DrMarshallpsychch10ppt

1. Lecture Slides
Chapter Ten
Gender and
Sexuality
By Glenn Meyer
Trinity University

2. Gender
and
Sexuality
Definitions
Sex
Click here
the biological category
of male or female;
sexual intercourse
Gender
Click here
cultural, social, and
psychological meanings
associated with masculinity or
femininity
Note: The words
“gender” are “sex” are
sometimes used
interchangeably
Gender
roles
Click here
behaviors, attitudes,
and personality traits
designated either
masculine or feminine in
a given culture
Gender
identity
Click here
a person’s
psychological sense
of being male or
female
Sexual
orientation
Click here
the direction of a
person's emotional and
erotic attractions

4. Gender Stereotypes and Gender Roles
• Gender-role stereotypes
• Beliefs and expectations that people hold about
characteristics and behaviors of each sex
• Our culture
• Women are thought to be more emotional, nurturing,
and patient than men
• Men are thought to be more aggressive, decisive, and
mechanically minded than women
• Benevolent sexism
• Men and women accept female stereotype more
positively than male stereotype
• Contributes to gender inequality
• In general
• Characteristics associated with males tended to be
stronger and more active than characteristics associated
with females

6. Gender-Related Differences
• Men and women do not tend to perceive themselves as being
diametrically opposite
• Some people are too quick to equate a gender difference with
a gender deficiency
• No single finding will apply to all men and women
• There is a wide range of individual variation within each group
• There is also quite a bit of overlap between the two groups

7. How often do you think about sex?

8. Personality Differences
• For most personality characteristics, there are no significant
differences between the sexes
• However, men and women consistently differ on some
personality dimensions
• Women tend to be more nurturing than men
• Men tend to be more assertive than women
• Women tend to be more “people-oriented” and less “thing-oriented”
than men
• Women: socially sensitive, friendly, and concerned with others’
welfare
• Men: dominant, controlling, and independent
• Women display more emotional awareness than men
• Women report experiencing and expressing more sadness, fear,
and guilt
• Men report experiencing and expressing more anger and
hostility
• Note: expression of emotions is strongly influenced by
culturally determined display rules

9. Cognitive Differences
• For most cognitive abilities, there are
no significant differences between the
sexes
• Some limited differences do exist
• Verbal, reading, and writing
skills—Females score higher
than males on verbal fluency,
reading comprehension, spelling,
and basic writing skills
• Math skills—On average, males
do slightly better than females on
tests of advanced mathematical
ability
• Spatial skills—Males outscore
females on some, but not all, tests
of spatial skills

10. Sexual Attitudes and Behaviors
• Only small differences between men and women
• Men reported more permissive sexual attitudes including
much greater acceptance of casual sex
• Men have more sexual partners than women and
experienced first intercourse at an earlier age
• Men report higher incidence than women of
masturbation and more use of pornography
• Men and women tend to be less than honest in their
responses to questions
• Men and women are more similar than they are different

11. Gender-Role Development
Differences in Childhood Behavior
• Between ages 2–3 years, children can identify themselves
and other children as boys or girls
• Concept of gender or sex, however, is based more on
outward characteristics such as clothing
• Toddler girls tend to play more with dolls and ask for help
more than boys
• Toddler boys tend to play more with trucks and wagons, and
tend to play more actively
• After age 3 years, we see consistent gender differences in
preferred toys and activities
• Boys are far more rigid than girls in preferences for toys
associated with own sex
• Girls’ more flexible attitude toward gender roles may reflect
society’s greater tolerance of girls who cross gender lines
• Boys and girls seem to create separate almost “social worlds,”
each with its own style of interaction

12. Gender Schema Theory (Sandra
Bam)
Click here
Explaining Gender Roles
Social Learning Theory
Click here
• Gender roles are acquired through
learning, including reinforcement,
punishment, and modeling
• Children are reinforced or
rewarded when they display
gender-appropriate behavior and
punished when they do not.
• Children engage in modeling and
observational learning as
described by Bandura
• Gender-role development
influenced by formation of
schemas, or mental
representations, of masculinity
and femininity
• Children actively develop mental
categories (or schemas) for
masculinity and femininity

