Chapter 11 - Sexual Orientation Flashcards
What is Sexual Orientation
A relative pattern of sexual attraction to males and/or females
What are the 4 ways we can measure Sexual orientation and their advantages/disadvantages
- Sexual Behaviour: Who do they have sex with (people may not engage in what they say they do)
- Sexual Orientation Identity: How do they define themselves (imprecise and labels change overtime)
- Sexual Attraction: Who do they think about when they masturbate (least constraints but also might not tell you)
- Genital arousal: objective measurement but difficult to obtain
What is Asexuality and what is some empirical evidence we know?
Still report sexual desire and engage in sexual encounters.
More liekly to have sexual fantasies not involving humans
Masturbate the same frequency as others.
Thus asexuality may not be directed at other people and may mean different things.
How is the Kinsey scale flawed?
You need to know their biological sex to have a precise interpretation of the kinsey scale measurements.
What is Androphilia:
Sexual attraction & arousal to adult males & masculinity
What is gynephilia
sexual arousal and attraction to adult females & femininity
What is Ambiphilia
sexual arousal and attraction to both males and females
Is it better to measure behaviour or attraction in sexual contexts?
attraction because its an automatic response
VPP
Inserted in vaginal lumen and measures how much light bounces back in concordance of blood flow changes that occur during vasocongestion
Penile strain gauge
Goes around the circumference of the penis. Responds to changes in circumference. If there are changes then there are changes in arousal.
Vaginal Lubrication (Litmus Test Strip)
How far up the litmus strip goes (more lubrication, more arousal). The vagina lengthens with arousal
Thermography:
use same instrument for males and females, measures changes in blood flow with a thermal camera
Eye tracking
humans look at the stuff they like more
fMRI
what brain regions are responding the sexual stimuli
What are ways we can provoke sexual arousal
Pictures of female and male models
Pure sexual stimuli like penetrative sex with MM, FM, FF.
and measure subjective and objective
What Empirical Evidence did we find about female/male category specificity of sexual arousal?
There are sex differences in their levels of category specificity
Females are non-category specific and males are category specific
Males who list their subjective SO have high concordance with their genital arousal. Females do not.
Gynephilic females are more category specific
If the instruments used to measure genital arousal are different then how can they measure the same thing? What empirical evidence do we have the counters this argument?
Transmen and transwomen used VPP and penile strain gauge.
Biological males (transwomen) were extremely category specific
How strong is the correlation of subjective arousal and genital arousal in both sexes?
Male genital arousal was strongly correlated with subjective arousal (.77 R squared)
Female genital arousal was weakly correlated with subjective arousal (0.067 r squared)
What did Chivers find about female genital arousal? Talk about both studies.
Females are sexually aroused to Ff stimuli more than others regardless of their sexual orientation self-report. They are also aroused at non human sex.
How does genital arousal and female sexual orientation relate to category specificity
Androphilic females show indistinguishable patterns between stimuli
Ambiphilic females have slightly more arousal for female stimuli
Gynephilic females are more male shifted in their category specificity
What does Chivers work say about females and their sexual oreintation?
That their genitals do not tell the whole story about their preference for a person like males can
Gender-variant
having characteristics of the opposite sex
What does empirical evidence of Typical Sex Difference in Gendered Childhood Behavior say. What’s the cohens d.
Females tend to take female roles, play dress up, have female toys
males tend to engage in rough-and-tumble play, male fantasy roles
difference is about 3.0
What empirical evidence is there about sexual orientation differences in the roles they adopt in childhood.
Heterosexual women are more feminine in childhood
Homosexual women are more masculine on average when they are younger
Heterosexual men saying they were relatively male in childhood
Homosexual males report being more feminine
What empirical evidence is there about sexual orientation differences in the behaviours they engage in childhood.
and what conclusions can we draw about the inference of social integration effects?
Homosexual males -> higher levels of feminine behaviours
Homosexual females -> higher levels of male behaviours
Happens in all social settings regardless of social pressures meaning its not purely social
What can we conclude about androphilic males in their childhood?
