Sexual Motivation

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