LESSON 8: Gender and Sexuality as a Psychosocial Issue LEARNING OUTCOMES: At the end of this topic, you should be able to: Define the term “psychosocial”; Discuss the psychosocial dimension of gender and sexuality; and Reflect upon one’s responsibility in ensuring psychosocial wellness in the aspect of gender and development What Does Psychosocial Mean? The term “psychosocial” is an encompassing term. It is comprised by two primary aspects: Psychological and Social. There are myriad of ways in defining these two terms but in essence, Psychological pertains to anything associated with mental process and behavior, while Social pertains to anything associated with human relationships, connection, and interaction. The psychological aspect of gender and sexuality anchors itself on the field of psychology. Psychology is a field of science which concerns itself with how people think and fell and how thoughts and feelings interact and lead to behavior. AFFECT 3 Primary Psychological Domains Affect or the affective domain pertains to people's emotions and feelings. BEHAVIOR Behavior or the behavioral domain pertains to people’s actions both observable (overt) or not readily observable (covert). COGNITION Cognition or cognitive domain pertains to people’s thought processes such as memory, perception, and information-processing. THERE ARE SOME ELEMENTS OF OUR GENDERED SELF WHICH ARE BEST VIEWED IN AN ECOLOGICAL CONTEXT -- THAT IS, IN THE CIRCUMSTANCES IN OUR PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT AWARENESS At the front of our experience as gendered beings is awareness. In simpler terms, awareness is our conscious understanding of something. INTIMACY AND RELATIONSHIP Intimacy is the process of knowing others and allowing others to know us through communication and interaction, forming a bond between two or more people through shared resources and emotions. WELL-BEING AS A PSYCHOSOCIAL GOAL Well-being is a state of satisfaction, meaning, and purpose that is observed and evaluated through our environment. There are two sides to well-being. OBJECTIVE WELL-BEING ONE IS THAT KIND OF WELL-BEING WHICH IS OBSERVED, OUTWARD, AND CAN BE EVALUATED THROUGH THE PRESENCE OR ABSENCE OF PARTICULAR ELEMENTS IN OUR ENVIRONMENT. SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING ANOTHER SIDE OF WELLBEING IS OUR PERSONAL EXPERIENCES OF SATISFACTION, MEANING, AND PURPOSE. DIMENSIONS OF WELL-BEING WELLNESS IS THE PURSUIT OF CONTINUED GROWTH AND BALANCE IN THE SEVEN DIMENSIONS OF WELLNESS. WELLNESS IS A FULL INTEGRATION OF PHYSICAL, MENTAL AND SPIRITUAL WELL-BEING. IT IS A COMPLEX INTERACTION THAT LEADS TO QUALITY OF LIFE. 7 Dimensions of Wellness 1. Physical Dimension. Physical wellness encompasses a variety of healthy behaviors including adequate exercise, proper nutrition and abstaining from harmful habits such as drug use and alcohol abuse. Tips for optimal physical wellness: Exercise daily, Get adequate rest, Use seat belts, helmets, and other protective equipment, Learn to recognize early signs of illness, Eat a variety of healthy foods, Control your meal portions, Stop smoking and protect yourself against secondhand smoke, Use alcohol in moderation, if at all 2. Emotional Dimension. Emotional wellness is a dynamic state that fluctuates frequently with your other six dimensions of wellness. Being emotionally well is typically defined as possessing the ability to feel and express human emotions such as happiness, sadness and anger. Tips for optimal emotional wellness: Tune-in to your thoughts and feelings, Cultivate an optimistic attitude Seek and provide support , Learn time management skill, Practice stress management techniques, Accept and forgive yourself 3. Intellectual Dimension. The intellectual dimension encourages creative, stimulating mental activities. Our minds need to be continually inspired and exercised just as our bodies do. Tips and suggestions for optimal intellectual wellness include: Take a course or workshop, Learn (or perfect) a foreign language, Seek out people who challenge you intellectuall, Read Learn to appreciate art 4. Social Dimension. Social wellness refers to our ability to interact successfully in our global community and to live up to the expectations and demands of our personal roles. Tips and suggestions for optimal social wellness include: Cultivate healthy relationships, Get involved , Contribute to your community, Share your talents and skills, Communicate your thoughts, feelings and ideas 5. Spiritual Dimension. Spiritual wellness involves