Chapter 2: Theoretical Perspectives on Sexuality

Question 1

Define Sociobiology?

Answer 1

the application of evolutionary biology to understand social behaviours of animals and humans

Question 2

Define Evolution

Answer 2

all living things have their present form because of gradual changes in their genetics due to successive generations

Question 3

Define Natural selection

Answer 3

a process where greater rates of survival are of those plants and animals that are able to adapt to their environment - able to survive, reproduce and pass on their genes

Question 4

what are two obstacles of reproductive success

Answer 4

1. maternal death

2. infant vulnerability

Question 5

What facilitates reproductive success?

Answer 5

1. pair bonding (emotional bonding between mother and father)
2. attachment between infant and parent

Question 6

What is sexual selection?

Answer 6

selection that results from differences in traits affecting access to mates

Question 7

what are the two processes of natural selection?

Answer 7

1. competition among members of one gender for mating access to the other gender
2. preferential choice by members of one gender (female) for the other gender

Question 8

what is evolutionary psychology?

Answer 8

the study of the psychology of the mind that have been shaped by natural selection

Question 9

what is sexual strategies?

Answer 9

behaviours designed to solve problems in short or long term mating e.g. choosing a mans resources in selecting a husband for long term mating strategies

Question 10

what is psychoanalytic theory?

Answer 10

by Sigmund freud it the basic assumption that part of the human personality is unconscious.

Question 11

what three parts does freud say human personality is divided into?

Answer 11

id, ego and superego

Question 12

what does freud say libido mean?

Answer 12

sex drive or sex energy

Question 13

what does id mean?

Answer 13

part of the personality that contains the libido and the pleasure (pleasure seeking)

Question 14

what does ego mean?

Answer 14

personality that helps person have realistic or rational interactions (reality principle)

Question 15

what does superego mean?

Answer 15

personality that contains the conscious, meaning it contains values and ideals from society that we learn.

Question 16

what is are erogenous zones?

Answer 16

part of the skin that is extremely sensitive to stimulation.

Question 17

what are the five stages of psychosexual development?

Answer 17

1. oral stage
2. anal stage
3. phallic stage
4. latency stage
5. Genital stage

Question 18

what is the oral stage?

Answer 18

sucking or stimulation of the mouth

Question 19

what is the anal stage?

Answer 19

focused on elimination

Question 20

what is the phallic stage?

Answer 20

interested in genital area - pleasure from masturbation

Question 21

what is the latency stage?

Answer 21

sexual urges become repressed or in a inactive state

Question 22

what is the genital stage?

Answer 22

sexual urges become more specifically genital and the oral, anal and genital urges all fuse together and promote the biological function of reproduction

Question 23

what is the Oedipus complex?

Answer 23

sexual attraction of a little boy for his mother

Question 24

what is the female Oedipus complex?

Answer 24

sexual attraction of a little girl to his father and feeling penis envy later - shifting her focus from mother to father

Question 25

what are the criticism of psychoanalytic theory?

Answer 25

• cannot be evaluated by science to see whether it is accurate
• theory provides a view not of human personalities but of disturbances in the human personality
• male cantered theory

Question 26

what is repression, the key to psychoanalytic theory?

Answer 26

a defensive act preventing people from remaining aware of certain information or motivated forgetting (happens in the frontal lobes)

Question 27

Define learning theory?

Answer 27

how sexual behaviour is learned and modified through reinforcement and punishment according to operant conditioning

Question 28

Define classical conditioning?

Answer 28

process of learning where a neutral stimulus (conditioned; learned stimulus) is repeatedly paired with an unconditioned (not influenced by learning) stimulus that gets a unconditioned response (not influenced by learning). Eventually the neutral stimulus will become the conditioned stimulus and will evoke a response.

Question 29

Define operant conditioning?

Answer 29

changing behaviour by following with positive reinforcement or punishment

Question 30

What is psychoanalytic theory?

Answer 30

basic assumption of human personality is unconsious - unconscious desires drive personlity

Question 31

what are two factors of social learning theory? what do they mean?

Answer 31

1. imitation (imitating personality or behaviours they see from media or someone)
2. identification (identifying with someone such as a mother and learning characteristics of the female role by identifying with her)

Question 32

what is social exchange theory?

Answer 32

theory that assumes people will chose their actions that maximize rewards and minimize costs when we act with others

Question 33

what is cognitive theory?

Answer 33

theory of the way we think

Question 34

define schema

Answer 34

general framework about something that organizes and guides perception, it can help us remember and distort memory that is inconsistent with the schema (stereo-type inconsistent)

Question 35

what is gender schema?

Answer 35

a set of attributes or framework we have that is associated with makes and females

Question 36

what are the four statements of facts of feminist theory?

Answer 36

1. gender as status and inequality - gender signals status in culture
2. sexuality - women’s sexuality has been repressed and rarely expressed such as sexual assault, aborting birth control, sexual harassment on the job
3. gender roles and socialization - gender roles tell individuals what they can and cannot do it is a social learning theory
4. intersectionality - an approach that says we should at the same time consider a person’t identities such as race, social class and sexual orientation

Question 37

What is queer theory?

Answer 37

about sexual orientation and It also means “odd”

Question 38

what does queer theory argue and question?

Answer 38

questions gender binary that operates people into male and female and that social norms privilege heterosexuality and marginalize other sexual orientation