Human Sexuality

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Gender

Back 1

The behavioral, cultrual, or psychological traits typically associated with one sex.

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Erotic

Back 2

Arousing sexual feelings or desires.

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Gender Identity

Back 3

One's personal experience of being male or female.

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Gender Roles

Back 4

Complex clusters of ways in which males and females are expected to behave within a given culture.

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Foreplay

Back 5

Mutual sexual stimulation that precedes sexual intercourse.

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Coitus (co-it-us or co-EET-us)

Back 6

Sexual intercourse.

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Human Sexuality

Back 7

The ways in which we experience and express ourselves as sexual beings.

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Values

Back 8

The qualities in life that are deemed important or unimportant, right or wrong, desirable or undesirable.

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Phallic Worship

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Worship of the penis as a symbol of generative power.

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Phallic Symbols

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Images of the penis.

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Incest Taboo

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The prohibition against intercourse and reproduction among close blood relatives.

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Polygamy

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The practice of having two or more spouses at the same time.

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Monogamy

Back 13

The practice of having one spouse.

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Bisexual

Back 14

Sexually responsive to either gender.

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Pederasty

Back 15

Sexual love of boys.

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Courtesan

Back 16

A prostitute-especially the mistress of a noble or wealthy man.

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Concubine

Back 17

A secondary wife, usually of inferior legal and social status.

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Bestiality

Back 18

Sexual relations between a person and an animal.

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Sadism

Back 19

The practice of achieving sexual gratification through hurting or humiliating others.

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Fellatio

Back 20

A sexual activity involving oral contact with the penis.

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Cunnilingus

Back 21

A sexual activity involving oral contact with the female genitals.

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Fornication

Back 22

Sexual intercourse between people who are not married to one another. (If one of the partners is married, the act may be labeled adultery.)

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Sexologist

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A person who engages in the scientific study of sexual behavior.

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Evolution

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The development of a species to its present state, which is believed to involve adaptations to its environment.

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Natural Selection

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The evolutionary process by which adaptive traits enable members of a species to survive to reproductive age and transmit these traits to future generations.

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Genes

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The basic units of heredity, which consist of chromosomal segments of DNA.

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Chromosomes

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The rodlike structures that reside in the nuclei of every living cell and carry the genetic code in the form of genes.

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DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid)

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The chemical substance whose molecules make up genes and chromosomes.

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Mutations

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Random changes in the molecular structure of DNA.

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Evolutionary Psychologist

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Psychologist who studies the effects of evolution on behavior and mental processes.

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Analogue

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Something that is similar or comparable to something else.

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Copulation

Back 32

Sexual intercourse.

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Polygyny

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A form of marriage in which a man has two or more wives.

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Polyandry

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A form of marriage in which a woman has two or more husbands.

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Psychoanalysis

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The theory of personality originated by Sigmund Freud, which proposes that human behavior represents the outcome of clashing inner forces.

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Defense Mechanisms

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In psychoanalytic theory, automatic processes that protect the ego from anxiety by disguising or ejecting unacceptable ideas and urges.

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Repression

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The automatic ejection of anxiety-evoking ideas from consciousness.

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Erogenous Zones

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Parts of the body, including but not limited to the sex organs, that are responsive to sexual stimulation.

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Psychosexual Development

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In psychoanalytic theory, the process by which sexual feelings shift from one erogenous zone to another.

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Fixation

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In psychoanalytic theory, arrested development, which includes attachment to objects of an earlier stage of psychosexual development.

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Oedipus Complex

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In psychoanalytic theory, a conflict of the phallic stage in which the boy wishes to possess his mother sexually and perceives his father as a rival in love. (The analogous conflict for girls is the Electra complex.)

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Behaviorists

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Learning theorists who argue that a scientific approach to understanding behavior must refer only to observable and measurable behaviors.

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Social-Learning Theory

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A cognitively oriented learning theory in which observational learning, values, and expectations play key roles in determining behavior.

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Modeling

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Acquiring knowledge and skills by observing others.