1 / 35

Sexual Motivation

Sexual Motivation. General Psych 1 Module 35 April 26, 2005 Class #25. Sexual Behavior Studies. Pre-1960’s – considered a very conservative time as far as sexual behavior is concerned Kinsey (1948, 1953) Interviewed about 5000 men and 6000 women

Download Presentation

Sexual Motivation

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. Sexual Motivation General Psych 1 Module 35 April 26, 2005 Class #25

  2. Sexual Behavior Studies • Pre-1960’s – considered a very conservative time as far as sexual behavior is concerned • Kinsey (1948, 1953) • Interviewed about 5000 men and 6000 women • Almost all subjects were well-educated, white, middle-class people primarily from Indiana and Illinois • Results were very surprising at the time

  3. Sexual Behavior Studies • Late 1960’s – early 1980’s • Very liberal (free) time as far as sex is concerned • “sex, drugs, and rock and roll” • Percentage who engaged in premarital sex surges • Attitudes become permissive • For example, in 1979 46% of 15-19 year-old unmarried girls were sexually active • Add to this the fact that most of these sexually active teens either did not or only occasionally used birth control…teen pregnancies surged during the 1970’s

  4. Sexual Behavior Studies • Era of Aids (1980’s – late 1990’s) • Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) • A deadly disease which is primarily sexually transmitted and will gradually destroy a body’s immune system • Until, around 1985 it appeared it was limited to homosexual men – soon after that it became a heterosexual concern as well but still much more common among homosexuals • Lots of commercials • Back to a conservative time as far as sexual motivations were concerned

  5. Sexual Behavior Studies • Kaplan (1988) • 3% chance of an infected man giving it to woman during unprotected vaginal intercourse • Less than 2% chance of infected woman giving it to man during unprotected vaginal intercourse • Anal intercourse is higher (as high as 10%)

  6. Sexual Behavior Studies • AIDS is proceeded by HIV virus which may produce no symptoms for up to ten years before a person is diagnosed with AIDS • It is suspected that all persons infected with HIV will progress to AIDS (this is not proven)

  7. Sexual Behavior Studies • What were the psychological implications of all this? • Winklestein (1987) • 800 subjects from San Francisco (homosexual and heterosexual) • Number of sexual partners cut in half • Fineberg (1988) • 5000 homosexual men • Those that were either celibate (no sex) or monogomaous (one partner) rose from 14% to 39% from 1984-1986

  8. Today: Changing views of Sexual Behavior • Are we heading back to the free time? • New questions for a new generation’s behaviors… • Is Cybersex cheating? • How do we keep kids safe from the internet? • Has the definition of sex changed? • What would our former President say?

  9. Masters and Johnson (1966): Sexual Response Cycle • William Howell Masters was a gynecologist, and Virginia Johnson was a psychology researcher • They teamed up in 1957 to study human sexuality • Instead of asking people about their sexual activities, as Kinsey did, Masters and Johnson observed sexual activity in a laboratory setting • They developed tools and techniques for accurately measuring the physical responses of 700 men and women during masturbation and intercourse • They published their findings in the book Human Sexual Response in 1966 • They divorced after 21 years of marriage - and 35 years of research

  10. Sexual Response Cycle • EXCITEMENT PHASE • Genital areas become engorged • HR, BP, breathing rates increase • PLATEAU PHASE • HR, BP, breathing rates increase further • ORGASMIC PHASE • Muscle contractions all over the body • HR, BP, breathing rates increase even further • Feelings of pleasure apparently the same for both sexes • RESOLUTION PHASE • Body gradually returns to unaroused state • Males enter a refractory period in which he is incapable of another orgasm (this varies in time depending on the individual from a few minutes to over a day) • Females refractory period is not long (if at all) as often they can reach orgasm again if restimulated

  11. Sexual Arousal • Internal Stimuli • Hormones • External Stimuli • What we read, hear, and see • Imagined Stimuli • Fantasies

  12. Internal Stimuli • Sex Hormones • Testosterone (males) • Estrogen (females)

  13. Internal Stimuli • Overall Analysis of Hormonal Influence… • It is an influence but probably not the major one • More research needed in this area

  14. External Stimuli • Heiman (1975) provides some insight into responses of both men and women • Participants were sexually experienced men and women undergraduates who listened to tape recording of erotic stories • Obtained both self-report and physiological measures of arousal

  15. Heiman (1975) • Participants listened to one of four kinds of tapes… • Erotic • Romantic • Erotic-romantic • Control • What was most arousing for men and women? • Physiological data? • Self-reports?

