What are the theoretical perspectives on sexuality? - Chapter 2

According to Freud, nothing is more important than the choice for a reproductive mate. He views sex in terms of libido, which can be expressed with sexual behaviour. On the other hand, Bandura would argue that sexual arousal leading to an orgasm is a positive reinforcement that will lead to the couple repeating this act more often.

What are the evolutionary perspectives on sexuality?

The evolutionary biology to understand social behaviour in animals is called socio-biology. The socio-biologist will study human sexual behaviour by examining patterns in other species. From the evolution perspective the most important function of sex is producing healthy offspring. This happens through sexual selection, in which animals that are best at adapting to their environment will survive. Humans choose their mates based on physical attractiveness, which according to the socio-biologist is a way of evaluating one’s health and vigor. This could indicate a better offspring. However, if people only chose mates based on maximum reproductive success, attractiveness should be a more important indicator of mate selection in unhealthy countries.

There are several hindrances that can occur with reproduction, two of them are infant vulnerability and maternal death. The first is reduced when the mother is providing care continuously, including breastfeeding. Also, a pair-bond between mother and father and attachment between the child and its parents limit infant vulnerability. Parental investment means that parents are more interested in the survival of their own offspring and will invest significant resources to achieve this. Darwin proposed that sexual selection creates differences between females and males. There are two processes involved:

1. The competition of representatives from one gender (often males) for access to mating members of another gender.

2. Preferential choice by representatives from one gender (often females) for certain members of another gender.

This means that species compete among themselves in the mating process. The socio-biologic perspective has been criticized. Researchers argue that the biological determinism is an old-fashioned version of evolution and sex is no longer only reproductive.

What is the evolutionary psychology perspective on sexuality?

Evolutionary psychology focuses on psychological mechanisms, altered by natural selection. Behaviours that evolved as a result of sexual selection can be considered cognitive or emotional. People can have different strategies in choosing a partner for reproduction. A short-term strategy is when one chooses a partner based on immediate resources, such as food or money. A long-term strategy could be to choose someone who appears to provide resources for an indefinite future. Therefore, women with a long-term strategy should respond negatively to women who make sex easily available. On the other hand, females that pursue short-term strategies dress more provocatively. Researchers found that women pursue both long-term and short-term strategies. Another criticism is that in this view, every mating choice should have some kind of evolutionary purpose. The research also suggests that these strategies are universal, but the population studied are mostly Western Educated Industrialized Rich Democratic societies (WEIRD). It is not certain that these conditions hold when studies in other cultural societies.

What are psychological theories on sexuality?

There are several psychological theories that are relevant for studying sexual behaviour. These are the psycho-analytic theory, social exchange theory, learning theory and cognitive theory.

The psychoanalytic theory

The psychoanalytic theory is one of the most influential theories in psychology. Freud argues that sex drive, or libido is the primary force in sexual behaviour. The libido is focused on erogenous zones on the body. These zones are sensitive to stimulation and provide feelings of pleasure. The second influence is thanatos, the death instinct. According to Freud, personality exists of three parts: the id, ego and superego. The id operates based upon the pleasure principle and includes the libido. The ego uses the reality principle to keep track of the irrational id. The superego is referred to as consciousness. It operates based upon the idealism principle. It exists from moral goals instead of realistic goals. The id, ego and superego develop in sequence where the id is present at birth, followed by the ego and lastly the superego. According to Freud’s principles, there are several stages of development.

1. The oral stage in which pleasure is evoked from sucking and stimulating the lips.

2. The anal stage in which interest is mostly focussed towards elimination.

3. The phallic stage where a child’s (male) attention is focused towards the penis (phallus). In this stage the oedipus complex is present, where the boy sexually desires his mother. The boy then feels castration anxiety which leads him to stop desiring his mother and identify with his father instead. The oedipus complex is considered a primary factor in human development. The third stage in a girl is different and is characterized by penis envy. She develops the electra complex where she desires her father. The resolution of the electra complex is dissimilar to the boy’s solution for the Oedipus complex. Therefore, Freud argues that girls remain immature compared to men.

