Overall objectives
You will gain an active understanding in the factors that determine the form and function of sexual behaviour.
You will gain an active understanding in the factors that regulate sexual motivation.
You will gain an active understanding in the factors that lead to variation in sexual behaviour and sexual motivation.
|
|
Our Western society seems to be soaked in sexuality. Scantily clad women present new car models. Men with oiled six packs recommend drinks. Many hip-hop music clips present women as whores and men as pimps. Porn is freely accessible in large quantities on the internet. At the same time, sexual issues are still taboo, many people find it uncomfortable to talk openly about their sexual preferences and behaviours, and large internet companies censor parts of the human body.
The course Psychology of Sexuality is an empirically based course, and is grounded in psychological research and theory. This course is about how people think about sexuality and why their sexual behaviour is shaped as it is.
We will talk about biology, because our body gives us sexual possibilities and limitations, and can make us insecure. Evolution can explain how certain sexual behavioural patterns appear to have been ingrained in the course of thousands of years. Sexual behaviour is for a large part shaped within a group, a religion, a culture. Each culture and each religion has a set of behavioural rules and taboos when it comes to sex. In Western culture, Christian religion has long been dominant in shaping sexual views and sexual behaviour. Views of sexuality have changed dramatically in the last hundred years, especially since the sexual revolution of the 1960s. So much so that some speak of a sexualization or even pornofication of society.
Finally, sexual behaviour or a sexual relationship can be not what you expect or not how you think ‘it should be’. In a guest lecture, a sexologist will tell you what the most common sexual disorders are, and how they can be diagnosed and remedied within a therapeutic setting.
To make a computer analogy: you have hardware (the body), an operating system (evolution), software (culture) and a helpdesk (sexologists).
Assessment information
Written exam, combination of 40 multiple choice and 2 open ended questions (80/20%).
|
 |
|
|
|
First-year diploma psychology or any other first-year diploma.
|
|
|
A written exam consisting of 40 multiple choice questions and 2 open ended questions. Final grade is 80% MC and 20% open ended questions.
|
|
|
All lecture will be recorded and made available on BrightSpace.
|
|