Normal Sexuality: These Factors Affect Personality, Growth, Development, and Functioning

NORMAL SEXUALITY
Sexuality- is determined by anatomy, physiology, the culture in which a person lives,

relationships with others, and developmental experiences throughout the life cycle. It includes
the perception of being male or female and private thoughts and fantasies as well as behavior.
PSYCHOSEXUAL FACTORS
four interrelated psychosexual factors:
1. sexual identity
2. gender identity
3. sexual orientation
4. sexual behavior
These factors affect personality, growth, development, and functioning.
Sexual identity
-is the pattern of a person's biological sexual characteristics: chromosomes, external genitalia,
internal genitalia, hormonal composition, gonads, and secondary sex characteristics.
-In normal development, these characteristics form a cohesive pattern that leaves a person in
no doubt about his or her sex.
Gender identity
-is a person's sense of maleness or femaleness.
-arises from parental and cultural attitudes, the infant's external genitalia, and a genetic
influence, which is physiologically active by the sixth week of fetal life.
-May or may not agree male or female with physiological sex or gender role (i.e., gender identity
disorder)
*Gender Role
- Expression of ones gender identity in society
-Societal pressure to conform to sexual norms
-May or may not agree with gender identity or physiological sex
-built up cumulatively through
( 1 ) experiences encountered and transacted through casual and unplanned learning
(2) explicit instruction and inculcation
Sexual orientation
- Persistent and unchanging preference for people of the same sex (homosexual) or the
opposite sex (heterosexual) for love and sexual expression
-Differential exposure to prenatal sex hormones; Genetic influences
-True bisexuality is uncommon; most people have a sexual preference; Homosexuality is
considered a normal variant of sexual expression
Sexual Behavior
-brings pleasure to oneself and one's partner and involves stimulation of the primary sex organs
including coitus;
-it is devoid of inappropriate feelings of guilt or anxiety and is not compulsive.
-Societal understanding of what defines normal sexual behavior is inconstant and varies from
era to era, reflecting the cultural mores of the time.
The Central Nervous System and Sexual Behavior
Cortex Control sexual impulses, process sexual stimuli, emotions, hormone
control and sexual arousal
Limbic System Chemical and electrical stimutaion, inhibit emotions of fear or anxiety
Brainstem Exert inhibitory and excitatory control over spinal sexual reflexes
Spinal cord Sexual arousal and climax organized at this level
SEXUAL RESPONSE CYCLE

HORMONES AN D SEXUAL BEHAVIOR
substances that increase dopamine levels in the brain increase desire
substances that augment serotonin decrease desire
Testosterone increases libido in both men and women
estrogen is a key factor in the lubrication involved in female arousal and may increase
sensitivity in the woman to stimulation.
Progesterone mildly depresses desire in men and women as do excessive prolactin
and cortisol
Oxytocin is involved in pleasurable sensations during sex and is found in higher levels
in men and women following orgasm
GENDER DIFFERENCES IN DESIRE AND EROTIC STIMULI

MEN WOMEN
generally possess a higher Motivation for sex may include a wish to reinforce the pair
baseline level of desire than do bond, the need for a feeling of closeness, a way of preventing
women, which may be the man from straying, or a desire to please the partner
biologically determined
respond sexually to visual respond sexually to romantic stories such as a demonstrative
stimuli of nude or barely hero whose passion for the heroine impels him toward a
dressed women lifetime commitment to her.
sense of excitement may reflect a readiness to be aroused
rather than physiological lubrication.
MASTURBATION
Masturbation is usually a normal precursor of object-related sexual behavior. No other
form of sexual activity has been more frequently discussed, more roundly condemned,
and more universally practiced than masturbation.
is common in infancy and childhood.
Adolescents are physically capable of coitus and orgasm, but are usually inhibited by
social restraints.
normal way to reduce sexual tensions.
males learn to masturbate to orgasm earlier and masturbate more frequently than
females.
An important emotional difference between the adolescent and the youngster of earlier
years is the presence of coital fantasies during masturbation in the adolescent.
Couples in a sexual relationship do not abandon masturbation entirely. When coitus is
unsatisfactory or is unavailable because of illness or the absence of the partner, self-
stimulation often serves an adaptive purpose, combining sensual pleasure and tension
release.
when women masturbate, most prefer clitoral stimulation. Women prefer the shaft of
the clitoris to the glans because the glans is hypersensitive to intense stimulation.
Most men masturbate by vigorously stroking the penile shaft and glans.
Moral taboos against masturbation have generated myths that masturbation causes mental
illness or decreased sexual potency. No scientific evidence supports such claims.
Masturbation is a psychopathological symptom only when it becomes a compulsion beyond a
person's willful control.
HOMOSEXUALITY
In 1973 homosexuality was eliminated as a diagnostic category by the American

Psychiatric Association, in 1980, it was removed from the Diagnostic and Statistical
Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).
"The presence of homosexuality does not appear to be a matter of choice; the
expression of it is a matter of choice."
is romantic attraction, sexual attraction or sexual behavior between members of the
same sex or gender
The term homosexuality often describes a person's overt behavior, sexual orientation,
and sense of personal or social identity.
The terms gay and lesbian refer to a combination of self-perceived identity and social
identity; they reflect a person's sense of belonging to a social group that is similarly
labeled.
Homophobia is a negative attitude toward, or fear of, homosexuality or homosexuals.
Heterosexism is the belief that a heterosexual relationship is preferable to all others; it
implies discrimination against those practicing other forms of sexuality.
Most gay men recall the onset of romantic and erotic attractions to same-sex partners
during early adolescence. For women, the onset of romantic feelings toward same-sex
partners may also be in preadolescence, but the clear recognition of a same-sex partner
preference typically occurs in middle to late adolescence or in young adulthood.
The etiology of homosexuality is believed to be related to alterations in levels of
prenatal
sex hormones (e.g., increased androgens in females and decreased androgens in
males) resulting in anatomic changes in some hypothalamic nuclei; sex hormone levels
in adulthood are indistinguishable from those of heterosexual people of the same
biological sex.
Evidence for involvement of genetic factors includes markers on the X chromosome
and higher concordance rate in monozygotic than in dizygotic twins.
Social factors, such as early sexual experiences, are not associated with the
etiology of homosexuality.
Homosexuality is a normal variant of sexual expression. Because it is not a dysfunction,
no treatment is needed.
By most estimates, 5% to 10% of the population has an exclusively homosexual
sexual orientation; many more people have had at least one sexual encounter leading to
arousal with a person of the same sex.
There are no significant ethnic differences in the occurrence of homosexuality.
Many people with gay and lesbian sexual orientations have experienced heterosexual
sex and have had children.

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NORMAL SEXUALITY

Sexuality- is determined by anatomy, physiology, the culture in which a person lives,

These factors affect personality, growth, development, and functioning.

SEXUAL RESPONSE CYCLE

GENDER DIFFERENCES IN DESIRE AND EROTIC STIMULI

In 1973 homosexuality was eliminated as a diagnostic category by the American

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