possessing a set of guiding beliefs, principles, or values that help give direction to one's life. It encompasses a high level of faith, hope and commitment to your individual beliefs that provide a sense of meaning and purpose. Tips and suggestions for optimal spiritual wellness: Explore your spiritual core, Spend time alone/meditate regularly, Be inquisitive and curious, Be fully present in everything you do, Listen with your heart and live by your principles, Allow yourself and those around you the freedom to be who they are, See opportunities for growth in the challenges life brings you 6. Environmental Wellness. Environmental wellness is an awareness of the unstable state of the earth and the effects of your daily habits on the physical environment. Tips and suggestions for optimal environmental wellness: Stop your junk mail, Conserve water and other resources, Minimize chemical use Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Renew your relationship with the earth 7. Occupational Dimension. Occupational/Vocational wellness involves preparing and making use of your gifts, skills, and talents in order to gain purpose, happiness, and enrichment in your life. Occupational wellness means successfully integrating a commitment to your occupation into a total lifestyle that is satisfying and rewarding. Tips and suggestions for optimal occupational wellness include: Explore a variety of career options, Create a vision for your future, Choose a career that suits your personality, interests and talents, Be open to change and learn new skills Lesson 9: LOVE, INTIMACY, AND RELATIONSHIP Learning Outcomes: AT THE END OF THIS TOPIC, YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO: DEFINE TERMS SUCH AS “LOVE”, “ATTRACTION”, “INTIMACY”, “RELATIONSHIP”, AND OTHER RELATED TERMS; DISCUSS DIFFERENT THEORIES OF LOVE IDENTIFY NEEDS, ISSUES, AND CONCERNS EXPERIENCE BY PEOPLE WHO ARE IN A ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIP REFLECT UPON ONE’S ATTITUDE TOWARDS LOVE, INTIMACY AND RELATIONSHIP INDICATIVE CONTENT: LOVE AS HUMAN EXPERIENCE THEORIZING LOVE LOVE AND INTIMATE RELATIONSHIP LOVE AS HUMAN EXPERIENCE Love is a human experience differently defined and conceptualized. Love as a culture universal Love is construed as a culture universal. A culture universal is a phenomenon experienced similarly by people across time and cultures. Love as a social phenomenon love is viewed as a social phenomenon. Social phenomena are events or experiences which ensue within our interaction and relationships with other people. Does loving entails communication and also entails the use of language? Loving entails communication it is the process of giving and receiving information between and among people. It also entails the use of a language symbols that are culturally agreed upon as possessing certain meanings and that are used by people to express certain realities and worldviews. LOVE AS HUMAN EXPERIENCE Love as an emotion Love is also construed as an emotion. Emotions are physiological responses that we evaluate psychologically as we experience particular life events. Love as a neurobiological event With recent advancements in science, love, now, can be studied as a neurobiological event. Every split of a second, information is being passed on within our nervous system—a conglomerate of organs(including our brain, our spinal cord, and our nerves, among others) responsible for our ability to process and transmit essential information among the many organs in our body. The information comes in the form of electrical signal running along the many organs in our body. The information comes in the form of electrical signal running along our neurons(nerve cell), which movement is facilitated by our neurotransmitters – a variety of chemicals found in our nervous system. THEORIZING LOVE Sigmund Freud (a Viennese neurologist) In a nutshell, the psychodynamic theory posits that we have desires and motives fuelled by our life and death instincts. For instance, desirable behaviors that promote positive relationship with others might be viewed as influence by our life instincts, while aggressive behaviors that hurt, manipulate, or harm ourselves and others might be viewed as influenced by our death instincts. Both the life and death instincts are thoughts to stream from our unconscious – the province of our mind, which we are highly unaware of. Psychodynamics view puts prime on the influence of our early life experiences (from conception to around six years old) – referred to as formative