13. Beyond Male and Female
Variations in Gender Identity
• For a significant minority of people, their gender identity
Intersexed
condition in which a
person’s biological sex is
ambiguous, often
combining aspects of both
male and female anatomy
and/or physiology
• androgen insensitivity
syndrome
• adrenal hyperplasia
Transgendered
condition in which a
person’s psychological
gender identity conflicts
with his or her biological
sex
Transsexual
a transgendered person
who undergoes surgery
and hormone treatments to
physically transform his or
her body into the opposite
sex
Intersexed
Click here
Transgendered
Click here
Transsexual
Click here
and physical anatomy are not consistent
• Course of prenatal development, chromosomal anomalies,
or atypical hormonal levels can affect the development of
reproductive organs
Many professionals disagree with classifying gender-variant
behaviors, attitudes, and feelings as a “disorder.”

14. Human Sexuality
The Stages of Human
Sexual Response
• Pioneers William
Masters and Virginia
Johnson — 1950s and
1960s
• Critics felt the Masters
and Johnson research
had violated “sacred
ground” and
dehumanized sexuality

15. Stage 1:
Excitement
the beginning of
sexual arousal;
preparation for
intercourse
Stage 2: Plateau
physical arousal
builds
Stage 3: Orgasm
third and shortest
phase of the sexual
response cycle
• Subjective
experience of
orgasm is similar in
men and women—
and very positive
• Males ejaculate,
females experience
vaginal contractions
Stage 4:
Resolution
arousal slowly
subsides and
returns to normal
levels
Human Sexuality
The Stages of Human
Sexual Response

16. What Motivates Sexual Behavior?
• Sex is necessary for the
survival of the species but
not of the individual
• Lower animals motivated
by hormonal changes in
the female
• Estrus = frantic desire
• Higher species less
influenced by hormones
and more by learning and
environmental influences
• Sexual activity can
occur any time
• Defines social
functions, cements
relationships
• Sexual motivation is
biologically influenced
by the levels of the
hormone testosterone
in the body for both
sexes

17. Evolution and Mate
Preferences
• Men were more likely than women to
value youth and physical attractiveness
in a potential mate
• Attractiveness signals physical
health and high-quality genes
• Women were more likely than men to
value financial security, access to
material resources, high-status
education, and good financial
prospects.
• Seek “good” genes: healthy and
attractive
• Need to make sure that children
survive to carry genes into future
generations – financial variable
• Evolutionary psychologists reject the
idea that people, cultures, or societies
are powerless to overcome tendencies
that evolved over hundreds of
thousands of years
David Buss: Gender
differences may reflect
evolutionary-based
“mating strategies” of
men and women.

18. Sexual Orientation
The Elusive Search for an Explanation
According to the most recent
estimates, about 7 percent of women
and 5 percent of men report having
ever engaged in homosexual behavior.
Sexual orientation
refers to whether a
person is attracted
to members of the
opposite sex, the
same sex, or both
sexes.
Click on each label to reveal definition
• direction of a person's emotional and erotic
attractions
Sexual orientation
Heterosexual • sexual attraction to the opposite sex
Homosexual • sexual attraction to the same sex
• typically used to describe male
homosexuals
Gay
• typically used to describe female
homosexuals
Lesbian
Bisexual • sexual attraction to both sexes

20. What Determines Sexual Orientation?
Genetics… Click here
• A close degree of genetic relationship is predictive of homosexuality
• Genetics contributes to homosexual orientation in both men and women, although to
a much lesser degree in women than men
Prenatal environment… Click here
• The greater the number of older brothers a man has, the more likely he is to be
homosexual
• Successive male children might trigger some sort of immune response
Brain structure… Click here
• Differences found in the hypothalamus and amygdala of homosexual and
heterosexual men (LeVay, 2007; Savic & Lindström, 2008).
Other findings… Click here
• Homosexuality was not result of disturbed or abnormal family relationships
• Sexual orientation determined before adolescence and before beginning of sexual
activity
• Sexual orientation may be established as early as age 6
• Once sexual orientation is established, whether heterosexual or homosexual, it is
highly resistant to change
• Homosexuality is no longer considered a sexual disorder by clinical psychologists or
psychiatrists (American Psychiatric Association)

21. U.S. Congressman Barney Frank
One of the first openly gay
politicians, Frank has been a
member of the U.S. Congress
since 1981. Frank first realized he
was gay in his early teenage years.
When asked if heterosexuality was
ever an option for him, Frank
(1996) responded, “I wished it was.
But it wasn’t. I can’t imagine that
anybody believes that a 13-year-old
in 1953 thinks, ‘Boy, it would
really be great to be part of this
minority that everybody hates and
to have a really restricted life.’ You
can’t make yourself a different
person. I am who I am. I have no
idea why.”

22. Sexual Behavior
Intimate, committed relationships
are typically established during
early adulthood, but they remain
important throughout the lifespan.
Robert T. Michael and his
colleagues (1994) had this to say
about the matter:
“The public image of sex in
America bears virtually no
relationship to the truth. The public
image consists of myths, and they
are not harmless, for they elicit
unrealistic and at worst dangerous
misconceptions about what people
do sexually. These resulting false
expectations can badly affect self-esteem,
marriages, relationships,
even physical health.”

23. Romantic Love and
the Brain
• Brain loci: Looking at a photo of
one’s romantic partner produced
heightened activity in four brain areas
associated with emotion
• Anteriorcingulate cortex
• Caudate nucleus
• Putamen
• Insula
• Same brain areas are activated in
response to euphoria-producing
drugs, such as opiates and cocaine.
• Men tended to overestimate their
partner’s enjoyment of sex
• 85 percent of men thought that
their partner had experienced an
orgasm in their last sexual
encounter; only 64 percent of
women agreed

24. How Many Sexual
Partners Do
People Have?
• Males tend to desire
and have more sexual
partners than females
• More than half (53
percent) of men, but
only about one third
(31 percent) of women
in the 25-44 age group
reported having had
seven or more lifetime
sexual partners
• More than 70 percent
of males and females
had either one or no
sexual partner in the
previous year

25. How Often Do People Engage in
Sexual Activity?
• About 35 percent of men and 40 percent of women aged 18–94 had not
had sexual intercourse at all in the past year
• About 15 percent of men and women had sex a few times per year to
monthly
• Approximately 30 percent of men and women have sex a few times per
month to weekly
• About 15 percent of men and women have sex 2 or 3 times per week,
and only 4 percent of men and women have sex 4 or more times per
week
• People between the ages of 18 and 59 have engaged in traditional
sexual behaviors in the past year
• Vaginal intercourse is quite common for both men (80 percent) and
women (86 percent)
• About 37 percent of both men and women give oral sex to their partner
and about 44 percent of men and 31 percent of women have received it
• About 3 percent to 6 percent have engaged in anal sex in the past year
• Popularity of anal sex is higher among younger adults than older adults
• 80 percent of students reported hooking up at least once while they were
in college, and between 50 percent and 75 percent had hooked up
during the previous year

26. • Reliving an exciting sexual
experience
• Imagining sex with their current
partner
• Imagining that they are having sex
with a different partner
• Sexual fantasies tend to begin
during adolescent years.
• 95 percent of men and women
report having had sexual
daydreams.
• Men report a higher incidence
of sexual fantasies during
masturbation and nonsexual
activities.
What Do People Have Sexual
Fantasies About?
Click here
When and How Often Do
People Have Sexual
Fantasies?
Click here
• Men fantasize themselves in
active roles.
• Men have explicit sexual
fantasies.
Do Male and Female Sexual
• Men likely to imagine having sex
Fantasies Differ?
with multiple partners.
• Women tend to imagine
Are Sexual Fantasies
Click here • People who engage in sexual
themselves in sexually passive
roles.
• Women are more likely to
imagine romantic themes.
Psychologically Unhealthy?
fantasies most often tend to
exhibit least number of sexual
problems Click and lowest here
level of
sexual dissatisfaction.
Fantasies

27. Sex After Sixty? Seventy?!
Eighty?!!
• More than half of people aged
60–85 years old are sexually
active.
• About one-third of 75- to 85-year-olds
remain sexually active.
• Physical health and having an
intimate partner exert a stronger
influence on the likelihood and
frequency of sexual activity
among senior adults.
• About half of all sexually active
senior adults report at least one
bothersome sexual problem.
• Older men date more often than
older women, mostly because
they have a larger pool of
potential dating partners.

