Choosing what area of human sexuality to study begins with examining the following areas related to the course competencies. Use this as a guide when choosing research articles. One thing to remember this is a course on psychology so the research should relate to human sexuality within that area:
1. The major theories associated with human sexual behavior.
2. The history of sexual behavior.
3. The features associated with male and female anatomies, physiologies, and sexual responses.
4. Commonalities and differences in sexuality across childhood, adolescence, and adulthood.
5. Gender roles in the expression of human sexuality.
6. The current trends in human sexuality.
7. The interplay between intimate relationships and sexual behavior.
8. The occurrence and course of sexual disease and dysfunction.
9. The features of sexual coercion (e.g., implicit and explicit).
10. The role of the media in the promulgation of sexually explicit materials.
11. The aspects of culture, environment, and geography that impact sexual behavior.
Part 1-
Using the South University Online Library, the Internet, your readings, or other literary sources, research the following terms:
• Sex
• Gender
• Assigned gender
• Gender identity
• Gender roles and gender role learning
• Sexual orientation
Based on your understanding, address the following:
• Explain how these terms are different from each other.
• Provide an explanation of the perspectives that influence sexual orientation with regard to the assigned gender, gender identity, and gender roles. For example, what did you learn as a child as it relates to "what it means to be a boy or a girl in our society"? Where you influenced by gender role socialization?
• Provide a description of the process of gender role learning at all stages of development from childhood through adolescence. What do you think are the major socialization influences throughout the process, and the changes, if any, in contemporary roles and encoded sexual scripts of gender and gender theory? Explain how gender role learning applies here, if it does.
• Briefly describe how this week's readings have influenced your perception and behavior towards sexual orientation.
Part 2-
GID is an intense, continuous discomfort resulting from an individual's sense of the inappropriateness of their assigned gender at birth and the resulting gender role expectations. It is also a clinical psychological diagnosis that offends many in transgender communities, and an individual is often required to receive medical supervision of treatments relating to transition like hormones or surgery. Remember, gay and lesbian people were considered mentally ill until 1973.
Using the South University Online Library or the Internet, research about GID and homosexuality. Based on your readings, textbook, and research, address the following questions:
• What is your understanding about the GID and transsexuality (or homosexuality)? Provide an example of each.
• Has this understanding change or changed your attitude, perceptions, or views about these gender roles? Why or why not?
• Can you think of ways in which you encourage social influences that impact the development of gender orientation from the early childhood? Would you dress a little boy in a pink shirt? How do you think cartoons and movies impact gender stereotypes?
• What dilemmas do parents of intersex individuals face? Is this a socially awkward dilemma-is the child a "he" or a "she"? What does "gender neutral" mean? Is there an absolute way of knowing how a child's gender identity will evidence at puberty and that the "fixed" child's gender may not align with the assigned sex?