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CHAPTER 8
SEXUAL VARIATIONS
AND
DISORDERS
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR

Changing Views of Sexual Behavior
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Change over time
Sometimes permissive, at other times restrictive
Views toward sexual preferences vary across
cultures and over time
Sigmund Freud – People innately sexual; sexual
repression has negative effects.
Havelock Ellis – Emphasized psychological basis of
sexual problems
SURVEYS OF SEXUAL BEHAVIOR
HOMOSEXUALITY
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Homosexual behavior
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Homosexuals
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Individuals who prefer to engage in sexual activity
with members of their own sex over an extended
period of time
Bisexual behavior
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Sexual behavior with member’s of one’s own sex
Preferred partners are sometime same sex,
sometimes opposite sex
Origins of sexual orientation

Multiple determinants, including psychosocial and
biological factors
HOMOSEXUAL EXPERIENCES
OF MEN AND WOMEN
Description
Men
Women
Self-identified as
homosexual or bisexual
2.8 %
1.4%
Had sex with person of
same sex at least once
since puberty
5.3%
3.5%
Felt desire for sex with
person of same sex
7.7%
7.5%
10.1%
8.6%
Total reporting some
same-sex desires or
experiences
SEXUAL DYSFUNCTION


A persistent impairment of sexual interest or
response
Types
 Sexual desire – Low desire or related to
physical conditions
 Sexual arousal
 Male - Erectile dysfunction
 Female – Hypoactive sexual desire
 Orgasm
 Male – Premature or retarded ejaculation
 Female – Lack of orgasm
REMOTE AND IMMEDIATE STRESSORS
CONTRIBUTING TO SEXUAL DYSFUNCTION
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Performance anxiety
Sexual or life-style problems
Inappropriate concerns and attitudes
learned early in life
Relationship stress
GENDER IDENTITY DISORDER

Gender identity
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Gender identity problems in childhood
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Individual sexual self-concept- Feeling of being male or
female
Differs from sexual preference
Prior to puberty, children express distress at their gender
and intense desire to be the opposite sex
Gender identity disorder in adults
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Transsexualism
 Intense desire to change sexual identity and
anatomical status
Nontranssexual gender identity disorder
 Uncomfortable with their sex, frequently cross-dress,
no desire to change anatomy
THE PARAPHILIAS
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Deviant sexual attraction
Fetishism - Objects
Transvestic fetishism – Cross-dressing
Sexual sadism – Orgasm through inflicting pain
Sexual masochism – Orgasm through receiving
pain or humiliation
Voyeurism – Gratification by watching others
Exhibitionism – Arousal from exposure of genitals
in public setting
Pedophilia – Children are main source of sexual
desire
PARAPHILIAS – CAUSES AND TREATMENT
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Little research into causes but variety of factors
probable:
 Psychodynamic
 Behavioral
 Cognitive
 Interactional
Treatment
 Hormone treatment
 Behavioral and cognitive-behavioral therapy
sometimes effective
 Conventional psychotherapy of little value
SEXUAL VICTIMIZATION
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Types
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Sexual victimizers
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Sexual assaults like rape and child sexual abuse
Most have Axis I and II diagnoses
Resistant to treatment, but cognitive-behavioral
therapy is promising
Effect on victims
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At least 500,000 victims a year
Victims may suffer long-lasting anxiety, posttraumatic
stress disorder, and depression
Many suffer from low self-esteem
Often leads to hypervigilance for cues associated with
victimization
TREATMENT OF SEXUAL DYSFUNCIONS

Masters and Johnson
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Cognitive-Behavioral
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Focus on couples and verbal and nonverbal
communication
Sensate focus – Sexual-retraining techniques
Individual or couples
Relaxation
Modeling
Systematic desensitization
Use of fantasy
Psychodynamic
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For individuals whose symptoms are rooted in
confect
Couples or individual
Sometimes combined with sex therapy