4. After the phallic stage, the latency stage follows. It lasts until adolescence; sexual impulses are repressed and sexually there is not much happening.

5. The genital stage starts during puberty and sexual urges become more genital, oral and anal to promote their biological function of reproduction. It is possible that people remain fixed on one stage. For example, Freud argues that people that remain fixated on the oral stage have habits such as biting their fingernails.

There are some criticisms on the psychoanalytical theory. One of the major critiques is that scientific research is impossible. This is because most urges are unconscious and can not be studies using the currently available techniques. However, fMRI research has given some insight into Freud’s theories. Neuropsychoanalysis suggests bizarre imagery (from the id) is controlled by the prefrontal cortex. One of Freud’s main concepts is repression where people forget certain information as a defensive act. Even though this has been widely criticized, the social factors causing neural inhibition and impulse control could account for Freud’s idea of repression. Other criticisms are Freud’s study subjects consisting of mentally ill individuals meaning his theory is more likely to resemble disturbances in the human personality rather than healthy behaviour. Also, females tend to disagree with Freud because of his male-centered perspective. They argue that boys have womb envy (Horney, 1926/1973) and there is no distinction is made between a vaginal orgasm and a clitoral orgasm. Finally researchers argue that Freud overestimated the biological factors in sex.

Learning theory

It is apparent that much of sexual behaviour is learned. It is not only driven by biological forces. Research about (sexual) behaviour in different cultural environments resulted in various principles of modern learning theory.

• Classical conditioning is associated with Pavlov (1849-1936). It exists from an unconditioned stimulus, followed by an unconditioned response. The process of learning that elicits the response without the stimulus is called classical conditioning. It has proved to be useful in explaining several phenomena in sexuality. One example is the explanation of a fetish, where someone has sexual desire for an object rather than a person.

• Operant conditioning is associated with Skinner and refers to the reinforcement (positive versus punishment) after receiving a stimulus. If the behaviour is followed by a reward, the behaviour is likely to occur again. Punishment of sexual behaviour, such as pain during intercourse can lead to diminishing of the desire to have sex. However, other types of punishment can result in continuing the behaviour privately. One example is getting caught while masturbating.

• Behaviour modification exists from techniques derived from theories on conditioning to change behaviour. These methods also apply to solving problems with sexual behaviour. One technique is olfactory aversion therapy. Problematic behaviour is then punished using an aversive stimulus.

• Social learning is a complex learning theory involving the process of imitation and identification. They are useful in the explanation of gender identity. Once gender-specific behaviour is learned, the likelihood of occurrence is determined by its consequences. Creation of a sense of competence, or self-efficacy is achieved by promoting successful behaviour, such as anticonception.

Social exchange theory

The social exchange theory is based on reinforcement principles. It describes changes in relationships between people. Every behaviour comes with a certain cost or reward. According to the theory, humans behave hedonic and strive for optimal profits with our actions. Social relationships are characterized by the exchange of services and goods. The outcome of such a relationship is defined by its comparison level for alternatives. It also predicts when people change their relationships. The key concept is equity where people in a relationship believe the rewards weigh up to the costs. The matching hypothesis predicts that people choose mates based upon social characteristics and rewards on the dimensions of attractiveness, wealth and social status. The theory has been criticized because the applied ideas of rewards and costs do not always seem to apply in romantic relationships. Another criticism is that other motivations are downplayed by social exchange. The theory is unable to explain altruistic behaviour.

Cognitive theory

Cognitive psychologists believe that people’s thoughts and the way they think -and behave should be studied.

• Cognition can explain certain parts of sexuality. The basic notion is that thoughts shape what we feel. The cognitive approach states that psychological distress is caused by unpleasant thoughts. The labeling, evaluation and perception of events is crucial to our (sexual) experiences.

• The gender schema theory explains gender-role-development in terms of internal schemas. A schema is a framework that consists of general knowledge that someone has about a subject. The schema is used to organize one’s thoughts, feelings and emotions. It both helps -and distort our memories, especially when information is inconsistent with our schema. A gender-schema is a cognitive structure of behaviours, personality and appearance that is associated with either male or female. The gender schemas guide everyday behaviour and gender-stereotypes are very difficult to change.

