10.8 CHAPTER REVIEW

KEY POINTS

• Gender and sexuality are important components of everyone’s life. The term sex refers to the biologically determined physical characteristics that define a person as male or female. Gender refers to the cultural, social, and psychological meanings that are associated with masculinity and femininity. Gender roles are the behaviors, attitudes, and personality traits designated as either masculine or feminine in a given culture. Gender identity refers to the psychological sense of being male or female, while sexual orientation refers to the direction of a person’s emotional and erotic attraction.

• According to gender-role stereotypes, men and women are polar opposites. Research shows, however, that although men are more assertive than women and women are more nurturant than men, women and men are otherwise similar in their personality characteristics.

• Both women and men believe that their emotions differ; however, although there are gender differences in the expression of emotion, women and men are fairly similar in the experience of emotion.

• On average, women outscore men on tests of verbal fluency, spelling, reading comprehension, and writing. Men outscore women on mental rotation tasks. Average math scores of men and women are very similar, but more men score in the very highest range.

• Men and women are largely similar in their sexual attitudes and behaviors. Men have a higher incidence of masturbation and are more accepting of casual sex than are women.

• Gender plays an important role in our culture. From birth, boys and girls are treated differently. During childhood, boys and girls develop different toy preferences and play with members of their own sex. Girls tend to be less rigid than boys in adhering to gender stereotypes.

• Theories about gender-role development can be based on sociocultural explanations, biological explanations, or an integration of the two.

• One contemporary sociocultural theory, social learning theory of gender-role development, is based on the principles of learning. Through reinforcement, punishment, and modeling, children learn the appropriate behaviors for each gender. Another, gender schema theory, is based on the idea that children actively develop mental categories for each gender that influence what they learn and remember. At a young age, children develop an awareness of the underlying meaning of gender categories.

• Some of the primary biological explanations of sex differences relate to evolutionary theory which proposes that gender differences occur because natural selection favors physical and psychological characteristics that increased the likelihood of reproductive success.

• Interactionist theories of gender-role development combine biological and sociocultural explanations. For example, gender differences in labor likely result from an interaction between biological differences and sociocultural expectations.

• For a significant minority of people, gender identity and physical anatomy are not consistent. Intersex people are those whose biological sex is ambiguous. For transgender people, their gender identity does not match their biological sex.

• The four stages of human sexual response are excitement, plateau, orgasm, and resolution. Women are capable of multiple orgasms. Men experience a refractory period following orgasm.

• In nonhuman animals, sexual behavior is biologically determined and typically triggered by hormonal changes in the female. In higher animals, sexual behavior is more strongly influenced by learning and environmental factors and less influenced by biological factors.

• Sexual orientation is not as easily categorized as many people think. More people have had some same-sex sexual experience than identify themselves as exclusively homosexual. Although psychologists do not know exactly what determines sexual orientation, genetics and differences in brain structure may be involved. Cross-gender play patterns in childhood seem to be related to a later homosexual orientation. Sexual orientation develops at a fairly early age and is difficult to change. Homosexuality is not considered a psychological disorder.

• Males tend to desire and have more sexual partners than females.

• Most adults are involved in an intimate relationship by the age of 30. Married or cohabiting couples tend to have the most active sex lives and are the most satisfied with their sex lives.

• In late adulthood, people experience physical changes that affect sexual response, but satisfying sexual relationships can continue throughout the lifespan.

• A sexual dysfunction is a consistent disturbance in sexual response that causes psychological distress. Recent research reveals that sexual problems are relatively common in the United States. Either sex can experience hypoactive sexual desire disorder. Women can experience chronic pain associated with intercourse, a condition called genito-pelvic pain/penetration disorder. Men can experience erectile dysfunction, male orgasmic disorder, or premature ejaculation. Women can experience female orgasmic disorder. Sexual dysfunction may be caused by physical or psychological factors.

• The paraphilias are unusual sexual fantasies, urges, or behaviors. They may involve nonhuman objects, suffering or humiliation, children, or another nonconsenting adult. Some paraphilias, such as pedophilia and voyeurism, are illegal. When a paraphilia causes harm or impairment to the person with the paraphilia or to others, it is called a paraphilic disorder.

• Sexually transmitted infections (STIs)—also known as sexually transmitted diseases, or STDs—may be bacterial, viral, or parasitic. Some STIs have vague or nonexistent symptoms and can be unknowingly transmitted through oral, anal, or vaginal sex. Left untreated, some STIs can cause severe health problems.

• AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) is caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). After being infected, a person may not develop AIDS for several years but can still infect others. No one is immune to HIV, but people with multiple sex partners, intravenous drug users and their partners, and gay men are most at risk to contract HIV. Most women are infected through heterosexual intercourse with HIV-positive men.

• The availability of antiretroviral drugs has lowered the death rate from AIDS in the United States and other industrialized countries. More recently, HIV infection rates and deaths from AIDS have been decreasing throughout the world, including in Africa where rates had historically been very high.

• People can reduce their chances of contracting a sexually transmitted infection by practicing abstinence, being faithful in a monogamous relationship, and using condoms and spermicides.

KEY TERMS

KEY PEOPLE