years – in our personality development. Crucial to this life stage is our relationship with our primary caregiver—typically the mother. It suggests that the kind of attachment(psychic bond) we have with our primary caregiver/s, influence our relationships in later life, including our choice of romantic partners and the way we relate and operate within this partnership. Hence, from a psychodynamic view, love can be seen as a manifestation of our eros and the placement of our libido (life energy) unto an object (a thing or a person towards who we transform our psychic energies to ease pain or achieve pleasure). COLOR WHEEL OF LOVE JOHN ALAN LEE (1973) The primary types are : eros(sexual and romantic), philia(friendly), and storage (parental/filial love).the secondary types are : pragma(practical love), agape(universal love), and philautia(self love). It is possible for us to experience not just one, but two or more of these types of love on our lifetime. Color wheel of love Triangular model of love ACCORDING TO STERNBERG(1986), LOVE HAS THREE INTERLOCKING DIMENSIONS – PASSION, INTIMACY, AND COMMITMENT. PASSION REFERS TO THE PHYSICAL/EMOTIONAL ASPECT. INTIMACY PERTAINS TO THE PSYCHOLOGICAL/ RELATIONAL ASPECT. COMMITMENT PERTAINS TO THE AGENCY COMPONENT, THAT IS THE CHOICE WE ARE WITH REGARD TO ENGAGING AND MAINTAINING THE LOVING RELATIONSHIPS. Romantic and Companionate Love Hatfield and Rapson(1978, 1993) Romantic love is characterized by intense passion “a state of intense longing for union with your partner” Companionate love, on the other hand, is characterized by intense intimacy – emotional closeness which also characteristics of liking. Love Languages PEOPLE WHOSE LOVE LANGUAGE IS WORDS OF AFFIRMATION TEND TO VERBALLY EXPRESS THEIR THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS OF LOVE TOWARDS THE PEOPLE THEY LOVE. THEY MAY BE COMFORTABLE SAYING “I LOVE YOU” AND ARTICULATING OF OTHERS PRESENCE IN THEIR LIVES, AS WELL AS THE POSITIVE IMPACT THEIR LOVED ONES HAVE IN THEM. THOSE WHOSE LOVE LANGUAGE IS TOUCH, ON THE OTHER HAND, EXPRESS LOVE NON-VERBALLY THROUGH HUGS, KISSES, OR, SIMPLY, A TAP ON THE BACK. THEY VALUE PROXIMITY (NEARNESS) AND YEARNS FOR PHYSICAL CONTACT(NOT NECESSARILY SEXUAL IN NATURE) WITH THEIR PARTNERS. Gary Chapman Those who love language is time tend to value quality moments with their loves ones. They are much willing to create memories with the people they love. Those love language is gifts, want to show and receive affection through material objects, especially during special occasions. Finally, those who love language is act of service, are much willing to serve the other person by helping her or him in things and feel your adoration by the things you do. Actions that go above and beyond help them feel your love towards them. LOVE AND INTIMATE RELATIONSHIPS The Greek philosopher, Aristotle, has been widely quoted as referring to humans as social animals. This means that we survive, thrive, and flourish when we are together such that relating to other humans is not only a sentimental, but also an evolutionary and a practical process. Social connection is necessary for our growth as individuals. In certain cases, it also serves as a foundation for family life, which then provides us humans a venue for nurturance and care and as a platform here we can develop to our greatest potentials. In other cases, it enables us to secure our social position and provides us human resources to implement our goals for ourselves and for the greater community. Acquaintance Intimate human relationships start in acquaintanceship. We meet up through circumstances and first learn about basic information about one another. Crucial at this stage is attraction. What does it take for a person to actually decide to be acquainted with another? Attraction can take place in an enabling environment. It can happen when there is propinquity or proximity – when we are physically closer to one another. It can happen when there is exposure – when due to proximity, there are repeated pssiblities of interaction. It can also happen when there is similarity – common preferences, interests, and probably, beliefs and values. Build-up Some acquaintanceships build up into deeper relationships. Frequency of interaction increases. Kinds of activities shared become diverse. The involved parties begine to introduce one another to each other’s friends and families, thus, making the social network larger ad interconnected. This is the stage when two persons test their boundaries. They