Preview: Chapter 2 - What are the Theoretical Perspectives on Sexuality?

1. ... is a theory that all living things have acquired their present forms through gradual changes in their genetic endowment over successive generations.

A. Existentialism

B. Positivism

C. Evolution

D. Structuralism

2. Evolution occurs via ...; the process by which animals that are best adapted to their environment are more likely to survive, reproduce, and pass on their genes to the next generation.

A. Cultural relativism

B. Natural selection

C. Existentialism

D. Communal integration

3. Sociobiologists suggest that the characteristics used to judge a person's attractiveness are indicative of the health and vigor of an individual, which in turn are probably indicators of the person's ... 

A. Social status

B. Extrinsic values

C. Superego

D. Reproductive success

4. Which of the following is true of the attachment between an infant and a parent? 

A. It has no significance in contemporary societies.

B. It is a biological mechanism that reduces infant vulnerability.

C. It has no impact upon the infant's chances of survival.

D. It applies only to parents belonging to Western cultures.

5. Which of the following does sociobiology ignore?

A. The survival of a group and species.

B. An individual's struggle for survival.

C. The mating preferences of females.

D. The mating preferences of males.

6. Sociobiology has been criticized because ... 

A. It believes that humans are ruled by their unconscious minds.

B. It assumes that reproduction is the central function of sex.

C. It ignores the competition among members of one gender for mating access to members of the other gender.

D. It does not study the mating preferences of females.

7. According to research analyzing waist-to-hip ratios across a large number of cultures, which of the following is true? 

A. The .70 hip-to-waist ratio is most common in societies where women are financially independent.

B. The .70 hip-to-waist ratio is most common in societies where women are economically dependent on men.

C. The preference for a .70 hip-to-waist ratio by men has been proven to exist across all cultures.

D. The preference for a .70 hip-to-waist ratio by men is hardwired into their brains by evolution.

8. Which of the following is true of evolutionary psychology? 

A. It allows for the fact that some traits displayed by humans may be simply "design flaws".

B. It believes that human cognitive structures evolved over the years just as human behavior did.

C. It believes that men and women are identical when it comes to their mating preferences.

D. It does not recognize that every observable human characteristic has adaptive significance.

9. Freud's term for sex drive or sex energy is:

A. Libido

B. Id

C. Thanatos

D. Superego

10. Which of the following is true of the id, according to Freud?

A. It operates on the reality principle

B. It operates on idealism

C. It is present only during adulthood

D. It is a reservoir of psychic energy

11. What are erogenous zones? 

A. They are areas of the body that are completely insensate.

B. They are areas of the body that give pleasure when touched.

C. They are present only in males, not in females.

D. They are present in females, not in males.

12. Freud believed that a child passes through a sequences of stages of psychosexual development. The stage in which boys and girls have considerably different experiences is the ... stage.

A. Anal

B. Oral

C. Phallic

D. Rectal

13. Which of the following is a major difference between psychoanalytic theory and learning theory? 

A. Unlike learning theorists, psychoanalytic theorists believe that the determinants of human sexual behavior occur in early childhood.

B. Unlike psychoanalytic theorists, learning theorists believe that the determinants of human sexual behavior occur in early childhood.

C. Unlike learning theorists, psychoanalytic theorists believe that sexual behavior can be learned and changed at any time in one's lifespan.

D. Unlike psychoanalytic theorists, learned theorists believe that the determinants of sexual behavior have been hardwired by evolution.

14. Which of the following is true of social learning theory? 

A. It states that sexual behavior is innate and cannot be cultivated.

B. It proves conclusively that media have little or no influence on young children.

C. It recognizes the processesof imitation and observational learning.

D. It proves conclusively that the environment plays no role in shaping a person's behavior.

15. ... is based on the principle of reinforcement and assumes that people will choose actions that maximize rewards and minimize costs.

A. Social satisfaction theory

B. Existentialism

C. Social exchange theory

D. Positivism

16. Based on feminist theory, ... refers to ways in which we perform gender or sexuality based on society's norms.

A. Intersectionality

B. Symbolic action theory

C. Heteronormativity

D. Performativity

17. In which of the following ways does social cognitive theory differ from social learning theory? 

A. It is not based on any principles of operant conditioning.

B. It lacks any components of imitation or observational learning.

C. It includes cognitive processes like self-efficacy

D. It does not consider consequences relevant to the likelihood of a learned behavior being performed.

18. Which of the following is an assertion of feminist theory?

A. Unlike race and social class, gender is a dimension of equality.

B. Women's sexuality has been repressed and depressed, but rarely expressed.

C. Women have greater status and power than men in a culture.

D. The experiences of all women and men are the same regardless of one's social class and sexual orientation.

19. In the context of the theoretical perspectives on sexuality, feminist theories argue that ... 

A. The sexual experiences of all women are the same

B. People are better off without gender roles

C. The sexual experiences of all men are the same

D. Women should have greater status and power in society than men.

20. Which of the following thoeries that explain sexual phenomena uses the social constructionist perspective? 

A. Feminist theory

B. Learning theory

C. Cognitive theory

D. Psychoanalytic theory

21. Critical theories that explain sexual phenomena most likely discuss ... 

A. The role of genetic in describing human sexual behavior.

B. Social interaction theory and sexual scripts.

C. Various behaviors and types of people as social constructions.

D. Freud's psychoanalytic theory and learning theory.

Answers:

1. C

2. B

3. D

4. D

5. A

6. B

7. B

8. B

9. A

10. D

11. B

12. C

13. A

14. C

15. C

16. D

17. C

18. B

19. B

20. A

21. C

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