PSY 325A Human Sexuality

1
PSY 325A Human Sexuality

• Introduction to the course
• The history of sexuality research
• The methods of sexuality research

2
Introduction to the course

• Overview of syllabus
• Is sexuality important?
• Why study something that occurs naturally?
• How broad are the effects of human sexuality?
• Should Christians talk about such things?

3
Sexuality research in the modern era

• Richard von Krafft-Ebing (1840-1902)
• Psychopathia sexualis
• Sigmund Freud 1856-1939)
• Three essays on the theory of sexuality, 1905
• Havelock Ellis (1859-1939)
• Studies in the psychology of sex, 1896-1928
• Theodore van de Velde (1873-1937)
• Ideal marriage, 1926

4
More research history

• The boys from Berlin and sexology
• Robert Latou Dickinson
• A thousand marriages, 1932
• Helena Wright
• The sex factor in marriage, 1930
• Alfred C. Kinsey (1894-1956)
• Sexual behavior in the human male, 1948
• Sexual behavior in the human female , 1953

5
More recent research

• Kinsey Institute studies (1989, 1990)
• Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender,
  and Reproduction
• Money and Ehrhardt
• Man woman, boy girl, 1972
• Masters and Johnson
• Human sexual inadequacy, 1970
• Homosexuality in perspective, 1979

6
Survey research

• The Hunt report, 1975
• The Redbook survey (Tavris Sadd, 1977)
• The Hite reports (1976, 1981)
• The National Health and Social Life Survey
• (Michael, Gagnon, Michaels, and Laumann, 1994)

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Summary of research methods

• Arms length survey research
• Face-to-face survey research
• Case studies and clinical research
• Observational research
• Behavioral and physiological
• Experimental research
• Field research

8
The ethics of sex research

• Sampling and reliability
• Privacy, invasion, and informed consent
• Participation selection bias, Hawthorne effect
• Validity of invasive technologies, like
  plethysmography
• Rationale of formation of groups, eg. race
• Ideological use of research Francoeur

9
Cross-cultural analysis of sexuality

• Liberia
• Iran
• Japan
• Sudan

10
Why study human sexuality?

• Inquiring minds want to know.
• To evaluate contradictory messages we may have
  received
• To develop a mature attitude
• To learn to cope with our past
• To improve the quality of our lives
• To understand cultures, history, Scripture, and
  humanity