Sexual communication test #1

Intersexual selection

Female choice- selective and discriminating in male choices, select males perceived to provide strong offspring, prefer males with high parental investment

Relationship between fertility, age, and physical appearance in terms of women's attractiveness to a male

Fertility tied to age- age is tied to physical appearance

Biophysical communication

Form of nonverbal communication, subconscious cues to potential mates (we cannot control this communication)

Impression formation

General and global impression of a person that is either positive or negative- formed rapidly, require little mental or communicative effect

Liquid love

In our generation, it's much easier to get into relationships and also to leave them

Intelligence and attraction for women:

Intelligence is an important quality in a partner, ability to "pick out" a smart guy as most attractive Conclusion: beneficial for women to partner up with someone smart

Consensual non-monogamy

Open relationships with consent from partner

Sex drive

Our sexual desires, urges to engage in sexual activity, in the moment (changing)

Non-physical characteristics that are related to social attraction

Personality influences perceptions of social attraction, interpersonal warmth

Libido

Physiological and emotional energy associated with sex drive- it's a trait everyone has, it's constant, the way we think about sex and feel

Socialization

Process of inheriting social norms, customs, and ideologies- provide the skills and habit necessary for participating within our own society

Social exchange theory

Rewards>costs, reciprocity (what we want in relationships, deal breakers)

Social norms

Rules that a group used for appropriate and inappropriate values, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors

Sexual communication

The process through which people use messages to generate meaning about sex-related topics within and across contexts, cultures, channels, and media

Sexual orientation

The unique pattern of sexual and romantic desire, behavior, and identity that each person expresses

Sex differences for virginity loss

-Women: virginity as a gift -Men: virginity as stigma -Both: virginity as rite of passage

Kinsey scale

Heterosexual-homosexual rating scale

Micro-culture

"subculture".... group of people living within a larger society who share values, beliefs, behaviors, status, or interests different from rest of society.

Oxytocin

"the hug drug", helps to explain why you may feel closer to your mate after sex- women are more sensitive to this, men who are in long-term relationships feel this way

Non-binary categories for sexual orientation

-Androphilia: sexual attraction to masculine individuals -Gynephilia: sexual attraction to feminine individuals

Important rules for friends with benefits

-Emotional attachment -Communication -Sex

Sex drive differences exist because of:

-Gender socialization -Biological responses

"Let's Talk About Sex" documentary

-Point of the video was to see the affect sex culture has on teenagers -Language of sex: something that is scary, but in other parts of the world people are not afraid to talk about it

What is social attraction linked to?

-Sexual attraction -Relationship formation, maintenances, and satisfaction -Fulfilling certain human needs

Shortcomings of impression formation (3)

1) Halo effect: more likely to form positive impressions 2) Horn effect: emphasis on negative information received 3) Primacy effect: emphasis on the first information we receive about a person

Identity development (4 parts)

1) Sensitization: a realization of some sort of attraction 2) Exploration: when we start to act on those feelings ex: dating 3) Acceptance: when we realize our sexual identity ex: start getting into a relationship 4) Integration: part of our every day life

3 ways that people interpret virginity loss

1) Virginity as gift/gift-giving: find a person who would appreciate this "gift", giving virginity would increase commitment, safe sex, communication with partner 2) Virginity as stigma: an undesired state, less likely to tell first sexual partner, less likely to practice safe sex, more likely to find first sexual experience unsatisfying 3) Virginity as rite of passage: transition from one social status to another, more knowledgable about sexuality and themselves, more likely to practice safe sex

Outcomes for friends with benefits

61% stayed friends, 29% ended friendship, 10% led to romance

Pheromones

A chemical signal, that when released in the air, triggers specific behaviors in other members of the same species -part of the MHC- helps avoid people who are similar to us

Culture

A system of knowledge, beliefs, values, customs, behaviors and artifacts that are acquired, shared, and used by members of a social group

Cheating and scent

There is no cheating gene, the more MHC variants a women shares with a partner: the less sexually attracted, the more she rejects his sexual advances, the more she fantasized about other guys, and the less arousal when having sex with him

What is sex?