Pre-androphilic males (hetero) tend to be sex atypical children behaviour. Play with feminine toys, cross-dressing, not interested in rough and tumble play, preferring girls as playmates, more concerned if separated by major caregiver (found across cultures), believing or desiring to be a girl
What can we conclude about androphilic males in their childhood?
Pre gynaphilic females show marked childhood sex atypicality (prefer male clothes, rough & tumble play, desire to be a boy (very masculine))
What are kinds of studies that are better than self-report studies?
- Blind ratings: have people submit childhood picture and ask people what they believe that persons sexual orientation is
- Prospective Cohort studies: tracking people as they age
What can we conclude about sexual orientation after looking at the emripircal evidence presented?
Gender non-conforming behaviour emerged before later sexual attraction/identity, and is not influenced by recall bias
What was the evidence concluded from self-report studies of the sexes depiction of their sexual orientation in relation to femininity and masculinity?
Sexual orientation differences occur cross-culturally. Androphilic males are more feminine self-reported, and gynephilic females more masculine, despite cultures against female masculinity of male femininity.
What is evidence for sexual orientation variation in preference for gendered occupations?
Heterosexual men have strong preference for male typical occupation
Bisexual men are intermediate
Homosexual male stronger preference for female
Heterosexual women have strong preference for female occupations
Bisexual women slightly male shifted
Homosexual women are male shifted
What are the things of tinbergs 4 things we use to answer causes of attractions?
we mostly ask proximate developmental questions
Why and how bioenvironmentally would people have same or opposite sex attractions
What is evidence against the theory that sexual orientation is socially directed?
Botch circumcision lead to being raised as female and later presented as male. Cases of penile ablation and cross-sex rearing are rare, but all such documented males are gynephilic
What is an anatomical difference between sexual orientations that describes a proximate explanation. What region adn what does it regulate
A region of the anterior-hypothalamus is smaller in women and gay men compared to straight men called the INH3 that regulates FFFF
What is the prenatal neurohormonal Theory:
Sexual orientation might be effected by androgen levels. o - — Fetuses exposed to high androgens will be attracted to females (gynephilic) high exposure
o Fetuses exposed to low androgens will be more attracted to men (androphilic) low exposure (usually female but includes males)
What is evidence for the prenatal neurohormonal theory:
- Males have lower 2d:4D index finger shorter than ring finger
- Women with CAH are male shifted, more androgren and male shift
- CAIS are female-typical
- Gynaphilic females are subtly male-shifted.
- Androphilic males are not female shifted
- Females with CAIS more likely to report gynephilia
- Genetic Males (XY) with DSDs leading to atypical male genitals are typically gynephilic
what orientation is the most common
gynephilia
How much influence does our genes have on our sexual orientation? What is some empirical evidence?
There is polygenic influence and studies have looked at sexual behaviour and not attraction. It is unclear. ~33% of male androphilia and female gynephilia can be attributed to genes.
Twin studies show that monozygotic twins where one is gay, the other has 30% chance o fbeing gay as well.
What is the Fraternal Birth Order Effect
Statistical finding that androphilic males on average have more older brothers than gynephilic males
For every increase of older brother androphilia goes up approximate 20-30%
What evidence do we have that points to confirming the FBOE
Looked at adapted families and found that the more biological older brother was related rather than adoptive brothers.
Explain the Maternal Immune Hypothesis
An attempt to explain the FBOE.
Females are exposed to Y chromosomal proteins and mom makes antibodies to fight them. The more babies, the more antibodies and the more it may impact levels of development and sexual orientation.
What evidence do we have for the Maternal Immune Hypothesis
Looked at a specific antibody NLGN4Y that attacks males proteins and found that mothers with gay sons and mothers with more sons and gay sons had more antibodies
What do we know about birth order for female sexual orientation?
only found predictors for gynephilia related to older siblings