test the waters before engaging fully and so committedly in the relationship. Consolidation and Continuation The third stage of intimate relationship in consolidation. This stage is when people commits to a long-term relationship with one another, either through a personal agreement (I,e exclusively of partnership, domestic partnership) or a social-legal agreement (I,e,. marriage). What makes people commit to a relationship, to the point of legitimizing it through marriage? Often, people set standards that are sustainable (e.g ability to each other to maintain a family or a household, readiness of each other to raise children, career, and financial capacities). Decline of Deterioration Unfortunately, some intimate partnerships are unable to sustain and maintain their commitments or attraction. For one , there may be a charge in priorities between the individual couple, such that the conjoint value of the partnership is not anymore sufficient. There may be infidelity – the breech of loyalty and promises as agreed upon by both individuals (e.g presence of third-party,extra-marital affairs). Or, in other, there may be irreconcilable differences – which are already harming each individual and the partnership as a whole. Ending Finally, for those intimate partnerships who are unable to address the causes and circumstances leading to the deterioration of their relationship, the stages culminate into ending or termination of the agreements made (either personal or socio-legal) through informal(e,g., collective decision to end the relationship) or formal (e,g,. marriage dissolution) means. Learning Outcomes: LESSON 10: SEX AND SENSES Learning Outcomes: At the end of this topic, you should be able to: Discuss the human senses in the context of sexual response; and Show appreciation of how the sensorium contributes to our experience of human sexuality. HUMAN AFFECT AND THE SENSES Interestingly, while human beings are hailed as rational beings who are constantly making choices and are behaving through a set of rational choices make from higher order thinking (e.g,. evaluating, judging), it is hypothesized that our affect (emotions and feelings)actually play a major role in our behaviors. Affective Primacy Hypothesis (Zajonc 1980) postulates that in many cases, cognitive processing (I,e,. higher order thinking) plays a lesser role compared to our emotional responses in eliciting behavior. By virtue of this hypothesis, by default, our emotions take precedent primarily because these are only processed and modulated by the limbic system – emotional part of our brain which is more primitive compared to the ones for higher order thinking(e.g,. neocortex). THIS IS WHERE THE SENSORIUM AND THE HUMAN AFFECT MEETS. HERE IT WILL HELP US TO THINK OF A PARTICULAR CASE: IMAGING WALKING IN THE WOODS WITH YOUR FRIENDS WHEN ALL OF A SUDDEN, A VENOMOUS SNAKE DROPS DOWN IN FRONT OF YOU. HOW WILL YOU RESPOND TO THE SITUATION? AS PART OF OUR MECHANISMS FOR EVOLUTION, HUMANS LIKE US HAVE THREE PRIMARY EMOTIONAL RESPONSE: FIGHT, FLIGHT, OR FREEZE. FIGHT A Fight response is when we face adverse or dangerous stimuli squarely. FLIGHT A flight response is when we move away from the adverse of dangerous stimuli FREEZE A freeze response, on the other hand, is when you are started and is unable to make a choice, thus, are unable to move. Sometimes, the freeze response can also be used to buy time so you can calculate the advantages and disadvantages of your choice: shall you fight the snake or fly away from the scene. In all three basic emotional responses, there is a requirement. We should be able to sense the environment. Organize the stimuli we receive, and interpret these stimuli, so we can make a choice and corresponding action. We will not be able to arrive at the behavior if not through our senses. This makes our sensorium a necessary component of the emotional response arc CONTEMPLATE: Think about past events in your life as a man, woman, or LGBT, when your emotional response was: (1) Fight, (2) Flight (3) Freeze. Reflect how this response influenced other succeeding life events. FIGHT __________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ FLIGHT __________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ FREEZE __________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________ SENSES AND SEXUALITY In the context of human sexuality, some studies have explored gander differences in visual stimuli and sexual arousal. For instance, the study of Rupp and Wallen (2007) found that men respond more