Any activity that involves being intimate in an erotically arousing or stimulating way with someone else (between consenting adults)

Uncertainty management theory

Appropriate levels of disclosure are positively associated with social attraction- increases in uncertainty often reduces liking but too much predictability

Filter theory

Attraction is important in the beginning to sustain, need more

Ovulatory cycle effect

Attraction varies across ovulatory cycle, normally ovulating women (non-pill users) close to ovulation (peak fertility) seek out: deep masculine voices, rugged masculine looks, more confident ment

Algebraic impressions

Carefully evaluating each new thing we learn about someone- compare/assess positives and negatives, modify impression based on new information, more effective and accurate but less efficient

Intercultural

Communication between people from different countries

Sexual norms

Cultures have social norms for sexuality, to determine sexual social norms: legal sex acts, relatedness, social role, age, race/ethnicity, status

Friends with benefits

Engaging in sexual activity without romantic attachment or the desire for romantic attachment Reasons: not a lot of commitment, need to satisfy sexual desires, turbulent life style (doesn't have time for a relationship)

Intelligence and attraction for males

Males report they want a smart mate, but are less likely to follow through Conclusion: men are intimidated by smart women

Intrasexual selection

Males- competition within sex, struggle to win over female, social hierarchies, intelligence

Monogamy

Marriage to only one person at a time

Sex drive differences

Men and women differ in sexual stimuli and organization of attraction Men- polarized sexual attraction Women- Increased attraction to both sexes- regardless of sexual orientation

Women's scent: fertility

Men are not as good as women when detecting scent, men can sense when women are ovulating and identify as smelling better, women give off signals or cues of their fertility status, medicinal birth control eliminates cycle scents

Mate guarding

Men are sensitive to female partner's cycles, attractiveness plays a role and so does fertility, men are more likely to mate-guard, less attractive men guard more during ovulation, less-attractive women are most likely mate-guarded during ovulation while more-attractive women are mate-guarded all of the time

Male's scent: sweat

Men's hormones can change a women's body chemistry, when women smell these hormones they have marked increase in sexual arousal, positive emotion, memory, and attention

Excitation transfer

Neural pathways engaged in arousing stimulus overlap with those of sexual arousal ex: fear

Generation now

Sex can be an "out of body experience", shift in who the experts are, divide in sex for reproduction vs. sex for fun, shift towards leveling of gender playing field

Liberation of sexual communication

Sex is fun, sex as a lifestyle-mainstream female figures, reject low class characteristics, display of self-care, style, and taste

Co-culture

Share a similar nationality but have a different co-culture

Pornographication

Society has re-packaged erotic material and feed it back to the public, sophisticated form of presentation

Social attraction

Tendency to evaluate another person in a consistently positive way, expressed as dichotomous (like/dislike), not the same as sexual attraction, most people need to achieve social attraction before a sexual attraction

Sexual communication competence

The ability to choose a communication behavior that is both appropriate and effective for a sex-related situation

Ethnocentric

The belief that one's culture is the standard

Food and sexual communication

There is no universal scent that is an aphrodisiac, research shows that some food scents are a turn on for men- libido raisers for men are junk food, pumpkin pie, etc., men with a heavy meat diet is less attractive

Heteronormativity

We assume that everyone is heterosexual until told otherwise- attraction to the other sex is normative

Generation of sexual revolution

Youth of 1950s-1970s: Information limited to science magazines/books, men exchanged sex stories

Generation of gender equalization

Youth of 1970s-1990s: Ideas of generation sexual revolution realized and utilized, free information exchange-beginning of sexual education, males and females exchanged sex stories

Generation of sexual restraints

Youth of the 1930s-1950s: talk of sex not allowed, lack of tenderness, touching, sexual expression, no information exchange