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.