to visual sexual stimuli and tend to be influenced by the sex of the actors in a sexual scenario. This means that when confronted by an intimate interaction, men would ten to be rather influenced by visual cues, e.g,. how the other person looks physically or what the other person is wearing. In the same study, on the other hand, women were found to more influenced by context, although they, too, are responsive to the sexual content of a visual stimuli. This means that when confronted by an intimate interaction, women tend to rather influenced by the nature of relationship they have with another person, e.g,. is the other person someone they know and can trust. VISUAL EXPERIENCE Other studies explored how heterosexual men and women would respond to female-filmed and malefilmed videos (Lann 1994) and to female-chosen and male-chosen videos (Peterson and Janssen 2007). These studies established that either gender respond more intensely on materials filmed and chosen by people of similar gender. What can we glean from these studies? Women and men differ in strategies of viewing sexual stimuli. Women tend to pay more attention to contextual and nonsexual cues than men (Lann and Everaerd 1995), and thus are putting prime on subjective valuing of circumstances. VISUAL EXPERIENCE Olfactory Experience Scientists have tried to explain how human olfaction influence sexuality. They identified through possibilities: first, through what is referred to as signature odor ( the unique way that each individual smells) which is associated with the Major Histocompatibility Complex, a set of proteins signalling our immune system the presence of foreign substances, and second, through what is referred to as pheromones, substances putatively excreted by our glands which signals mood and affects social behaviors . One of the famous studies about MHCs is the “sweaty Tshirt experiment” (Wedekind and Furi 1997; Wedekind et al. 1995). In these experiments, it was found that individuals tend to be attracted to other people with a different set of MHC genes. As a sensation, touch has some elements. Tactile element pertains to the experience relative to the object being feel: Is it rough? Is it smooth? Is the surface hard of soft? Then there is thermal element: Is it warm or cold? Finally, there is vibrational element: Is the pressure of the touch strong or weak? Is the sensation moving and pulsating or steady and stationary? Tactile Experiences Different parts of the human body also have different threshold of tactile experience. Areas such as the mouth, anus, genitals, and nipples are referred to as primary erogenous zones – as they are very sensitive to touch. The back, cheek, neck, and buttocks are secondary erogenous zones – as they are also sensitive to touch, but only supportive of the primary zones in eliciting response. Often, these erogenous zones are areas of the body involved in the reproductive and sexual act Tactile Experiences Human touch is essential in social bonds. Often, we only give people we trust the right to have tactile contact with us. It is always a consensual act to touch and be touched. When we touch, our body produces a hormone called oxytocin – it is referred to as the love hormone because it is believed to influence tribal behaviors and maternal bonding. Oxytocin is observed to be produced in vast amount during nipple stimulation, such as for instance when a mother suckles her newly-born. In intimate relationships, touch is suggested to be one of the love languages. A person whose love language is touch tend to give and receive tactile stimulation to and from others through holding, hugging, and other forms of physical connections. AUDITORY EXPERIENCES Social interactions are not only visual, but are also auditory processes. Our human language often have a verbal counterpart to the written language. In fact, historically, much our culture are passed on through oral traditions, even before the writing system was developed. AUDITORY EXPERIENCES Sexual activities are also a verbal communication process. Sounds give additional context to sexual situations. For instance, in sexual interactions, couples may give verbal erotic encourage – words that triggers sexual response or verbal expression of affection words that manifests feelings (e.g,. I love you, I miss you). A survey of popular music will show that love and sex are among the common themes of songs nowadays. This only emphasizes the values of sound in human sexuality.
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