Human Sexuality Flashcards
What does human sexuality encompass?
- Gender identity
- Sexual responsiveness, behaviour + orientation
- Maintenance of emotional relationships
What biologically determines sex?
- Genetic makeup
- Reproductive anatomy + biological function
What is gender?
The social interpretation of sex
Gender role definition
Behaviours, attitudes, values, beliefs which society expects/considers appropriate to males/females
Gender stereotypes definition
Wildly held beliefs about psychological differences between males/females
Sex typing definition
Process by which children acquire sex/gender identity + learn gender appropriate behaviours
What is androgen insensitivity syndrome?
Male develops female external appearance due to insensitivity to androgens
What is androgenital syndrome?
Female develops male external appearance due to prenatal exposure to high levels of androgens
What happens in DHT deficient males?
Male develops female external appearance due to deficiency of alpha-reductase
What is Turner syndrome?
- XO chromosomes
- Short stature, swollen hands/feet, webbed neck
- Infertility, amenorrhoea, absent/incomplete pubertal development
What is Klinefelter syndrome?
- XXY chromosomes
- Gynaecomastia, small testes, less hair, infertility
- Tall with abnormal body proportions (long legs, short trunk)
Freud’s psychoanalytic theory
- Rooted in phallic stage of psychosexual development
- Resolution of Oedipus or Electra complex
Cognitive development theory
- Children’s discovery of their sex causes them to identify + imitate same-sex models
Gender-schematic processing theory
Gender identity alone can provide a child with sufficient motivation to assume sex-type behaviour
What are paraphilias?
Sexual urges directed to non-human objects, suffering/humiliation of oneself or partner, towards others incapable of giving consent (fetishism, exhibitionism, voyeurism, sadomasochism, paedophilia)
