week 3&4

• Impacts of TV shows on sexual health

  • A survey found that men who have sex with men (MSM) were more likely to report the intention to be screened for syphilis after watching an episode of "ER" that discussed syphilis transmission among MSM
  • Regular viewers of the show "Soul City" (1992) were 4 times more likely to use condoms compared to those who did not view the show
• Classical conditioning example

  • Steak = unconditioned stimulus
  • Salivation = unconditioned response
  • Bell = neutral stimulus which becomes conditioned stimulus
  • Salivation in response to bell = conditioned response
• Using classical conditioning therapeutically

  • The client gets aroused by a fetish ð They are made to smell ammonia salt capsules ð They make them nauseous ð The fetish gets associated with nausea instead of pleasure
• Operant conditioning


  An individual's behaviour is modified by its consequences or the reinforcement that they receive
• Components of social exchange theory

  • Balance of costs and rewards
  • Equity/equality
  • Comparison level (what the person expects to get out of the relationship vs. what they put into it)
  • Comparison level for alternatives (how person perceives current relationship compares to other options)
• Males

  • Generally do not have a high obligatory investment to impregnate females
  • Offspring survival is important, but paternal uncertainty is also real, giving rise to 2 mating strategies in males:
• Dual Control Model of Sexuality


  Human sexual responses involve the interaction of two opposing neurobiological impulses: excitement and inhibition
• Dual Control Model of Sexuality

  • Evolutionarily advantageous to be able to suppress sexual response
  • E.g.: during crisis times (e.g., war, famine)
  • There is variation across individuals in their propensity excitation/inhibition – gender/sex patterns have also been observed
  • Women on average have greater propensity toward inhibition and for men a greater propensity toward excitation – this is consistent with evolutionary theory
• Dual Control Model of Sexuality

  • Relatively new sexual theory
  • Key factors activating inhibitory and excitatory systems will differ across individuals (e.g., partner characteristics, worrying about sexual functioning, ability to be aroused in different situations, etc.)
  • Provides potential explanation of differences in sexual expression between people and cultures
  • A positive of this theory is that it unites both biological and psychological factors
• The Ecological Model


  • A framework for understanding how personal, relationship, and environmental factors interact and influence an individual and each other
  • Can be applied to sexual health and sexual function
  • Complex social and psychological phenomena combine to impact an individual
  • Bronfenbrenner's (1979) dynamic model with four levels of influence referred to as a "systems"
  • These systems influence the individual and vice-versa
  • The variables in the ecological model also affect one another