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College aantekeningen Sexology
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Lectures blok 3SEXOLOGY lecture 1
Sexuality is a central aspect of human being throughout life and encompasses sex, gender identities
and roles, sexual orientation, eroticism,
pleasure, intimacy and reproduction. Sexology is
the scientific interdisciplinary study of sexuality.
It looks at all the bio-psycho-social aspects of
sexuality.
Sexual health is a state of physical, mental and
social well-being in relation to sexuality. It is the
ability to sexually adapt and self-manage in the
face of life’s physical, psychological and social
challenges.
Sexual rights are the basic inalienable rights
regarding sexuality both positive and negative
so as right to reproductive self-determination
and sexual self-expression and freedom from sexual abuse and violence.
The bio-psycho-social model of sexuality
- Biological: medial treatment, illnesses, menopause, medication, nerves, hormones
- Psychological: body image, anxiety, depression, self-image, personality
- Social: norms and values, religion, relationship
There are a lot of changes in the last centuries. There was an idea by Tissot (1766) that an orgasm
can cause disorders and may even lead to death.
Freud was one of the first to make the transition to a more scientific study of sexuality. He thought
that human behavior was motivated by libido (the subjective experience of a physical need for sex)
and Thanatos.
According to Freud, the libido is ‘fueled’ by the sexual instincts. An instinct arises from a source
within the body. An instinct is distinguished from a stimulus by the fact that it arises from sources of
stimulation within the body that it operates us a constant force and that the subject cannot avoid it
by flight as is possible with an external stimulus.
There are different theories in the book
- Evolutionary theories: evolution, natural selection (attractiveness), parental investment
- Psychological theories: psycho-analytic (Freud), learning theories (conditioning), social
exchange theory and cognitive theories
- Critical theories: feminist theories, gender as status and inequality, queer theory
- Sociological theories: sexual script theory (religion, economy, law)
Freud argued that there are three stages of psycho-sexual development
1. Pre-genital stage: oral, anal and phallic/oedipal stages
a. 1-6 years
2. Latency stage
a. 6-12 years
, 3. Genital stage
a. > 12 years
In the mature female sexuality the sexual pleasure is transferred from the clitoris to the vagina. A
healthy women experiences a vaginal orgasm and if a woman only has a clitoral orgasm, this is a sign
of fixation and intrapsychic problems.
Marie Bonaparte was a patient of Freud. She was unable to achieve a vaginal orgasm, despite many
years of analysis with Freud. She started doing her own research in the distance between the clitoris
and urethra. She found variations from 1.25 to 3.5 cm
- Paraclitoridian: < 2.5 cm
- Mesoclitoridian: = 2.5 cm
- Teleclitoridian: > 2.5 cm
In the early 1900s there were a few developments
- Havelock Ellis: medical and anthropological findings. There was a liberal view on female
sexuality and deviations
- Krafft-Ebing: classification of perversions/deviations (psychopathia sexualis)
- Bloch: methods and insights of sexology must correspond with insights of natural and
cultural sciences
Reoccurring themes in the first 30 years of the 20 th century is that clinical methodology based on case
studies. There was a need for scientific research. People in that time believed that there was a
universal sexual instinct and divergences are the result of a disease, and should be treated by a
physician.
After WWII there was a leading role for the US in the field of sexology. Alfred Kinsey started the
institute for sex research (1947) and was a biologist. He developed a course on marriage (for
students who were married or expecting marriage). He conducted interviews about sexual behavior.
John Money (1921-2006) was a psychologist and did a study of the development of gender identity in
children.
There was a nature-nurture controversy. One of twin boys was reconstructed as a girl and for several
years he was raised as a girl. It was intended by John Money to provide ultimate proof that nurture is
the essential factor in your gender identity.
Masters and Johnson (1960-70s) were the first to conduct psychophysiological laboratory research.
The human sexual response cycle was the basis for a new behavioral therapy approach to sexual
problems: sensate focus and with partner.
Sex therapy based on behavioral therapy
They were using behavioral exercises to restore the ‘natural sexual response’ in three steps
1. Non-genital touching
2. Touching with genital
3. Coitus position and movement
It was always conducted in couples but sometimes they had surrogate partners for the men. They
had daily sessions over a time of two weeks.
, Helen Singer Kaplan contributed an addition of the clinically them important concept “desire phase”.
There was an integration of psycho-dynamic orientation with behavioral therapy.
Key themes in sexology up to 1973
- Sex is a biological function, which is inhibited or facilitated by culture
- Sexually normal = sex between consenting partners
- Different dimensions of sex can be distinguished: behavior, gender, sexual orientation, and
sexual response
- Studies requires empirical methodology and an interdisciplinary approach
In 1974 the DSM-III homosexuality was no longer a mental disorder. During this time Lonnie Barbach
developed group therapy for women with orgasm problems. Bernie Zilbergeld developed this for
men. He did this by looking at the sexual myths:
- Men are always willing and ready to have sex
- Once a man is aroused, he loses his self-control and is no longer responsible for his actions
- The sooner a man reaches orgasm, the more masculine he is
- The bigger the penis, the greater the woman’s pleasure
- Sex is only good if both partners reach orgasm simultaneously
Susan Brownmiller (1975) did a large study in rape with an emphasis on power mechanisms within
sexuality. Shere Hite interviewed 3000 women with a main focus in the theme ‘normal/abnormal’.
She was the first to emphasis that sexual intercourse wasn’t the best way to reach an orgasm.
The sexual scripting theory (Gagnon and Simon, 1973) states that sexual behavior is a social role
behavior, generated by culturally determined scripts. A script is a scenario that defines a situation as
sexual, designated the actors and specifies their roles.
A script distinguishes 2 dimensions
- An interpersonal dimension, through which people interact sexually
- An intrapsychic dimension, through which a person has a psychological interpretation od
sexuality, a schema, and strives for specific sexual behavior (love map)
o Dating kissing touching breasts hand stimulation oral sex intercourse
In the evolutionary psychology, there was the sexual strategy theory by David Buss. This theory
states that sexual strategies can be divided in short and long term strategies. Woman want men that
can take care of them on the long term, men want to have lots of offspring by different women
(evolution).
The role of mass media
- Cultivation: people think what they see on television and other media represents the
mainstream of what happens in their society
- Agenda setting: reporters select what they report/ignore and what they emphasize
- Social learning: people learn about sex and gender in part by imitation and identification
There was an increasing influence of the biomedical approach to sexuality from 1998 to the present.
They found that medicalization of treatment of sexual dysfunction could help by for example Viagra.
SEXOLOGY LECTURE 2
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