Goals of Sexology Notes PDF

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Doctor Mosko...

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Goals of Sexology o Understand human sexual behavior o Predict sexual behavior o Influence/Control sexual behavior  Reduce risk or promote healthy behavior  Therapeutic situations trying to influence someone’s sexual orientation is a big no no in psychology o Challenges  Sampling bias/Selection bias  Some people are more comfortable filling out surveys on sexual habits than others  Stigma/Social Taboos  “in my culture, in my religion we don’t talk about sex at all”  Safety  Ex. Asking a victim of sexual assault about their sexual experiences will not feel safe  Privacy  Ex: asking someone closeted about sexual preferences when they fear they will be outed  Misinformation  Ex: Can’t get pregnant if you have sex standing up Important points in sex research (or any research) o Define terms clearly  What do you mean by “sex”?  Sex (behavior & anatomy) vs. Gender (behaviors/roles/attitudes of being male, female) o What are the variables you’re trying to measure and how to measure that? o Make only conclusions that are supported by your data  Kinsey’s reports “37%”  In accurate just because someone has had same sex experience doesn’t mean 37% of people are LGBTQ o Methods  Case Study  Single subject/small group that are studied in depth  Advantages o Gain in-depth knowledge of behavior/attitudes o Flexibility  Disadvantages o Can’t make the generalization for everyone else o Often based on retrospective self-report

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Ex: asking someone to remember things from their past and not everything is remembered accurately or truthfully

Survey  Small to very large sample size  Gather data using o Face to face interviews o Questionnaires  Pencil-and-paper or electronic/online  Sampling is crucial for accuracy o Representative sample (ideal but rare)  Proportional representation of all demographics of target population o Random sample (good but imperfect)  All persons in population have equal chance of selection Convenience sample (more typical)  Select participants form handy population (like a class)  Not representative sample Direct Observation  Small to medium sample sizes  Observe, record responses of subjects engaging in sexual behaviors  Masters& Johnson famous for this method  Advantages o Researcher can verify the behavior o More accurate than self-report  Disadvantages o Self-selection o Behavior may change due to observers (reactivity) o Time consuming and difficult to conduct Experimental Study  Small to medium sample sizes  Attempt to find cause-effect relationship in controlled conditions o Effect of alcohol on sexual functioning

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o Effect f viewing sexual images on sexual response o Effects of mood on sexual attraction Advantages o Lab setting can control for influence of other variables o More confidence in accuracy of results o Can establish cause-effect relationships Disadvantages o Artificial laboratory setting may change behavior

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Ethical issues in sex research  Must protect rights and dignity of research participants  Coercion – can’t make people participate or keep participating  Informed consent – must let people know what’s going to happen, so they can choose  Deception – be truthful about what you’re doing as much as you can  Debriefing – if you must deceive them, you must tell them later  Confidentiality – people have to k ow that their answers will be private (or not)  Politics  Sex research is controversial, stigmatized  Political agendas/bias in funding research...