  16. Heiman (1975) • Researcher also varied the plots of the tapes… • Whether female or male initiated sexual activity • Whether the plot centered on the female’s or the male‘s physiological and psychological response • Results???

  17. Schmidt & Sigush (1970) • Researchers showed participants erotic (petting & coitus) slides and movies to 128 male and 128 female university students… • They found small or no difference in arousal between men and women • HOWEVER, women, but not men showed an increase in petting and coitus in the 24 hours after seeing the erotic stimuli

  18. Sexually Explicit Material • Many view it as pleasing…but are there any harmful drawbacks?

  19. Imagined Stimuli • Wilson and Barber (1983) • Study of 26 women with “fantasy-prone” personalities… • Some had experienced orgasms solely by sexual fantasies

  20. Motives for Having Sex • Stereotype • Male • Interested in physical aspects and a "love 'em and leave 'em" philosophy • Female • Interested in love and romance and concerned with the interpersonal aspects of a relationship

  21. Why have sex??? • Hyde and her colleagues (1984) asked college students "What would be your motives for having sexual intercourse?" • Typical Female answers • emotional feelings that we shared • wonderful way to express love • wanting to share myself with someone I love • needing to be needed • Typical Male answers • need it • to gratify myself • for the pleasure or the love • to satisfy my needs • when I'm tired of masturbation

  22. Sexual Orientation • Random Telephone Surveys in North America: • About 3-5% of the adult population acknowledges that they are homosexual or bisexual • Many feel that this is an underestimate

  23. Lippa (2001) • Survey of 721 students in four large human sexuality classes at California State University, Fullerton • Subjects:287 men and 434 women • Average age = 22 years • 42% White • 22% Hispanic • 21% Asian • 15% "Others“

  24. Lippa (2001) • Males: • 2% self-labeled as "gay“ • 3% as "bisexual" • Women: • 1% self-labeled as "lesbian" • 3% as bisexual

  25. Why is someone gay or straight? • Psychologists really don’t fully understand the causes of sexual orientation • Lets look at some biological explanations… • Concordance rates: MZ > DZ • A homosexual gene? • LeVay (1991): INAH3

  26. Concordance rates • Eysenck (1964) • Reported a higher incidence of homosexuality among men whose MZ twin was gay than among men whose DZ twin was gay • Bailey and Pallard (1991) • Twin study • Homosexual men • Co-twin was more than twice as likely to be homosexual if the twins were MZ • Bailey, Pallard, Neale, & Agyei (1993) • Replicated earlier study using homosexual women • Same results

  27. A homosexual gene? • Hamer et al. (1993) • Examined families of homosexual men • Found significantly more gay relatives on mother’s side of family • Maternal uncles and sons of maternal aunts (male cousins) • Might their be a homosexual gene on the X chromosome?

  28. Hamer et al. (1993) • They continued the investigation and found that most of the homosexual men had a region in the X chromosome that was similar suggesting a genetic basis… • But not for all suggesting another reason • Important implication to all this: • It may be possible for non-homosexual women to pass on this gene

  29. CONTROVERSIAL RESEARCH • Dean Hamer, left, and J. Michael Bailey converse at a conference last May

  30. The biological basis of sexual orientation is a research area that is coming out of the closet • Much of the field's current visibility is due to the wide publicity surrounding neuroanatomist Simon LeVay's 1991 study of INAH3-the third interstitial nucleus of the anterior hypothalamus-which is three times larger in men than in women

  31. LeVay (1991) • Examined hypothalamic tissue from: • 19 gay men, all of whom died of AIDS • 16 heterosexual men, six of whom had died of AIDS • 6 women of unknown sexual orientation

  32. LeVay (1991) • Found neuroanatomic differences between homosexual and heterosexual men… • INAH3 was two to three times larger in heterosexual men than in gay men

  33. LeVay (1991) • As the first suggestion that there was a neuroanatomic difference between gay and heterosexual men, LeVay's finding garnered a great deal of public attention, and a great deal of controversy about both its scientific and its social implications

  34. Other reasons… • Investigators have assessed every possible psychological cause of sexual orientation that you could think of… • The findings when looking at the backgrounds of those that are heterosexual, homosexual, or bisexual are?

  35. Sexual Motivation • More research is needed in this area

More Related