Chapter 2

Studying Sexuality: Research Methods and Challenges

Evolutionary Perspective

focuses on similarities and differences across species, including the biological origins of sexuality and differences between the sexes

Biological Perspective

focuses on the specific biological mechanisms underlying sexuality or sex differences

Sexual Selection

a special function of natural selection in species that reproduce sexually, referring specifically to traits and adaptations in one sex that, through competition, or a preference for these traits in the other sex, leads to a greater likelihood of reproduction, selecting individuals who possess those traits or adaptations

Cultural Perspective

a perspective that particularly attends to the breadth of diversity that exists in human cultures, including the multiple manifestations of culture in societies, nations, ethnicities, and religions

Social Learning Perspective

attends to the interaction of nature and social experience (nurture) in understanding individual differences; often used by psychologists, particularly in focusing on individual and family experience

Social Constructionism Perspective

a form of the social learning perspective more common in gender studies that essentially all important aspects of sexuality and sexual difference in humans result from the social environment and the meanings that we give to things

Confounds

Important but overlooked factors that may be contributing to results