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Sexology lecture notes
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Notes from all sexology lectures in the form of bullet points.
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Week 1- Sexuality is a central aspect of human being throughout life and ecompasses seks, gender
identities and roles, sexual orientation, eroticism, pleasure, intimacy and reproduction
- Gender person:
o Gender identity
o Gender expression
o Biological Sex
o Sexual orientation
- Sexual heallth
o Is a state of physical, emotionel, mental and social well-being in relation to sexuality
o Is the ability to sexually adapt and self-manage in the face of life’s physical,
psychological and social challenges
- Sexual rights: 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
- Sexology
o Is the scientific interdisciplinary study of sexuality
o Looks at all the bio-psycho-social aspects of sexuality
- Different theories:
o Evolutionary theories: evolution, natural selection (attractiveness), parental
investment
o Psychological theories: psycho-analytic (Freud), learning theories (conditioning),
social exchange theory and cognitive theories
o Critical theories: eg feminist theory. Gender as status and inequality, queer theory
o Sociological theories: eg sexual script theory (religion, economy, law)
- Changes in views over time
o Tissot (1766) Onanism, the disorders produced by masturbation
o Heiman & LoPiccolo (1988) directed masturbation, an effective treatment for
lifelong female orgasmic disorder
o Sigmund Freud
The first to make the transition to a more scientific study of sexuality
- Human behaviour is motivated by Libido & Thanatos
o Libido is the existence of sexual needs in human beings and animals is expressed in
biology by the assumption of a sexual instinct, on the analogy of the instinct of
nutrition, that is of hunger. Everyday language possesses no counterpart to the w0rd
hunger but science makes use of the word libido for that purpose
o Libido therefore means the subjective experience of a physical need for sex
- Drive
o According to Freud, the libido is fuelled by the sexual instincts. An instinct arises
from a source within the body:
o Its source is a state of excitation in the body, its aim is the removal of that excitation.
o We picture it as a certain quota of energy which presses in a particular direction. It is
from this pressing that it derives its name of Trieb (drive, instinct)
o A constant force
, o An instinct is distinguished from a stimulus by the fact that it arises from sources of
stimulation within the body,,, that it operates as a constant force and that the
subject cannot avoid it by flight, as is possible with an external stimulus
- Drive model: you have seks bevause your instinct drives you, pushes you
- Freud’s stages of psycho-sexual development
o 1. pre-genital stage: oral, anal & phallic/oedipal stages (1-6 years)
o 2. Latency stage (6-12 years)
o 3. Genital stage (12 years onwards)
- Mature female sexuality
o Sexual pleasure is transferred from the clitoris to the vagina
o A healthy woman experiences a vaginal orgasm
o If a woman only has a clitoral orgasm, this is a sign of fixation and intrapsychic
problems
- Marie Bonaparte
o Patient of Freud
o Was unable to achieve a vaginal orgasm, depsite many years of analysis with Freud
- Research on the distance between clitoris and urethra
o Paraclitoridian < 2.5 cm
o Mesoclitoridian = 2.5 cm
o Teleclitoridian > 2.5 cm
- Early 1900s
o Havelock Ellis: medical and anthropological findings. Liberal view on female sexuality
and deviations
o Krafft-ebbing: classifications of perversions/deviations
o Bloch: Methods and insights of sexology must correspond with insights of natural
and culutural sciences
- Themes in the first 30 years of the 20th century
o Clinical methodology based on case studies
o Need for scientific research
o Belief in a universal sexual instinct
o Divergences are the result of a disease, and should be treated by a physician
o After WW2: leading role for the US
o Alfred Kinsley: institute for seks research (1947) biologist
o Course on marriage (for students who were married or expecting marriage)
o Interviews about sexual behaviour (11.000)
- John Money (1921-2006)
o Psychologist, study of the development of gender identity in children
- Nature-nurture controversy
- Twin (boys) were circumcised: one of them the operation went wrong
- This boy was then reconstructed as a girl and for several years was raised as a girl
