Chapter 2
Theoretical Perspectives on Sexuality
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Evolutional Perspectives
• Sociobiology - the application of evolutionary biology to
understanding the social behavior of animals, including
humans
• Evolution occurs via natural selection
• Natural selection - process by which those animals that are
best adapted to their environment are more likely to
survive, reproduce, & pass their genes on to the next
generation
• Sexual selection - selection that results from differences in
traits affecting access to mates
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Evolutionary Psychology
• Focuses on the psychological mechanisms that
have been shaped by natural selection
• Sexual strategies - female and males face different
adaptive problems; these differences lead to
different strategies, or behaviors designed to solve
these problems
• Criticism include that sociobiology ignores the
importance of culture and learning
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Psychological Theories:
Psychoanalytic Theory
• Freud saw sex as one of the key forces in
human life
• He divided human personality into 3 parts:
– Id
– Ego
– Superego
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Psychological Theories:
Psychoanalytic Theory
• Erogenous zones - part of the skin or mucous
membrane that is extremely sensitive to
stimulation
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Psychological Theories:
Psychoanalytic Theory
• Freud’s stages of psychosexual development:
– Oral stage
– Anal stage
– Phallic stage
– Latency
– Genital stage
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Learning Theory
• Classical conditioning - takes place when a
conditioned stimulus is paired with an original
unconditioned stimulus
• Operant conditioning - means a person is more
likely to repeat a behavior if it is rewarded
(reinforcement)
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Learning Theory
• Behavior modification - involves a set of
techniques used to change behavior
• Social learning - based on operant conditioning,
imitation and identification
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Psychological Theories:
Cognitive Theories
• Cognition and sexuality what we think
influences what we feel
• Psychological distress - related to
unpleasant thoughts
• Gender schema theory - set of attributes that
we associate with males and females;
predisposes us to process information on the
basis of gender
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Sociological Perspectives: The
Sociological Approach
• Levels of analysis:
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Macro level
Subcultural level
Interpersonal level
Level of the individual
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Social Institutions
• Our sexuality is influenced by powerful
social institutions, including:
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Religion
Economy
Family
Medicine
Law
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Sexual Scripts
• This is the idea that sexual behavior is
scripted much as a play in a theater is
• They tell us an etiquette of sexual behavior
• Scripts tell us the meaning we should attach
to a particular sexual event
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Reiss’s Sociological Theory of
Sexuality
• Sexuality is linked to the structures of any
society in 3 areas:
– Kinship system
– Power structure
– Ideology of society
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