Human sexuality has a significant role in our lives. It cares less about the age, race or sex. It remains an integral part potion of who the person is and what the person does. This paper is therefore committed to address human sexuality but with respect to motivation. Indeed there are a number of emotions tied to human sexuality. However, the sole objective of the paper is a general discussion of human sexuality with keen attention to learning perspective, biological perspective and cognitive perspective.
Human sexuality is defined as the ways of how individuals express and experience themselves simply like sexual beings. It is the sum of the functional and structural differences by which females and males are differentiated. A number of factors can help to nurture our sexuality. Of all the factors, an individual’s real gender is most significant (Katchadourian, 1989).
Learning theory bases its argument on the environment as a factor that shapes the behavior of individuals across various cultures. It also focuses on environmental conditions that nurture sexual activities. Behaviorism stresses the significance of punishment and reward in the process of learning. Events like rewards which do increase the likelihood of certain behaviors are known as reinforcements. Reinforcements on sexual behavior vary across various sexual customs. Children who are left to discover their physical bodies without any condemnation from their seniors in their society or from parents will definitely learn what is perceived as good by the society and repeats it (Aral and Holmes, 1991).
Nevertheless, when sexual dysfunctional behaviors like lesbianism, masturbation or bisexualism feels pleasurable and parents shuns and connects it with shame and guilt feelings, the child victimized is in conflict and will tend not to adopt the shunned sexual practice.
Punishment in this context generally tends to discourage behavior which is not accommodated in the society (Aral and Holmes, 1991). Learning theory not only utilizes the concept of punishment and reward but also acknowledges the value of cognitive activity like thoughts, plans and anticipation as well as learning by observation. Individuals may also develop sexual dysfunction via observational learning by merely observing and emulating others.
Human sexuality is a complex behavior that is influenced by many factors of our lives like learning, cognition and physiology (Katchadourian, 1989). In Social leaning theory, children in most cases acquire gender roles and human sexuality considered appropriate in a society via strengthening gender and sexual appropriate behavior. Individuals also tend to duplicate sexual behaviors of their role models.
References
Aral, S. O., & Holmes, K. K. (1991). Sexually transmitted diseases in the AIDS era. Scientific American, 264:62-69.
Katchadourian, H. (1989). Fundamentals of Human Sexuality (5th ed.). San Francisco: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc.
