REVISED
6/24
Psychology
129 E
Human
Sexuality
Summer,
Session A 2002
T/Th
Franz
1178
Professor: Paul Okami, Ph.D.
Office: Franz Hall 2519
Office Hours: Tues:
E-Mail: birdlivs@attbi.com
T. A.: Angie Mittmann
Office: Franz Hall A260E
Office Hours: Thurs
email: angjmitt@psych.ucla.edu
Overview
This course has been designed to present a sampling of critical topics
relevant to human sexuality. It is not meant to be an exhaustive survey of the
subject matter. Rather than touching on a great many topics in a superficial
manner, we will cover a few topics which have both theoretical and social
significance in depth. The emphasis will be on evolutionary, phenomenological,
and social problems perspectives.
Topics to be covered will include: The physiology of sex and sexual
response, the evolution of human sexuality, sex differences in sexual behavior, love and attraction,
courtship and mating, childhood sexuality including sexual abuse, adolescence, commercial
sex and pornography, sexual orientation, paraphilia
(“perversions”), and sexual aggression.
Finally, this is not a “hands on” or “how to” course! (I sadly gave up
that idea a long time ago.) It is also
not a course on “sexual communication,” “sexual diversity,” “sexual
sensitivity,” or psychotherapy. It is a
thinking course. Hopefully, it will
challenge some of your assumptions about human sexuality, and provoke you to
think more critically about this topic. Although I can pretty much guarantee that if
you pay attention you will learn things that you can usefully apply to your sex
life, these may not necessarily be the things you set out to learn-- or think
you even want to know!
Required
A reader will be required, and will be available for purchase at Academic
Print Services in Ackerman Hall
Readings are due on the day indicated in the syllabus, i.e. read the material BEFORE the class.
Grading
Grading will be as follows: The
midterm will be worth 35% of your grade and the final will each be worth 55% of
your grade. Attendance will be
worth 10% of your grade.
I do not automatically institute a curve, but only use one if the
pattern of scores warrants it (i.e., if scores are unusually low). However, if a curve is used, it will only
work in your favor. That is, no one who
scores 90 and above will receive less than an A, no one scoring 80 and above
will get less than B, no one scoring 70 and above will get less than C, and no
one scoring 60 and above will get less than D. Less than 60 is an “F”,
regardless of curve.
Exams
There will be no make-ups for either of the exams. Please
be there. If you can’t live with this policy, please
don’t take the course.
The tests consist of multiple choice questions only. There
will be a review session just prior to the tests.
A significant portion of test material will be drawn from lecture
only. Therefore, it is urgent that you attend
lectures and that you do so in a state of wide-awakedness
(if not enlightened awareness), and that you take notes. I will
be available to clarify points, and I answer e-mails promptly. But it is your responsibility to ask the
questions and ask for help if you need it.
You do not need to memorize every nit-picky detail. Pay attention to ideas, concepts, and major
themes.
Please don’t come late for the exams.
If anyone has already handed her or his exam in, you will not be permitted
to take the test. All exams must be
handed in immediately when time is up (but don’t worry, you’ll have plenty of
time).
Cheating
Policy
Don’t.
Statement on frankness and explicitness in discussion
and presentation
If you faint at the sight of blood, medicine probably would not be the
best career for you. If you think that
explicit discussions of sexuality (including its humorous, perverse, bawdy, criminal,
and/or controversial aspects) might upset or offend you, please do
not take this class.
Wk |
Day |
|
Lecture Topics
|
|
1 |
Tu 6/25 Class 1 |
Reader: Begin “The Body” |
What is “sex”? What is
“gender”? Is there really a
difference? What is “having sex”? Introduction to the perspectives we’ll be using for this class:
evolutionary psychology and constructionist social problems theory |
|
|
Th 6/27 Class 2 |
Reader: Complete “The Body” |
The nuts and bolts of human sexual response; Is female orgasm a
sexual sphinx? The importance of the
female reproductive cycle. |
|
2 |
Tu 7/2 Class 3 |
Reader: “Evolution” |
Evolution and human sexuality:
|
|
|
Th 7/4 |
|
|
|
3 |
Tu 7/9 Class 4 |
Reader: “Sex Differences “The Tragedy of Male Sexuality” |
Sex differences in sexual psychology and behavior -- why we should expect
them and what they are. |
|
|
Th 7/11 Class 5 |
Reader: First Part of “Adulthood” |
MIDTERM (1 hour) Love and attraction: love styles; non-verbal courtship signals;
standards of beauty and attractiveness; courtship and mating in all their
many-splendored forms; jealousy, guilt, joy, and ecstasy --
the whole damned, heart-wrenching mess. |
|
4 |
Tu 7/16 Class 6 |
Reader: Finish “Adulthood” and “Sexual Orientation” |
Adulthood Continued…. Sexual Orientation: Behavior, Desire, Identity Why male and female homosexuality are not analogous Why it does not matter if homosexuality is or is not “biologically
caused” |
|
|
Th 7/18 Class 7 |
Reader: “Development” “Child Perpetrators” |
Childhood and Adolescence |
|
5 |
Tu 7/23 Class 8 |
Reader: “Against Innocence” “Demonology” |
Child sexual abuse film: “Indictment” |
|
|
Th 7/25 Class 9 |
Reader: “Coercion” |
Rape |
|
6 |
Tu 7/30 Class 10 |
Reader: “The Clinic” |
Sexual Dysfunctions and Disorders; Am I Paraphilia—the loves that “dare not speak their names” (and you’d
have a hard time pronouncing them anyway.)
|
|
|
Th 8/1 Class 11 |
Reader: “The Market Place” |
The World of Commercial Sex: Prostitution, Pornography, Stripping,
Telephone Sex…Marriage? |
Date of Final Exam To Be Announced
The book chapters titled “Evolution,” “Development: Childhood and
Adolescence,” “Sex Differences,” “The Market Place,” “Coercion,” “The Clinic” “The
Body” and “Sexual Orientation: Behavior, Desire and Identity,” are all drawn
from draft versions of chapters for The
Sexual World, to be published by Norton later this year or early in 2003. The authors are P. R. Abramson, P. Okami, and
S. D. Pinkerton. Because these are draft
versions only, please do not quote from them or cite them as references.
Other
works contained in the reader are:
Nathan, D. & Snedecker, M. (1995). Demonology. In Satan’s Silence.
Okami, P.
(1992). “Child
perpetrators of sexual abuse”: The emergence of a problematic deviant
category. The Journal of Sex Research, 29, 109-130.
Talbot, M. (
Baumeister, R. F., & Tice, D.
M. (2001). The tragedy of male sexuality. In R. F. Baumeister & D. M. Tice, The social dimension of sex, pp 180-211.