Theoretical Perspectives on Sexuality PDF

# Chapter 2: Theoretical Perspectives on Sexuality ## Are You Curious? 1. Is the heterosexual male preference for the "hourglass" female figure universal? 2. What theory accounts for how the smell of perfume or cologne becomes sexually arousing? 3. Why do most sexual interactions in our society fo...

# Chapter 2: Theoretical Perspectives on Sexuality ## Are You Curious? 1. Is the heterosexual male preference for the "hourglass" female figure universal? 2. What theory accounts for how the smell of perfume or cologne becomes sexually arousing? 3. Why do most sexual interactions in our society follow the same patterns? Read this chapter to find out. ## Chapter Highlights ### Evolutionary Theories * Sociobiology * Evolutionary Psychology * Gender-Neutral Evolutionary Theory ### Psychological Theories * Psychoanalytic Theory * Learning Theory * Social Exchange Theory * Cognitive Theories ### Critical Theories * Feminist Theory * Queer Theory * Critical Race Theory ### Sociological Perspectives * Symbolic Interaction Theory * Sexual Scripts * Social Institutions ## Evolutionary Theories **Sociobiology** is defined as the application of evolutionary biology to understanding the social behavior of animals, including humans. * Sexual behavior is a form of social behavior, and sociobiologists try to understand why certain patterns of sexual behavior have evolved in humans. * Evolution occurs via natural selection, where animals best adapted to their environment are more likely to survive, reproduce, and pass on their genes. * Physical attractiveness is a major criterion humans use to choose mates. * Evolutionary selection would favor individuals preferring mates who would have maximum reproductive success. **Parental investment** refers to behaviors or other resources invested in the offspring by the parent that increase the offspring's chance of survival. **Sexual selection** is selection that creates differences between males and females. It occurs in two ways: 1. Competition amongst members of one gender (usually males) for mating access to members of the other gender. 2. Preferential choice by members of one gender (usually females) for certain members of the other gender. **Evolutionary Psychology** focuses on psychological mechanisms that have been shaped by evolution. * If behaviors evolved in response to selection pressures, it is plausible to argue that cognitive or emotional structures evolved in the same way. * One line of research concentrates on sexual strategies, with women and men facing different adaptive problems in short-term and long-term mating and reproduction, leading to different strategies or behaviors. ## Psychological Theories ### Psychoanalytic Theory * Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory has been one of the most influential of all psychological theories. * **Libido**, the sex drive or sex energy, is one of the two major forces motivating human behavior (the other being thanatos, or the death instinct). * Freud described the human personality as being divided into three major parts: * **Id**: The basic part of personality, present at birth. It is the reservoir of psychic energy and operates on the pleasure principle. * **Ego**: Operates on the reality principle and keeps the id in line, creating realistic, rational interactions with others. * **Superego**: Contains the values and ideals of society, operating on idealism to inhibit the impulses of the id and persuade the ego to strive for moral goals rather than just realistic ones. Freud believed the child passes through a series of stages of development, with a different erogenous zone being the focus of each stage. * **Oral Stage**: From birth to about 1 year, the child's chief pleasure is derived from sucking. * **Anal Stage**: During the second year, the child's interest is focused on elimination. * **Phallic Stage**: From age 3 to 5 or 6, the boy's interest is focused on his penis. * **Oedipus Complex**: The boy loves his mother and desires her sexually, while hating his father, whom he sees as a rival. He eventually represses this desire, fearing his father will castrate him and identifying with his father. * **Electra Complex**: The girl realizes she has no penis and experiences penis envy. She desires her father, wanting to be impregnated by him, to substitute for the unobtainable penis. The girl's resolution is not as complete as the boy's. * **Latency Stage**: From around 6 to adolescence, sexual impulses are repressed or quiescent. * **Genital Stage**: With puberty, sexual urges become more specifically genital, and the oral, anal, and genital urges fuse to promote the biological function of reproduction. ### Learning Theory * Learning theory emphasizes that much of human sexual behavior is learned. * **Classical Conditioning**: A neutral stimulus (conditioned stimulus) is repeatedly paired