Theoretical Perspectives Flashcards
What is a theory?
- Set of ideas or concepts that help explain behaviour and
attitudes - No “unified field theory” of human sexuality not one theory
Evolutionary Perspective
Evolution through natural selection
* Natural selection
* Sociobiology
Examples
* Physical attractiveness
* Parental investment(step vs biological parents)
Conclusion/critique
-based on outdated ideas
-idea that sex is for reproduction and that is it
they dont tell the who story
Psychoanalytic Theory
Freud
Key concepts:
* Libido(sexual drive)
* Stages of psychosexual
development
* fixation
Evaluation
* non testable - implicit belifs/urges
* a lot of his theories are based on his patients so maybe for those people who had some problems it would apply but for the healthy population it would not
but he did explore the idea of sexuallity at a time of great opression so quite revolutionary
Erogenous Zones
An erogenous zone is a part of the skin or mucous membrane that is extremely sensitive
to stimulation;
touching it in certain ways produces feelings of pleasure.
The lips and mouth
are one such erogenous zone, the genitals a second, and the rectum and anus a third.
Psychosexual Development
1-oral stage
2.anal stage (elimination)
3.3.phalic stage 3-6 (touching the phallics)
Oedipus complex
The boy’s hostility toward his father grows, but eventually he comes to
fear that his father will retaliate by castrating him—cutting off his prized penis. Thus, the boy
feels castration anxiety. Eventually, the castration anxiety becomes so great that he stops
desiring his mother and shifts to identifying with his father, taking on the father’s gender
role and acquiring the characteristics expected of males by society.
e female Oedipus complex
The little girl realizes, perhaps after observing her father or her brother,
that she has no penis. She feels envious and cheated, and she suffers from penis envy,
Thus, she shifts her desire for her mother onto her father, forming the female Oedipus complex
latency, which lasts until adolescence
During this stage, the
sexual impulses are repressed or are in a quiescent state, and so nothing much happens
sexually
Learning Theories
Classical conditioning (Pavlov)
- Key concepts: US, UR, CS, CR: dogs
- dog + meat=salivation
- dog+bell=salivation
- dog+bell+meat=salivation
- dog+ bell=salivation
if u are presented thing non-sexual things during sex for a period of time ur response to them will become sexual -due to antecipation
Social Exchange Theory
cost vs rewards
Learning Theories
Operant conditioning (Skinner)
* Primary reinforcement(reward/punishment)
* Dual role of sex(can be the reward or the behaviour that is rewarded or punished)
Social learning (Bandura)
* Key concepts: observational learning, identification(identify with the model), imitation, self-efficacy(rewards/punished)
Criticisms
-learning theory ignore cognitive processes
Cognitive Theories
Perceptions and evaluation of events (i.e., thoughts) affect emotions and responses
- Examples:
“I’m not in the mood” - interpretation of a partner saying that
Erectile difficulties
-interpretation of it happened once is fine or it happened may be a have a problem
Cognitive Schema
Schema: General knowledge framework that a
person has about a particular topic
ex:a dog is on all 4s and have fur
photos that goes a long with original scheamas are better remenber than those that dont
Perception of events affected by schema
* E.g., gender schema (Bem)
Sociological Perspective
sociaty/culture
Socialization leads to:
* Shared sexual scripts (Script Theory)
we learn through culture how to act
ex: women ask if men want to come up and then they have sex,kissing-hand on brest-sex-orgasm
Sociological Perspective
- Symbolic communication → human nature
- NEED similar meanings to communicate
- e.g., Can people distinguish between 4 types of casual sex relationships? (Wentland & Reissing, 2011, 2014)
- One night stand
- Booty call
- Friend with benefits
- F*k buddy
they had similar defenitions
Tangent on Hookup Culture and Casual
Sex
Dr. Lisa Wade Book “American Hookup: The New Culture of Sex on Campus” (2017)
4 Types of students in college “hookup
culture”:
- **Enthusiasts **(they love it)
- Abstainers (they hate it)
- Dabblers (they have mixed feelings and experiences)
- Strivers (they want to take part but are excluded)
result:not very common to love causal sex among college students
Medical Institution
Medicalization of sexuality:
* occurs when certain sexual behaviours or conditions
are defined in terms of health and illness and are medically treated
ex:
* Viagra
* Addyi - female viagra
Sexual Health
- Traditional approach: illness model
- Health model:
“Sexual health is a state of physical, emotional, mental and social well-being related to sexuality; it is not merely the absence of disease, dysfunction or infirmity.”
-World Health Organization
WHO Definition of Sexual Rights
Sexual rights embrace human rights that are already
recognized in national laws, international human rights
documents and other consensus documents
WHO Declaration of Sexual Rights
- Positive rights (right to):
- e.g. privacy, equality and non-discrimination, sexual health
care, sexual education and information, choose partner,
pleasurable sex life, decide the number and spacing of
children - Negative rights (protection from):
- e.g. sexual violence, discrimination, female genital cu
Legal Institution
- Criminal law is a Federal responsibility
- Non-criminal law can be provincial or municipal
What Are the Main Sexual Offences in
the Criminal Code of Canada in 2024?
-sexual assault
-anal intercourse legal above is 16 now
-bestiallity any sexual activity is iligal
Types of Laws
To prevent:
* Exploitation & force
* Crimes against taste/morality
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
-can not be passed due to religion
1969 Omnibus Bill (Trudeau)
-removed contraceptive
-oral sex
Influence of the Law
How laws influence behaviour
* Determine social norms
- Mechanism for social control
- Impose ideology
performativity
refers to ways
in which we perform gender or sexuality based on society’s norms, much as actors perform
in a play
