Theoretical Perspectives

Question 1

What is a theory?

Answer 1

• Set of ideas or concepts that help explain behaviour and
  attitudes
• No “unified field theory” of human sexuality not one theory

Question 2

Evolutionary Perspective

Answer 2

Evolution through natural selection
* Natural selection
* Sociobiology

Examples
* Physical attractiveness
* Parental investment(step vs biological parents)

Conclusion/critique
-based on outdated ideas
-idea that sex is for reproduction and that is it

they dont tell the who story

Question 3

Psychoanalytic Theory

Answer 3

Freud

Key concepts:
* Libido(sexual drive)
* Stages of psychosexual
development
* fixation

Evaluation
* non testable - implicit belifs/urges
* a lot of his theories are based on his patients so maybe for those people who had some problems it would apply but for the healthy population it would not

but he did explore the idea of sexuallity at a time of great opression so quite revolutionary

Question 4

Erogenous Zones

Answer 4

An erogenous zone is a part of the skin or mucous membrane that is extremely sensitive
to stimulation;

touching it in certain ways produces feelings of pleasure.

The lips and mouth
are one such erogenous zone, the genitals a second, and the rectum and anus a third.

Question 5

Psychosexual Development

Answer 5

1-oral stage
2.anal stage (elimination)
3.3.phalic stage 3-6 (touching the phallics)

Question 6

Oedipus complex

Answer 6

The boy’s hostility toward his father grows, but eventually he comes to
fear that his father will retaliate by castrating him—cutting off his prized penis. Thus, the boy
feels castration anxiety. Eventually, the castration anxiety becomes so great that he stops

desiring his mother and shifts to identifying with his father, taking on the father’s gender
role and acquiring the characteristics expected of males by society.

Question 7

e female Oedipus complex

Answer 7

The little girl realizes, perhaps after observing her father or her brother,
that she has no penis. She feels envious and cheated, and she suffers from penis envy,

Thus, she shifts her desire for her mother onto her father, forming the female Oedipus complex

Question 8

latency, which lasts until adolescence

Answer 8

During this stage, the
sexual impulses are repressed or are in a quiescent state, and so nothing much happens
sexually

Question 9

Learning Theories

Answer 9

Classical conditioning (Pavlov)

• Key concepts: US, UR, CS, CR: dogs

1. dog + meat=salivation
2. dog+bell=salivation
3. dog+bell+meat=salivation
4. dog+ bell=salivation

if u are presented thing non-sexual things during sex for a period of time ur response to them will become sexual -due to antecipation

Question 10

Social Exchange Theory

Answer 10

cost vs rewards

Question 12

Learning Theories

Answer 12

Operant conditioning (Skinner)
* Primary reinforcement(reward/punishment)
* Dual role of sex(can be the reward or the behaviour that is rewarded or punished)

Social learning (Bandura)
* Key concepts: observational learning, identification(identify with the model), imitation, self-efficacy(rewards/punished)

Criticisms
-learning theory ignore cognitive processes

Question 13

Cognitive Theories

Answer 13

Perceptions and evaluation of events (i.e., thoughts) affect emotions and responses

• Examples:
   “I’m not in the mood”
• interpretation of a partner saying that
   Erectile difficulties
  -interpretation of it happened once is fine or it happened may be a have a problem

Question 14

Cognitive Schema

Answer 14

Schema: General knowledge framework that a
person has about a particular topic
ex:a dog is on all 4s and have fur

photos that goes a long with original scheamas are better remenber than those that dont

Perception of events affected by schema
* E.g., gender schema (Bem)

Question 15

Sociological Perspective

sociaty/culture

Answer 15

Socialization leads to:
* Shared sexual scripts (Script Theory)

we learn through culture how to act

ex: women ask if men want to come up and then they have sex,kissing-hand on brest-sex-orgasm

Question 16

Sociological Perspective

Answer 16

• Symbolic communication → human nature
• NEED similar meanings to communicate
• e.g., Can people distinguish between 4 types of casual sex relationships? (Wentland & Reissing, 2011, 2014)
• One night stand
• Booty call
• Friend with benefits
• F*k buddy

they had similar defenitions

Question 17

Tangent on Hookup Culture and Casual
Sex

Answer 17

Dr. Lisa Wade Book “American Hookup: The New Culture of Sex on Campus” (2017)

4 Types of students in college “hookup
culture”:

• **Enthusiasts **(they love it)
• Abstainers (they hate it)
• Dabblers (they have mixed feelings and experiences)
• Strivers (they want to take part but are excluded)

result:not very common to love causal sex among college students

Question 18

Medical Institution

Answer 18

Medicalization of sexuality:
* occurs when certain sexual behaviours or conditions
are defined in terms of health and illness and are medically treated

ex:
* Viagra
* Addyi - female viagra

Question 19

Sexual Health

Answer 19

• Traditional approach: illness model
• Health model:
  “Sexual health is a state of physical, emotional, mental and social well-being related to sexuality; it is not merely the absence of disease, dysfunction or infirmity.”

-World Health Organization

Question 20

WHO Definition of Sexual Rights

Answer 20

Sexual rights embrace human rights that are already
recognized in national laws, international human rights
documents and other consensus documents

Question 21

WHO Declaration of Sexual Rights

Answer 21

• Positive rights (right to):
• e.g. privacy, equality and non-discrimination, sexual health
  care, sexual education and information, choose partner,
  pleasurable sex life, decide the number and spacing of
  children
• Negative rights (protection from):
• e.g. sexual violence, discrimination, female genital cu

Question 22

Legal Institution

Answer 22

• Criminal law is a Federal responsibility
• Non-criminal law can be provincial or municipal

Question 23

What Are the Main Sexual Offences in
the Criminal Code of Canada in 2024?

Answer 23

-sexual assault
-anal intercourse legal above is 16 now
-bestiallity any sexual activity is iligal

Question 24

Types of Laws

Answer 24

To prevent:
* Exploitation & force
* Crimes against taste/morality

Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
-can not be passed due to religion

1969 Omnibus Bill (Trudeau)
-removed contraceptive
-oral sex

Question 25

Influence of the Law

Answer 25

**How laws influence behaviour** * Determine social norms * Mechanism for social control * Impose ideology

Question 26

performativity

Answer 26

refers to ways in which we perform gender or sexuality based on society’s norms, much as actors perform in a play