Sexual Motivation

Our next set of notes in unit 8 on motivation is sex and that the sexual activity is a very biological part of really all organisms necessarily because it's what allows allows us to move on as a species, right? So we need to look at this from a very objective academic point of view. But I do want to point out that if this feels awkward for you, or if you're kind of giggling or like, oh, man, this should be. interesting, you should then think about how there are cultural influences on our ideas and perceptions and expectations surrounding sex. And that sex is incredibly biological as well as incredibly cultural and social. And the social cultural part of sex is ever-changing, I guess you could say, but incredibly impactful on the act. So let's talk about this. So the psychology of sex hunger responds to a need, right? So if we don't eat, we die. Sex in that sense is not a need. If we don't have sex, we don't die. It's just that our species never lives on. But there's more to it for our species than just reproduction, right? So here's kind of the biological, psychological and social cultural impact on sexual motivation and that by There's very, very complex yet simple biological factors with sexual maturity, the hormones, and sexual orientation. Notice how sexual orientation is under biological. I'm going to talk about that. Psychological being the exposure to stimulating conditions, sexual fantasies, and then the social cultural. So the family and societal values, religious personal values, and that's where the cultural expectations come into play. So the scientific study of sex. The first major study is in the late 1940s, early 50s. Alfred Kinsey interviewed over 17,000 just everyday folks concerning their sexual behaviors. They rated their behavior on a 0 to 6 scale, exclusively heterosexual, exclusively homosexual. In the 1970s, Masters and Johnson brought sex into the laboratory, actually studying sex by directly observing and recording physiological patterns of people engaging in the activity.. And that's kind of where they came up with this sexual response cycle. So on the left here being the phase and then the physiological response and what is going on. And yes, you need to know what each of these are for both males and females, but then knowing the order. And that it starts with excitement and ends in resolution. So excitement being an increase in blood flow to the areas involved in the sexual response cycle. intercourse, plateau being the maximum level of arousal reached, and orgasm phase being release of sexual tension. And then the resolution phase is that the body returns to pre-excitement state and that there is kind of a refractory phase. And knowing that women's resolve is slower, really this entire process is slower for women. If you look down in the notes that I've provided you see the psychology of sex and we need to quickly just talk about sexual cues and scripts. So sexual cues, much of sexual motivation comes from the brain and that there's different cues that kind of might start this response cycle. So what individuals find sexually arousing is dependent on many different stimuli including conditions ones and that items you learn to respond to. So not just psychology of sex but then there's the learning process and that being influenced by our society and culture. Sexual scripts are social learned programs of sexual interpretation and responsiveness. This is derived from the individual's culture. So media in particular seems to be one way that many devise our sexual scripts, but this can lead to unreliable and unrealistic ideals and that it's not very realistic that that will happen for you. But again it kind of all goes back to what is learned but then also culturally influenced. Let's talk about sexual orientation. orientation. This refers to a person's preference for both emotional, not just sexual, but both emotional and sexual relationships with individuals of the same sex, other sex, or either sex. So someone who is homosexual, right, homo being the same, right, and that like homogenous groups are groups that are the same. So homosexual would be of the same sex. Heterosexual, just like heterogeneous groups, they are different. varying levels so Heterosexual is the opposite sex, and then bisexual is the either one. So where does our sexual orientation come from? Most psychologists today view sexual orientation as neither willfully chosen, nor willfully changed. It's just what is scientifically supported. This view has changed drastically from a time when homosexuality was once in the Diagnostic Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders. DSM is the book of psychological disordered behavior, abnormal psychology. Homosexuality was there as a mental disorder. So yes, we've come a long way, but a lot would argue that we have a long way to go. The view remains a controversial one due to societal, political, and moral factors. Most of the scientific theories point to biological or genetic causes of sexual orientation. Most of those being that are... recognized by the APA. So the size of the anterior hypothalamus is smaller and anterior commissure is larger in homosexual men and that there is an actual difference in the brain. A number of reasons suggest that homosexuality may be due to genetic reasons. So homosexuality seems to run in families. This does not mean that a little girl who who let's say is adopted by a homosexual female couple, is then going to be homosexual? No, because they are not genetically related. What this is saying is that homosexuality seems to genetically run in families. Twin studies. Homosexuality is more common in identical twins than fraternal twins. However, there is mixed results. This is another genetic factor in that when one twin is homosexual, the other one more likely is also to be. showing that there's a genetic factor. Genetic engineers can genetically manipulate female fruit flies to act like males during courtship and males to act like females. It's kind of interesting in that they've simplified what it is to act as a male and female in the courtship process for fruit flies and they can change it. Prenatal hormones also impact sexual orientation during critical periods of fetal development. and this is usually two to five months after conception. In animals, testosterone exposure to the fetus results in female sheep showing homosexual behavior. So female fetuses, female sheep fetuses that were exposed to testosterone in abnormally high levels then showed homosexual behavior. In humans, the female hormone exposure to males or female fetus results in attraction to males. Female hormone being progesterone or estrogen. Kind of interesting in that sure there's a genetic factor and that it can run genetically in families but then also this factor in prenatal development.

interesting, you should then think about how there are cultural influences on our ideas and perceptions and expectations surrounding sex. And that sex is incredibly biological as well as incredibly cultural and social. And the social cultural part of sex is ever-changing, I guess you could say, but incredibly impactful on the act.

