Test Bank for Sexuality and Our Diversity v3 1st Edition by Tye
ISBN: 9798887941547
Chapter 1
Perspectives on Sexuality in a Cultural and Historical Context
True/False Questions
1. The American Psychological Association encourages psychologists to use “gender” to refer to sexual activity, and “sex” to refer to maleness and femaleness.
False; Easy
2. Biological sex refers to the genetic, hormonal, anatomical, and functional manifestations of femaleness and maleness.
True; Easy
3. A person can have multiple identities, such as cultural identity, religious identity, national identity, and also gender identity.
True; Easy
4. In a cultural tradition with an independent view of self, there is a sharp boundary between ingroup and out-group with less easy inclusion of others into one’s in-group.
False; Moderate
5. In a cultural tradition with an interdependent view of self, an individual views the self as needing to change to accommodate different relationships, with an emphasis on these relationships.
True; Moderate
6. It is unusual in a cultural tradition with an interdependent view of self for decisions like marriage and occupation to be made by family members rather than self.
False; Easy
7. There is strong historical evidence that women innately preferred domestic tasks such as doing the laundry.
False; Easy
8. Not all Abrahamic religions historically have reflected the patriarchal structures of Mediterranean antiquity.
False; Easy
9. The Renaissance view of women was that most males want only sexually corrupt females.
False; Easy
10. A powerful cultural influence on sexuality and gender roles in modern countries is the invention of agriculture approximately ten thousand years ago.
True; Easy © 2025 FlatWorld
11. The Eastern countries that industrialized at the later period have particularly widespread influences in global culture.
False; Easy
12. Technology itself exerts a powerful influence on gender and sexuality.
True; Easy
13. Cultures that are high on controlling reproduction place greater restrictions on males than females.
False; Easy
14. Being bombarded with digitally manipulated images of more attractive people has been shown to contribute to some people feeling substandard.
True; Moderate
15. Body image relates exclusively to an individual’s functional impairment.
False; Easy
16. The Nordic countries are regarded as having the least restrictive policies on contraception.
True; Easy
17. Easy access to health care affects many aspects of sexual and reproductive health, such as the rates of sexually transmitted infections and infant mortality.
True; Easy
18. Migration into a region does not influence gender roles or sexuality.
False; Easy
19. The philosopher Confucius had a relatively liberal attitude toward sexuality, with the idea of yin and yang requiring a balance of forces.
True; Moderate
20. The ancient traditions of Taoism suggested sexuality was part of the natural order.
True; Easy
21. In China under Mao, leader of the communist revolution, hand-holding between couples was banned in public.
True; Easy
22. Many religions such as Orthodox Judaism, Sikhism, and many branches of Christianity have the same clothing traditions for both the sexes.
False; Easy
23. Throughout the Islamic world, there has been more emphasis on celibacy than has occurred within many branches of Christianity.
False; Easy
24. Most African cultures traditionally have a negative view of sexuality.
False; Easy
25. The modern scientific method can be summarized as a process for learning about reality based on objective, verifiable evidence that permits ideas to be tested.
True; Easy
26. In the 1800s, due to the dramatic progress in sciences that led to credence to scientific progress, physicians started to make proclamations about human nature and sexuality that were actually based not on evidence but on the prevailing culture.
True; Moderate
27. Richard von Krafft-Ebing’s book shows that many of the debates about sexuality in the United States and other countries in the twenty-first century were not as contentious as they were in the 1800s.
False; Moderate
28. Krafft-Ebing’s book is important, because it marks the first time that psychiatry claimed sexuality and sexual behavior as medical matters.
True; Easy
29. