argued sexual desires in women were natural and healthy
- sexual problems were psychological rather than physical
- Saw homosexual orientations as inborn dispositions rather than character flaws
Richard von Krafft Ebing
wrote Psychopathial Sexualis, about case histories about people with sexual deviations (ie bestality or necrophilia)
Alfred Kinsey
- interviewed people to learn about American sexual hehavior. Published books, Sexual behavior in the Human Male& Sexual Behaviors in the Human Female. Even though they were dry reads, they were great sellers.
- Despite there being methodical flaws, critics focused on how immoral it was
The Sexual revolution
- Durring the Sixties
- The sexual revolution came out of a timely mixture of economic, scientific, social and political forces
- The “Me Decade (message that you should do what feels right)
- tyed to social permissiveness and political liberalism
- Sex less of a taboo in media
Features of the sexual revolution that remain today
- Liberation of femalee sexuality
- Widespread willingness to discuss sex
What does studying the biological perspective of sex tell us?
- Informs us about the mechanisms of reproduction as well as the mechanisms of sexual arousal and response
Genes
The basic units of heredity, which consist of chromosmal segments of DNA
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid- chemical substance that makes up genes and chromosomes
evolution
- development of species to its present state, including how it adapts to its environment
natural selection
The evolutionary process by which adaptive traits enable members of a pecies to survive to reproductive age and transmit these traits to future generations
Evolutionary Perspective of sex
- explains variability in species
Evolutionary views of Male-Female Differences in Mating Strategies
- Theory that males are sexually promiscuous than women, because survival of us as a species depended on whether or not they could spread their seed. Women are selective with their matting partners because their reproductive success is enhanced by mating with the fittest males
Cross Species Perspective
- scientists try to discover what is natural by looking at how other types of animals have sex
- large variety of sexual behaivors
- Sexual behavior is less driven by instinct in “higher” mammals then “lower species”
How does sociology study sex
- Studies the influences of groups of sexual behavior
- Some perspectives (like historical perspective) may provide insight into how much culture affects our sex lives)
mutation
A random change in the molecular structure of DNA
Physical reasons for having sex
- Stress reduction
- Pleasure
- Physical desirability (lust)
- Experience seeking
Goal attainment reasons for having sex
- Resources (ie money or reproduction)
- Social status
- Revenge (to make someone jealous or to get even with a cheating partner)
- Utilitarian (ie If the person had taken you out to an expensive dinner
Emotional reasons of having sex
- Love and commitment
- Expression (ie celebrations, or a way of saying think you)
Insecurity reasons for having sex
- Self esteem boost (ie want to feel attractive)
- Duty/pressure
- Mate guarding
Four factors of having sex
- Physical
- Emotional
- Insecurity
- Goal attainment
psychoanalysis
- The theory of personality originated by Sigmud Freud, which proposes that human behaivior represents the outcome of clashing inner forces
defense mechanisms
In psychoanalytic theory, automatic processes that protect from anxiety by disguising or ejecting unacceptable ideas and urges
repression
- the automatic ejection of anxiety- evoking ideas from consciosness
Erogenous zones
- Parts of the body, including but not limited to the sex organs, that are responsive to sexual stimulation
psychosexual development
- In psychoanalytic theory, the process by which sexual feelings shift from one erogenous zones to another
Oedipus complex
- when boys are in the phallic stage, they develop sexual feelings for parent of opposite gender, and rivalry of parent of the same gender
behaviorists
- Learning theorists who argue that a scientific approach to understanding behavior must refer only to observable and measurable behaviors
social- cognitive theory
A cognitively oriented learning theory which emphasizes the values and observational learning determine behavior
Behaviorists
- emphasize rewards and punishments. If children are not allowed to explore their body without punishment, then later they will associate sex with guilt and shame, or anxiety
Observational learning
- refers to aquiring knowledge and skills by observing others
Cognitive Theories
- beliefs and attitudes that we learn as kids are lifelong and serve as cognitive anchors
Feminist Theory challenges:
- Traditional views of roles of men and women (men as breadwinners, political policy makers, sexual agressiors and objective and rational) and woman as (homemakers, sexual gatekeepers, emotional and irrational)
Feminist theory
- argued that there is no scietntific basis to feminity or masculinity, and that they are purely social constructs
Queer theory
- there are commonly experienced mismatches among anatomic sex, society’s gender roles, and individual’s sexual desires
- challenges heteronormative and heterosexism
Heteronormativity
- the assumption that heterosexuality is normal
Homophobia
- Hatred of homosexuals
Empirical
derived from or based on observation and expierementation
Hypothesis
- A precise prediction about behavior that is tested through research
The scientific method
- formulate a research question
- Form a hypothesis
- Test hypothesis
- Draw conclusions
Variables
Quantities or qualities that may vary
Demographic
Concerning the vital statistics (race, gender, age, religion, ect.) of human populations
The goals of the science of human sexuality
to describe, explain, predict, and control the behaviors
What can the science of human sexuality tell us
- not how we ought to behave, but gives people information so they can make informed decisions about sex
population
A complete group of organisms or events
sample
part of a population
genralize
To go from the particular to the general
random sample
A sample in which every member of a population has an equal chance of participating
Stratified random sample
- A random sample in which known subgroups in a population are represented in proportion to their numbers in the population
how to get a good sample
- Large sample= better
- Representative of population of intrest
- random (although it’s hard to get random samples)
Case study
A carefully drawn, in-depth biography of an individual or small group of individuals that may be obtained through interview, questionnaires, and historical records.
Survey
A detailed study of a sample obtained by means such as interviews and questionnares
Volunteer Bias
A slanting of research data that is caused by the characteristics of individuals who volunteer to participate, such as willingness to discuss intimate behavior
Confidntiality
- Keeping records and the names of research participants or therapy clients private
reliability
- the consistency or accuracy of a measure
Kinsey Reports
- Kinsey’s interviews (although underrepresentative of people of color, people in rural areas, older people, poor people, and Catholics and Jews) tell us that there may be a link between one’s level of education and and participation in oral sex, and this is probably generalizable
incidence
A measure of the occurrence or the degree of occurence in an event
frequency
the number of times an action is repeated within a given period
social desirablility
A response bias to a questionnaire or interview in which the person provides a socially acceptable response
The naturalistic- observation method
A method in which organisms are observed in their natural enviornment
Ethnographic observation
A method of research that deals descriptively with specific cultures, especially preliterate societies
Participant observation
a method in which observers interact with the people they study as they collect data
Labratory observation
A method in which subjects are studied in a laboratory setting
Penile strain gauge
A device for measuring sexual arousing in men in terms of changes in the circumference of the penis
Vaginal plethysmograph
- A tampon like probe that is inserted in the vagina and suggests the level of vascongestion by measuring the light reflected from the vaginal walls
vasocongestion
Congestion from the flow of blood
myotonia
muscle tension
What is Chivers’s theory for why woman are aroused at a wider range of stimuli, and there is a disconnect between their lust and bodily arousal
- physiological genital arousal doesn’t tell us about desire
- it may be an evolutionary defense mechanism; woman who didn’t lubricate during sexual cues would be more likely to sustain an injury then those who did
Correlation
A statistical measure of the relationship between two variables
Correlation coefficant
A statistic that expresses the strength and direction (+ or -) of the relationship between 2 variables
expierement
A scientific method that seeks to answer to find the answer to something by manipulating the independent variables and observing the effect on the dependent variables
treatment
In experiments, and intervention that is administered to practicpants so that its effects may be observed
independent variable
A condition in a scientific study that is manipulated by the researchers so that its effects may be observed
dependent variable
The measured result of an expierement that is believed to be a function of the independent variable
experimental group
A group of study participants who receive a treatment
control group
A group of study participants who do not reeie the expirimental treatment. However, other conditions are held comparable to those of individuals in the experimental group
Selection factor
A bias that may operate in research when people are allowed to determine whether or not they will receive a treatment
Ethical issues concerning sex research
- no harm can come to participants
- Confidentialtiy
- Informed concent
- The use of deception