So let's talk about this. So the psychology of sex hunger responds to a need, right? So if we don't eat, we die. Sex in that sense is not a need. If we don't have sex, we don't die.

It's just that our species never lives on. But there's more to it for our species than just reproduction, right? So here's kind of the biological, psychological and social cultural impact on sexual motivation and that by There's very, very complex yet simple biological factors with sexual maturity, the hormones, and sexual orientation.

Notice how sexual orientation is under biological. I'm going to talk about that. Psychological being the exposure to stimulating conditions, sexual fantasies, and then the social cultural.

So the family and societal values, religious personal values, and that's where the cultural expectations come into play. So the scientific study of sex. The first major study is in the late 1940s, early 50s.

Alfred Kinsey interviewed over 17,000 just everyday folks concerning their sexual behaviors. They rated their behavior on a 0 to 6 scale, exclusively heterosexual, exclusively homosexual. In the 1970s, Masters and Johnson brought sex into the laboratory, actually studying sex by directly observing and recording physiological patterns of people engaging in the activity..

And that's kind of where they came up with this sexual response cycle. So on the left here being the phase and then the physiological response and what is going on. And yes, you need to know what each of these are for both males and females, but then knowing the order. And that it starts with excitement and ends in resolution.

So excitement being an increase in blood flow to the areas involved in the sexual response cycle. intercourse, plateau being the maximum level of arousal reached, and orgasm phase being release of sexual tension. And then the resolution phase is that the body returns to pre-excitement state and that there is kind of a refractory phase. And knowing that women's resolve is slower, really this entire process is slower for women.

If you look down in the notes that I've provided you see the psychology of sex and we need to quickly just talk about sexual cues and scripts. So sexual cues, much of sexual motivation comes from the brain and that there's different cues that kind of might start this response cycle. So what individuals find sexually arousing is dependent on many different stimuli including conditions ones and that items you learn to respond to. So not just psychology of sex but then there's the learning process and that being influenced by our society and culture. Sexual scripts are social learned programs of sexual interpretation and responsiveness.

This is derived from the individual's culture. So media in particular seems to be one way that many devise our sexual scripts, but this can lead to unreliable and unrealistic ideals and that it's not very realistic that that will happen for you. But again it kind of all goes back to what is learned but then also culturally influenced.

Let's talk about sexual orientation. orientation. This refers to a person's preference for both emotional, not just sexual, but both emotional and sexual relationships with individuals of the same sex, other sex, or either sex. So someone who is homosexual, right, homo being the same, right, and that like homogenous groups are groups that are the same.

So homosexual would be of the same sex. Heterosexual, just like heterogeneous groups, they are different. varying levels so Heterosexual is the opposite sex, and then bisexual is the either one. So where does our sexual orientation come from? Most psychologists today view sexual orientation as neither willfully chosen, nor willfully changed.

It's just what is scientifically supported. This view has changed drastically from a time when homosexuality was once in the Diagnostic Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders. DSM is the book of psychological disordered behavior, abnormal psychology.

Homosexuality was there as a mental disorder. So yes, we've come a long way, but a lot would argue that we have a long way to go. The view remains a controversial one due to societal, political, and moral factors. Most of the scientific theories point to biological or genetic causes of sexual orientation.

Most of those being that are... recognized by the APA. So the size of the anterior hypothalamus is smaller and anterior commissure is larger in homosexual men and that there is an actual difference in the brain.

A number of reasons suggest that homosexuality may be due to genetic reasons. So homosexuality seems to run in families. This does not mean that a little girl who who let's say is adopted by a homosexual female couple, is then going to be homosexual?

No, because they are not genetically related. What this is saying is that homosexuality seems to genetically run in families. Twin studies.

Homosexuality is more common in identical twins than fraternal twins. However, there is mixed results. This is another genetic factor in that when one twin is homosexual, the other one more likely is also to be.

showing that there's a genetic factor. Genetic engineers can genetically manipulate female fruit flies to act like males during courtship and males to act like females. It's kind of interesting in that they've simplified what it is to act as a male and female in the courtship process for fruit flies and they can change it. Prenatal hormones also impact sexual orientation during critical periods of fetal development. and this is usually two to five months after conception.

In animals, testosterone exposure to the fetus results in female sheep showing homosexual behavior. So female fetuses, female sheep fetuses that were exposed to testosterone in abnormally high levels then showed homosexual behavior. In humans, the female hormone exposure to males or female fetus results in attraction to males. Female hormone being progesterone or estrogen.

Kind of interesting in that sure there's a genetic factor and that it can run genetically in families but then also this factor in prenatal development.

Transcript for: Sexual Motivation

Transcript for:
Sexual Motivation