with an unconditioned stimulus that reflexively elicits an unconditioned response. Eventually, the conditioned stimulus itself will evoke the response. * **Operant Conditioning**: A person performs a particular behavior (the operant) that may be followed by either a reward (positive reinforcement) or a punishment. * **Primary Reinforcers**: Intrinsically rewarding, like food and sex. * **Punishmet**: A behavior followed by a punishment will decrease the frequency of that behavior in the future. * **Social Learning**: Based on principles of operant conditioning, but it also recognizes other processes at work: imitation and observational learning. * **Self-Efficacy**: Successful experiences with an activity over time create a sense of competence, or self-efficacy, at performing the activity. ### Social Exchange Theory * The theory assumes that humans act to maximize rewards and minimize costs and that people participate in relationships only if they find that the relationships provide profitable outcomes. * **Comparison Level for Alternatives**: An individual judges the attractiveness of a relationship by comparing the profits it provides against the profits available in alternative relationships. * **Equity**: A state of equity exists when participants in a relationship believe that the rewards they receive from it are proportional to the costs they bear. * **Power**: One person may have more power than the other, influencing the other person's behavior. ### Cognitive Theory * Cognitive psychology can ready explain some aspects of human sexuality. What we think influences what we feel. * **Gender Schema Theory**: Our gender schema predisposes us to process information on the basis of gender. * **Schema**: A general knowledge framework that a person has about a particular topic. ## Critical Theories ### Feminist Theory * Feminist theory systematically analyzes the meaning of gender in contemporary society. * Gender is a status characteristic, with men having greater status than women. * Feminist theory highlights the importance of gender roles and gender socialization. * **Intersectionality**: We should simultaneously consider a person's multiple group memberships and identities, including gender, race, social class, and sexual orientation. ### Queer Theory * Queer theory challenges the socially determined categorization of sexuality and gender and questions the socially determined norms of heteronormativity, the belief that heterosexuality is the only pattern of sexuality that is normal and natural.. * Queer theory argues that social norms privilege heterosexuality and marginalize other sexual orientations.. ### Critical Race Theory * Critical race theory examines the ways in which race and racism have an impact on social structures and institutions. * **Institutional racism**: Refers to the policies of institutions-such as government, businesses, and the law-that advantage some racial groups and disadvantage other racial groups. Also termed systemic racism or structural racism. ## Sociological Perspectives ### Symbolic Interaction Theory * The basic premise is that human behavior and the social order are products of symbolic communication among people. * An object's meaning for a person depends not on the properties of the object but on what a person might do with it. * People are proactive and goal seeking, requiring the cooperation of others to achieve goals. * **Role-Taking**: An individual imagines how they look from the other person's viewpoint. ### Sexual Scripts * The outcome of social influences is that each of us learns a set of sexual scripts, where sexual behavior is scripted much like a play in a theater. ### Social Institutions * Every society regulates the sexuality of its members. The appropriateness or inappropriateness of a particular sexual behavior depends upon the institutional context within which it occurs. * Basic institutions of society (religion, economy, family, medicine, and law) affect the rules governing sexuality in that society. * Each of these institutions supports a sexual ideology, or discourse, about sexual activity, which affects the beliefs and behaviors of those affiliated with the institution. * **Religion**: In our culture, the Judeo-Christian religious tradition has been a powerful shaper of sexual norms. * **Economy**: The nature and structure of the economy is another macro-level influence on sexuality. * **Family**: The family is another institution influencing sexuality through its socialization of children. * **Medicine**: The institution of medicine has become a major influence on our sexuality over the last 150 years. * **Law**: The legal system influences people's sexual behaviors in several ways: First, laws determine norms. Legal actions are the basis for the mechanisms of social control. Third, the law reflects the interests of the powerful, dominant groups within a society.