What are critical theories about sexuality?

The theories that have been discussed so far are used to understand the nature of behaviour. The behaviours described in these theories are derived from groups, subcultures, associations and constructions of categories. The critical theories give a more in-depth description about the formation of these categories influenced by groups and subcultures.

Feminist theory

Feminist theory was proposed by many independent scholars and exists of four important assertions.

1. Gender as status and inequality: gender is a status characteristic where men often have greater status than women. It has allowed men to undermine the sexual expression of women.

2. Sexuality includes different topics, such as abortion, rape, birth-control, sexual harassment and pornography. According to feminists, women’s sexuality is repressed instead of expressed.

3. Gender roles and socialization: gender-roles display inequality and place restrictions on both women and men’s behaviour.

4. Intersectionality states that people should consider other’s group memberships, including gender, social class, sexual orientation and race.

Queer theory

Lately queer regained a positive attitude from homosexuals. The theory is broader than just homosexuals, it is about intersex and transgender too. The theory states that social categorization of sexual orientation should not fall into binaries (just two categories). It questions the gender binary that separates males and females. It also argues that sexual identities are not restricted for the individual. Another definition is that it challenges heteronormativity which is the belief that heterosexuality is the only normal and natural pattern of sexuality.

What are sociological perspectives on sexuality?

Sociologists study the influence of society on the expression of sexuality.

• Symbolic interaction theory states that human nature and social order is derived from symbolic communication between individuals. Behaviour is based on interaction with others. The meaning of an object does not depend on its qualities, but also on what a person might do with it. The views on people are thus goal-oriented and proactive. Especially for sexuality, it alerts us to engage in mutual effort in order to define a situation, by conscious thought, whereas sexual behaviour is often dependent on emotional decision making.

• Sexual scripts are learned by the outcome of social influence. The idea behind it is that human behaviour is somehow scripted. Sexual behaviour in this sense comes from prior learning and teachings of sexual etiquette. Scripts are the plans that people carry around in their head that determine behavioural patterns. Besides that, it also conveys the meaning of how we should perceive certain events or what guidelines to follow.

• Sexual fields are contextual factors determining sexual behaviour. The difference between the kind of intimacy that people will perform reflects the nature of the sexual field in each situation. A sexual field is defined as a site that is populated with people with erotic dispositions they project on each other and the space around them.

Social institutions

Most sociologists view sexuality using three basic assumptions, the first is that every society regulates the sexuality of its citizens. The second is that the inappropriateness or appropriateness of sexuality depends upon the institutional context in which it happens. The third assumption is that basic institutions of society affect the rules that citizens are subjected to by the government. Each of the institutions explained below has its own view on sexuality and an ideology about beliefs and behaviours.

• Religion is powerful in shaping sexual norms. The traditions of asceticism (abstinence of sexual pleasure) practiced by monks and priests is seen as virtuous. Sexual legitimacy is only reachable with heterosexual marriage with the goal of having children. This is called a procreational ideology.

• The economy influences sexuality by permitting a kind of togetherness where before the industrial revolution sexuality was closely monitored by family members. After the industrial revolution people started to spend more time outside of the house, thus the surveillance became less. This increased rate of affairs and same-gender sex. It is still prevalent today, where unemployment has a big influence on sexuality.

• The family influences sexuality because of the interpersonal relationships. There exists a triple linkage between love, marriage and sex. The relational ideology means that the link between love and sex can exist without marriage. The family also influences sexuality through the socialization of children and teach them appropriate behaviours.

• Medicine has become a major influence over the past years. The predominance of medicine on sexuality in the biomedical model is called medicalization of sexuality. It has two components: the first is sexual behaviours and conditions that are caused by health habits. The second are problematic experiences where medical treatment is helpful.

• The law institution influences sex by restraining people’s sexual behaviours. Laws determine (sexual) norms and therefore people will have very different views on sexuality across different societies.