Guest Lecture: Pornography

Question 1

What is the difference between pornography and sex in other media?

Answer 1

• Direct depiction of sexual activities
  
  • Genders are unconcealed
  • Penetration may be visible
• Intended to arouse

Question 2

intentional vs. unintentional exposure

Answer 2

• 7-59%
  
  • Actively seeking pornography
• 19-84%
  
  • Pop-up ads, unintentional exposure

Question 3

who is more likely to consume pornography? (4)

Answer 3

1. men/boys
2. Pubertally more advanced
3. Individuals high in sensation-seeking
4. Weak or troubled family relationships

Question 4

opponents of porn

Answer 4

• Leads to risky sexual behaviours
• Permissive sexual attitudes
• Greater acceptance of premarital sex
• A tendency to see sex without love as more important than sex with love
• Lower age of sexual intercourse
• Negative view of women
• Increases body image issues

Question 5

proponents of porn

Answer 5

• Plays a constructive role in various aspects of sexuality
• Often, has positive influences on sexual attitudes and behaviours
• Aids in sexual relationship satisfaction
• Used to support those with erectile dysfunction
• Outlet for the 2SLGBTQ+ community
• More egalitarian views of women
• Keeps you from being bored!

Question 6

Porn Addiction

Answer 6

Glorified as a valid affliction in the mainstream media -> No empirically proposed operational definition of what is considered pornography addiction
- no definition in the dsm or icd

• Widely criticized in peer-reviewed, academic literature.

Question 7

problems with this diagnosis?

Answer 7

Lack of clarity in diagnoses and definitions of pornography addiction

lead to confusing, invalid, and unreliable science, ignoring the relational, psychological, and social context with which these behaviours can occur.

Question 8

problems with this study: Participants demonstrated increased electrical brain responses to the erotic imagery they were shown, just as shown in the brains of “normal people”

Answer 8

• No control groups
• No operational definition of porn
• Small sample sizes
• Only men included
• Strict cultural contexts (Japanese study)
• Self-report

Question 9

moral incongruence

Answer 9

inconsistency between beliefs about pornography, and the behaviours exhibited through use of pornography)

Question 10

what was the TA study

Answer 10

• Are unrealistic ideals being perpetuated through consumption of pornography?
• Is pornography distorting views of what sex truly looks like?
• What kind of an effect could this have on people? Good? Bad?

Question 11

operational definition of pornography

Answer 11

“Any material aimed at creating or enhancing sexual feelings or thoughts in the recipient and, at the same time:
1. containing explicit exposure and/or descriptions of the genitals and
2. clear and explicit sexual acts”

(playboy where nudity is present but sexual activity is absent—should be disregarded as SEM/Porn)

Question 12

research questions: frequency

Answer 12

Frequent consumers of pornography will report greater misunderstandings of:

• Typical male and female anatomy
• Sexual physiology
• Typical sexual intercourse

Question 13

research questions: gender/age

Answer 13

Gender, age, & sexual experience will significantly affect participants’ understanding of anatomy, sexual physiology, & sexual behaviours.

Question 14

research questions: Positive/Negative

Answer 14

Participants will report greater positive self-perceived effects of pornography consumption.

Question 15

findings

Answer 15

Frequent consumers of pornography did not report larger misunderstandings of sexual anatomy, physiology, & sexual behaviours.

Question 16

what factors affects knowledge?

Answer 16

gender and age

Question 17

what did Ps report?

Answer 17

greater POSITIVE self-perceived effects of pornography consumption.

Question 18

WHHY

Answer 18

Lack of education is causing people to turn to pornography (media) as a form of sexual education.
- knowledge improves with age
- females -> greater info seeking

Question 19

People In this study felt that pornography plays a positive role in their:

Answer 19

• Outlook on sexuality
• Views of the opposite gender
• Quality of life
• Sexual liberty
• Attitudes towards sex

Question 20

limitations

Answer 20

1. self-report (students)
2. correlational
3. Attention bias (participants arousal and desire contributed to them focusing on the positive)
   - Organization of the questionnaire attempted to mitigate this

Question 21

why are porn findings contested and controversial?

Answer 21

• Inconsistent and conflicting findings
• Discrepancies in the data
• Methodological flaw and inherent bias
• Pathologizing frameworks

Question 22

What to watch out for

Answer 22

1. methodological flaws
   Who’s narrative are we reading?
2. critical thinking
   Porn is bad for “all” when really its only bad for “some”
3. risky sexual behaviour
   Who defines this?

Question 23

how to be a critical consumer

Answer 23

• Analyze media messages:
  
  • Reflect
  • Evaluate
  • Discuss
• Skepticism, Curiosity, and Humility!