Exam 1 Study Guide PDF

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An Optional Study Aid CRITICAL THINKING QUESTIONS AND STUDY GUIDE FOR UNIT 1, HUMAN SEXUALITY -- SOCIOLOGY 123 -- DR. SPRECHER (Spring 2017) The questions below are designed to help you learn the material better and engage in critical thinking in regard to some of the issues. The questions below will also help you study for the inclass unit exam. Please note, however, that there likely will be items on the exam that would not necessarily appear in one of the questions below, and not all of the topics listed below will be on the exam. Note that some of the topics below (and items on the exam) were covered only in class lectures, others are covered only in the text, and finally there are some that are presented in both places.

Opening and Perspectives to Sexuality 1. Explain what is meant by “sexual intelligence” by discussing its components. Is there anything you would add to the concept of sexual intelligence? Sexual intelligence: involves self-understanding, interpersonal sexual skills, scientific knowledge, and consideration of the cultural context of sexuality. Understanding oneself sexually and having interpersonal sexual skills and integrity are part of sexual intelligence, these abilities help us make responsible decisions about our sexual behavior based on our personal values. 2. Define the term “psychosocial” as it applies to the text’s approach to sexuality, and describe why this approach is important to the study of human sexuality. Psychosocial: refers to a combination of psychological (emotions, attitudes, motivations) and social factors (the process by which we learn out social groups’ expectations and norms). 3. Distinguish among the following terms: sex, gender, sexual behavior, gender roles. Sex: refers to sexual anatomy and sexual behavior Gender: refers to the state of being male, female, or other Sexual Behavior: arousal and increases the chance of orgasm Gender roles: ways in which a gender is expected to behave 4. According to lecture, media has three types of influence (cultivation, agenda setting, social learning). Explain each as it applies to sexuality in the media. According to the text, what are the different types of media, and how has sexuality in media changed over time? In the context of human sexuality, what are the advantages and disadvantages of Internet use? What were the results of the Brown and L’Engle study discussed in text and

lecture concerning the association between “SMD” and sexual activity? However, discuss how correlation is not causation. Cultivation: people come to think that what they see in media represents what really occurs. Agenda setting: media define what is important by what they cover. Social Learning: characters in the media serve as models whom we want to imitate. Television, music videos, advertising, magazines, internet. Study found that teens whose SMD was in the top 20% were 2.2x more likely to have sexual intercourse by age 16 than those in lowest 20%. Of course correlational is not causation. 5. What does it mean to study sexuality from a scientific perspective? In lecture, a guide was presented to being literate in the science of sex. What were some of the guidelines? Based on this knowledge, what headlines or conclusions would you be especially skeptical in the future as you read media summaries of “scientific” research on sexuality? What are the two top academic journals publishing sexuality research? Guidelines:  These is no such thing as a “perfect” sex study-every study has limitations  Don’t have represenataitve samples, be cautious in generalizing results  Correlational studies tell you nothing about cause and effect  “average” is not the same as “normal” In general, “average” can be misleading.  Write up of the latest sex study is not necessarily an invitation to change life. Journals: Archives of Sexual Behavior, Journal of Sex Research 6. As discussed in lecture and text, there is diversity in sex in the U.S. based on education and ethnicity. Describe some of the differences, including in use of the birth control pill, abortion rates, masturbation, and oral-genital sex. as a function of social class and ethnicity. Which ethnic group in the U.S. has the most conservative sexual attitudes and is least likely to have engaged in premarital sex? Asian Americans have more conservative sexual attitudes and are less likely to engage in premarital sex. People with more education are more likely to masturbate than less educated people. Oral-genital sex is more common in young college educated whites and least common among African Americans and individuals with less education. 7. Compare and contrast the views of China and Islam with respect to sexuality. More generally, how much variation is there across cultures in sexuality, and are there any universals in regard to sexuality? Islam: Qur’an states- Oppose sex before marriage, but value sex within marriage. Women are considered innately sexual. Women were clothing that covers their bodies. Polygamy was a common practice, up to four wives but has to be fair to all of them. Other patriarchal traditions have harsher rules. China: Taoism-Promoted sexual activity for spiritual growth, not just procreation. After the Communist victory in 1949, they attempted to eliminate porn and prostitution. Could not even hold hand sin public, sex outside of marriage was bad, and sex within marriage