- Was intended to provide ultimate proof that nurture is the essential factor in your gender
identity
- Bruce became Brenda
- Masters and Johnson (1960 and 1970s)
- Were the first to conduct psychophysiological laboratory research
- Human sexual response cycle
,- Basis for a new behavioural therapy approach to sexual problems: sensate focus and with
partner
- Seks therapy based on behavioural therapy (sensate focus)
- Using behavioural exercises to restore the natural seks response in 3 steps
o Non genital touching, touching with genitals and coitus position and movement
- Two weeks in the institute, daily sessions
- Always in couples, sometimes with surrogate partners for the men
- Helen Singer Kaplan
- Addition of the clinically then important desire phase
- Integration of psycho-dynamic orientation with behavioral therapy
- Key themes in sexology up to 1973
- Seks is a biologial function, which is inhibited or facilitated by culture
- Sexually normal = seks between consenting partners
- Different dimensions of seks can be distinguished: beahviour, gender, sexual orientation,
sexual response
- Study required empiral methodology and an interdisciplinary approach
- American Psychiatric assocaition (1974) DSM-III
- Homosexuality is no longer a mental disorder
- 58% in favour
- Lonnie Barbach
- Self-help books
- Group therapy for women with orgasm problems (preorgasmic) 1974
- Bernie Zilbergeld
- Self-help: Male sexuality (1978)
- Groups for men with sexual dysfunctions
- Sexual myths (men)
o Men are always ready and willing to have seks
o Once a man is aroused, he loses his self-control and is no longer responsible for his
actions
o The sooner a man reaches orgasm, the more masculine he is
o The bigger the penis, the greater the woman’s pleasure
o Seks is only good if both partners reach orgasm simultaneously
- Susan brownmiller (1975)
o Emphasis on power mechanisms within sexuality
- Shere Hite
o Interviews with 3000 women (1976)
- Main focus is the theme normal/abnomral
- Only 30-40% of women reach orgasm solely by having intercourse
- Sexual scripting theory (1973)
- Gagnon and Simon: sexual conduct: the social sources of human sexuality
- Sexual behaviour is social role behaviour, generated by culturally determined scripts
o A script is a scenario that defines a situation as sexual, designated the actors and
specifies their roles
o A script distinguises 2 dimensions
An interpersonal dimension, through which people interact sexually
, An intrapsychic dimension, through which a person has a psychological
interpretation of sexuality, a schema, and strives for specific sexual
behaviour (lovemap)
- Evolutionary psychology, sexual strategy, david buss
- They can be divided in short and long term strategies
- Differences between men and women
- Role of the mass media
- Cultivation: people think what they see on tv 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 seks and gender in part by imitation and identification
- Increasing influence of the (bio) medical approach to sexuality (1998-present)
- Viagra for erectile dysfunction
- Medicalisation of treatment of sexual dysfunctions
Week 2
- J. Rutgers (1850-1924)
o 1892: consulting hours for diaphragms
o One of the founders of dutch sexology
o Started a network for contraception
o Vision: people are free to make sexual and reproductive choices, respecting the
rights of others, in supportive societies
o Mission: we empower people through education and improved access to
information and services. We strengthen professionals, organisations and societies.
We connect research, implementation and advocacy
o Area of work: we support & improve the SRHR of people in the Netherlands & world
wide
- Our goals:
o 1. More young people, in and out of school, receive comprehensive sexuality
education
o 2. More people have access to improved, needs base sexual and reproductive health
information and services
o 3. Civil society is a leading actor in achieving sexual and reproductive health and
rights in more countries
o 4. More governments provide greater support for sexual and reproductive rights
- What do we know about sexual development?
- Particapatory observations
- Interview of children age 5 and older
- All-in retrospective
- Focus on sexual behavior
- Ambiguous definitions
- Impact of early sexual behaviours is hard to predict
- Underrepresentation of different social groups and children with mental and/or physical
challenges
- Early sexual developmet
o 0-4 years: discovering your body
o 4-6 years: learning about social rules, first friendships
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