28. Sexual Disorders and Problems: How
Common Are Sexual Problems?
• Sexual dysfunction—
consistent disturbance in
sexual desire, arousal, or
orgasm that causes
psychological distress and
interpersonal difficulties
• 40 percent to 45 percent of
women and 20 percent to 30
percent of men report sexual
problems
• Low desire and arousal
problems common among
women (20 percent)
• Premature ejaculation and
erectile problems common
among men (20 percent)

29. Hypoactive
sexual
desire
disorder—
little or no
sexual
desire
Categories of
Sexual
Dysfunctions
Sexual aversion
disorder—active
avoidance of
genital sexual
contact because of
extreme anxiety,
fear, or disgust
Dyspareunia
—genital
pain before,
during, or
after
intercourse
Male orgasmic
disorder—
delayed orgasm
during
intercourse or
the inability to
achieve orgasm
during
intercourse
Premature
ejaculation—male
orgasm occurring
before it is
desired, often
immediately or
shortly after
sexual stimulation
or penetration
Female orgasmic
disorder—
distress over
consistent delays
in achieving
orgasm or the
complete inability
to achieve
orgasm
Vaginismus—
persistent,
involuntary
contraction of
vaginal
muscles,
resulting in
uncomfortable
or painful
intercourse

30. The Paraphilias Any of several forms of nontraditional sexual
behavior in which a person’s sexual
gratification depends on an unusual sexual
experience, object, or fantasy
Exhibitionism— sexual arousal achieved by publicly exposing one’s genitals
to shocked strangers
Frotteurism— sexual arousal from touching and rubbing against a
nonconsenting person, usually in a crowded public situation, such as a
crowded bus or subway car
Fetishism— sexual arousal in response to inanimate objects (e.g., female
undergarments, shoes, leather, fur, body piercings, uniforms) or body parts
not typically associated with sexual arousal (e.g., feet, hair, legs)
Transvestic fetishism— in heterosexual males, sexual arousal from cross-dressing
in women’s clothes
Pedophilia— sexual fantasies, urges, or behaviors involving sexual activity
with a prepubescent child (generally age 13 or younger)
Voyeurism— sexual arousal from observing an unsuspecting person who is
disrobing, naked, or engaged in sexual activity
Sexual sadism— sexual arousal achieved through intentionally inflicting
psychological or physical suffering on another person
Sexual masochism— sexual arousal in response to being humiliated,
beaten, bound, or otherwise made to suffer

31. Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs)
• Estimated 19 million
cases of STDs are
diagnosed annually in
the United States
• Young people aged 13
to 29 years account for
one-third—34 percent—
of those cases
The ABCs of Preventing STDs
ABC model summarizes three
strategies as follows:
A = Abstinence
B = Be faithful
C = Condoms

33. AIDS Epidemic
• HIV can stay in the body
for many years without
apparent symptoms
• As virus attacks the
immune system, the
person becomes very
susceptible to other
opportunistic diseases
(pneumonia, cancers)
• Highest-risk groups are
gay men, intravenous-drug
users who share
needles, and people with
multiple sex partners
Acquired immune deficiency
syndrome
caused by exchange of bodily
fluids (blood, blood products,
semen) containing human
immunodeficiency virus (HIV),
which attacks and weakens the
immune system
Prevention and Treatment
• There is currently no cure for
AIDS, but it can be treated with
complex “drug cocktails,”
which improve quality and
duration of life, but have many
side effects and are extremely
expensive.
• Prevention is possible using
condoms; not engaging in
other high-risk behaviors, such
as sharing needles; and
through improved blood
screening and infection control
in health care settings.