Invitation to Psychology

Chapter 14 The Major Motives of Life: Food, Love, Sex, and work 505

watching gay male couples coupling, most gay

men are turned off by watching straight couples,

and most straight and lesbian women are turned

on by watching anyone of either sex, as long as the

context is erotic (Rupp & Wallen, 2008).

Biological factors cannot account for this di-

versity of sexual responses, cultural customs, or

experience among gay men and lesbians. At pres-

ent, therefore, we must tolerate uncertainty about

the origins of sexual orientation. Perhaps the ori-

gins will turn out to differ, on average, for males

and females, and also differ among individuals,

whatever their primary orientation.

Watch the Video Thinking Like a Psychologist:

Sexual Orientation at MyPsychLab

the majority have more fluid sexual orientations.
A researcher interviewed 100 lesbian and bisexual
women over a 10-year span, and found that only
one-third reported consistent attraction only to
other women; two-thirds also felt attracted to
men. For many of these women, love was truly
blind as far as gender was concerned; their sexual
behavior depended on whether they loved the
partner, not whether the partner was male or fe-
male (Diamond, 2008). Similarly, when men and
women watch erotic films, men are more influ-
enced than women are by the sex of the people
having sex, whereas women are more influenced
than men are by the context in which the sex oc-
curs. Thus, most straight men are turned off by

Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin (left) lived together for 56 years. In 2008, two months after they were finally legally
allowed to marry, Del Martin died. Gay men, like the couple on the right, are increasingly likely to adopt children,
though in many U.S. states they are still forbidden to do so.

Recite & Review

Recite: Were you motivated to learn about sexual motivation? Say aloud what you know about bi-

ological factors in sexuality; evolutionary approaches to gender differences in sexual behavior; social

and cultural criticisms of evolutionary approaches; psychological motives for sex and for rape; sexual

scripts and their influence on sexual behavior; and the possible factors involved in sexual orientation.

Review: Next, reread this section.

Now Take This Quick Quiz:

1. Biological research finds that (a) homosexual behavior is found in hundreds of animal spe-
   cies, (b) male and female sexual responses are physiologically very different, (c) women have a
   stronger sex drive than men do, contrary to the stereotype.


2. Research on the motives of rapists finds that rape is usually a result of (a) thwarted sexual
   desire, (b) hostility or a need for peer approval, (c) crossed signals, (d) female provocation.


3. Under what conditions are women most likely to use sex as a “bargaining chip”? (a) when they
   are employed and thus have their own money to bargain with, (b) when they don’t know how
   to play poker, (c) when they are using birth control, (d) when they are financially dependent


4. True or false: Exclusively psychological theories of the origins of homosexuality have never
   been supported.
   Answers:

Study and Review at MyPsychLab

true4. d3. b2. a1.