3 more than once a week was deemed counterproductive diversion of energy. A positive note, they got rid of all STIs. In the 1980s, the government eased its control over individual’s lifestyle choices. Now, HIV has increased and abortions. 8. How have the restrictions and sanctions against sexuality differed, historically, for men and women? How might gender roles restrict men’s and women’s sexuality today? A study was described in class and in text on how many sex partners were reported by men vs. women under three different experimental conditions. What were the findings, and why do you think women’s answers varied based on differences in privacy? Rigid gender-roles conditioning can limit each persons’ potential and can harm his or her sexuality. Gender-role expectations of “appropriate” behaviors for men and women might contribute to the notion that men must always initiate sexual activity while the women must either set limits or comply. Women are judge more harshly than men for engaging in casual sex or having multiple partners. 9. Celia Mosher conducted one of the first known studies of women’s sexuality. In what period did she conduct it, and what did she find? How congruent were her results with other impressions that we have of that particular period? Victorian Era. Found that women experience sexual desire, enjoyed intercourse and experienced orgasm. Women were considered fragile and asexual. 10. If a person is high in ethnocentrism in regard to sexuality, what does this mean? What behaviors engaged in by people from other cultures (described in either the text or in lecture) do you find the oddest, based on your experiences in this society (or whatever society in which you were raised)? Although there are cultural variations, there are also some cultural universals. What are some cultural universals? Ethnocentric: Tendency to regard one’s own culture as superior. Belief that its own customs are standard. Genital cutting 11. Sexuality occurs in a context, which includes many layers of influence on sexuality, including peers, family, religion, media, history, etc. Sociologist C. Wright Mill’s concept of socialization imagination articulates how people’s lives (including sexual lives) are influenced by society and in turn influence society. Think about how your life (in regard to relationships and sexuality) might be different if you had been born 150 years earlier in our society. What about just being born into another family or community? 12. Politics and sexuality are related. When did it become legal to use contraceptive method? When did it become legal to marry someone of another race. Is it ever illegal to cohabitate? To have extramarital affairs? According to the article “Battle of the Bathrooms” (and lecture), what is the current status of bathroom rights for transgenders?

Research Methods 1. `What are the specific procedures and the advantages and disadvantages of each the following research methods? a. Case study: single individual, often selected because it is unusual in some way. Describes the case in depth, often medical.  Advantages: flexibility in what data you can collect, and important to document unusual cases for the insight it provides.  Disadvantages: Difficult to generalize and not suited to answer many scientific questions related to sexuality b. Survey studies: Gather data via paper questionnaires, telephone, face to face interviews or internet. Population, random sample, convenience sample.  Advantages: can obtain date from a large sample. Flexible on the type of data collected. Only way to tap into thinking, emotions, and past behaviors. Can allow participants to be anonymous.  Disadvantages: response bias (non-response, social desirability, memory problems). Generalization depends on way sample is gathered. c. Observations: observations of behaviors and/or responses of people including, simply observing behaviors, use of physiological measures.  Advantages: difficult to falsify data  Disadvantages: act differently if they know they are being observed. Only certain types of people will volunteer, such studies would be difficult to do in the area of sexuality, expensive and time-consuming. d. Experiments: some type of manipulation, measuring the reaction to the manipulation, need random assignment  Advantages: Can determine cause and effect relationships  Disadvantages: not everything can be manipulated in experimental design. Sample are often limited to college students. Lab experiments can be artificial (lack generalization of the real world) e. Archival research: involves analyzing info or data collected previously by others. Particularly valuable for examining cultural and historical trends. 2. What is the distinction between quantitative research and qualitative research? If you were to conduct a study, which general method would you prefer to use and why? In a nutshell,quantitative research generates numerical data or information that can be converted into numbers. Qualitative Research on the other hand generates nonnumerical data. 3. Imagine that Dr. Smith and her team conducts a national survey study of adults’ sexual attitudes and practices. Furthermore, imagine that she is able to obtain a probability sample by randomly selecting geographical areas, households within geographical areas, and finally individuals within the households. She hires interviewers who then contact the targeted respondents to see if they will participate, and then if they agree, interviews them as well as having them complete a brief survey.

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How would such a representative sample differ from a convenience sample (such as just obtaining students from classes or community groups) in terms of generalizability of results? The results would generalize to the real world Explain how volunteer bias may compromise the carefully selected representative sample. Only the people that want to complete the survey will complete it and their beliefs and views maybe different from others. Explain how each of the following may reduce the validity of the answers obtained from the participants to questions on sexuality: purposeful distortion, social desirability responses, memory issues, difficulties in estimations. What are the relative strengths and weaknesses of conducting interviews vs. using self-administered surveys? You can see their emotions Which major national study that was highlighted in the text and lecture had a method similar to that of Dr. Smith’s? Before conducting her research, Dr. Smith would need to receive approval from an Institutional Review Board. What specific precautions would Dr. Smith need to do in her research to make sure the study is ethical? What does the most recent research indicate about the consequences for people of completing surveys on sexuality, as compared to other more general (psychology) surveys, as indicated in a study by Yeater et al.? Confidentiality, protection from harm, debriefing, sharing risks and benefits. Sex surveys pose no harm to student participants What would be advantages of adding daily diaries or logs to the study? If she had added an Internet survey, what is one potential bias? May get a certain sample

4. How has the research of Masters and Johnson contributed to our understanding of human sexuality? Include a consideration of methodology and subject population, as well as information obtained. More generally, what are the advantages, disadvantages, and challenges of doing direct observations? What types of physiological measures were created, for example, what is a penile strain gauge? A direct observation study that focused on female and male physiological responses to sexual stimulation.  Strengths: the only piece of research to observe and record sexual responses (observed over 10,000 completed response cycles) Also hard to falsify the data  Weaknesses: Has been criticized because sample was drawn from a narrow-based academic community. Only certain types of people will participate, timeconsuming 5. Hypothetical sex researcher Jones conducts an experiment in which he examines whether people become more sexually aroused to romantic-erotic videos or sexually explicit videos (non-romantic). He conducts an experiment to look at this. Answer the following questions. a) He would need to use random assignment. What does this mean, and why is random assignment so important to the validity of an experiment? How is it different from random sample?

When people are randomly assigned to different conditions, this makes it so there is no bias. Random sample is when the sample for the study is randomly selected. Realistically, who would likely be in the sample?  Academic community Jones wants to measure arousal by both self-reports and objective, physiological indicators. More specifically, how would he do each?  Daily diaries, eye tracking, MRI In this experiment, what is the independent variable and what is the dependent variable?  IV: exposure to romantic erotic video or sexually explicit (non-romantic) video  DV: Sexual arousal What is the greatest strength of an experiment? However, what is a weakness?  Can determine cause and effect  Lab experiments can be artificial (lack generalization to the real world Correlations do not demonstrate causation and that is why experiments are done (to show causation). However, many sexuality variables cannot be manipulated for ethical and practical reasons. An experiment was described in class in which a sexuality variable was manipulated that had not been manipulated before in an experiment. Describe the experiment discussed in class, and were the findings congruent or incongruent with past survey studies examining the same issue?  Controlled how often couples had sex. And found that couples in the experimental group did not fell any happier. They had less sexual desire and did not enjoy sex as much as they had in the baseline. If you were to conduct an experiment in the area of sexuality, what would you like to examine and how? 

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6. Bill is a hypothetical student in our class who loves analyzing data and generating graphs of summary statistics. He downloads Edward Laumann’s data on “Chicago Health and Social Life Survey,” and analyzes the data with SPSS and brings to class several graphs, figures, and tables. Explain what each of the following would mean, focusing on the meaning of the italicized statistical term. However, also think about what the table, graph, or figure might look like.  The incidence of masturbation for males versus females. o The % of people giving a particular response  The frequency of sexual activity for the past month, for people of different racial groups. o How often a person does something  The mean satisfaction level with sex for people of different ages. o The average of the scores of all the people  The median number of life-time sexual partners for males versus females. o The score that splits the sample in half  The variability in sexual frequency for married couples.

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o Degree to which the scores are all close to the mean (small range) vs. dispersed (large range) The correlation between sexual satisfaction and sexual frequency. o Number that measures the relationship between 2 variables.

7. Alfred Kinsey’s study was conducted in the late 1930s and 1940s, and was the first major sexuality study. Who was Kinsey and why did he ever begin such a study? What was the sampling procedure and why was it criticized? How were the interview skills of Kinsey and his team evaluated? How did the sampling procedure likely affect some of the results? Alfred Kinsey was the first to teach college human sexuality course. His sample was disproportionally greater number of better-educated city-dwelling protestants, whereas older people, rural-dwellers, and those less-educated were under represented. Also, only whites were interviewed. And they were all volunteers. So not considered a representative sample. Personal and Health Concerns for Men and Women 1. After reading the textbook and listening to lecture, Jennifer (a hypothetical student in the class) is convinced that she has premenstrual dysphoric disorder. What are the physical and psychological symptoms she is likely to experience? What role may a change in estrogen be as a causal factor? According to the evidence, is it likely that her athletic performance, her intellectual performance, and/or her sexual desire will differ from other times in her cycle, such as in the middle (during ovulation)? How might cultural factors play a role in the experience of her symptoms?  Symptoms: severe enough to significantly disrupt a women’s functioning.  The estrogen level drops the week prior to menstruation  NO  Taboos create a negative view about menstruation. Can influence mood. 2. Jennifer joins a support group of other women who are also experiencing various problems with menstruation. Describe the symptoms each of the following women would likely be having, and which one would you encourage to go to the ER immediately?  Jackie is experiencing painful menstruation (dysmenorrhea). o Abdominal aching or cramping. Some may experience nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, headache, fatigue, dizziness, irritability, and nervousness  Sasha is experiencing primary amenorrhea o Failure to being period at puberty. Can cause issues with reproductive organs, hormonal imbalances, poor health, and imperforate hymen.  Autumn is experiencing secondary amenorrhea o disruption of the period with the absence of menstruation for 3 months or more.  Wind is experiencing toxic shock syndrome

o Fever, sore throat, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, red skin flush, dizziness, and low blood pressure. Should go to ER. Dorothy is experiencing menopause (what is likely to be her age?). o 51, hot flashes, night sweats, depression, decreases in sexual interest.

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3. Your aunt is going through menopause and is considering doing hormone therapy. What would you advise her about using this? If you summarized for her the advantages and disadvantages, what would they be? Hormone

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Hormone

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Estrogen

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Reduces risk of breast cancer when used without  progesterone. Maintains thickness and vascularity of vaginal and  urethral tissue for comfort and lubrication during sexual  interaction. Increases sexual interest and enjoyment. Helps prevent urinary tract problems. Reduces hot flashes and sleep disturbance from night sweats. Protects against osteoporosis (abnormal bone loss) and resultant fractures, particularly of the hip. No increased risk of coronary...