Theoretical Approaches to Sexuality and Aging

1. Theoretical Approaches to Sexuality and Aging Gerontology 410 Jan 2008

2. Research and Clinical Models • In 1938 women students at the University of Indiana petitioned administration for a course on human sexuality. It was then illegal to have printed material with explicit material or to have contraceptive material imported into the US. A booming underground was in existence. • Kinsey was asked to prepare a course and he did this by preparing interviews based on confidential interviews with students. In 1941 he was supported by the Rockefeller foundation and the Institute for Sex research was founded.

3. Research • In 1948 Kinsey produced his first book-Sexual Behavior in the Human Male comprising of 5000 interviews of males of all ages. In 1953 The Sexual Behavior of the Human Female-6000 women which shocked the reading public with findings like 25% of the women interviewed had had extra-marital sex. Kinsey died at the age of 62 after the Institute had interviewed over 17,500 subjects. These data were used in 1986 to predict the prevalence of AIDS. In 1958 Pregnancy, Birth and Abortion was published

4. Research • This gave results that 1/10 women were pregnant before marriage and ¾ of them had had an abortion, illegal at the time of publication. • The Institute continues to publish information on a wide range of sexual topics. In 1989 two thousand Americans were interviewed and 55% failed a basic questionnaire on sexual information. Those failing were 60 + , with lower levels of education, lower income and living in the South or Northeast, politically conservative and rural areas

5. Research • The American public it appears is still not receiving accurate sex information about a variety of issues, particularly about sex and aging. 30% of Americans felt that women lose interest in sex after menopause. • Older and widowed groups from both sexes scored the most poorly but they knew they did not know. The higher the education the better the score, Catholics did better than Protestants, Liberals better than Conservatives.

6. Research • Sources for information when growing up ranked as follows: Friend, Mother, Books. The lowest were Health Centre, Doctor, Member of the Clergy. • Sources when interviewed ranked-Doctor/Nurse, Books, Friend. • Masters and Johnson Institute-1978-1994 • Set up to study human sexuality, anatomy, physiology, diagnosis and treatment of sexual dysfunction.

7. Research • Published Human Sexual Response in 1966 and Human Sexual Inadequacy in 1970. Careful study and lab measurements were made on 382 females and 372 males over 10,000 cycles of sexual response through arousal, lubrication and orgasm and developed the stage model described in other notes. Key findings around the sexual response of the aging male and female were as follows: There is no age when sexual abilities disappear. There are specific changes in response patterns

8. Research • It takes longer for males to become aroused, and they need more direct stimulation. The speed and amount of vaginal lubrication diminishes with age but orgasmic capability continues well into old age. • Masters and Johnson were pioneers in the observation and measurement of the sexual response in rigorous laboratory conditions gathering physiological data on sexual responses for all ages.

9. Research • The Cosmo Report, published in 1981, surveyed 106,000 women. It was six years in preparation with 79 multiple choice questions, the largest survey since the Kinsey reports. The Hite Report only surveyed 3,000 women and was the next largest sample. • Hite Report-1976-2004. Studies female sexuality and builds on the work of Masters and Johnson and Kinsey. Concentrated on the cultural and personal construction of the sexual experience. Hite maintained that research should be relevant outside the laboratory

10. Research • She used questionnaires to sample her population, but the was a bias due to non-responsiveness. She published work on Men and Male Sexuality in 1987. One of her key positions was that women need clitoral and exterior stimulation for orgasm and that sex is a cultural institution not a biological one.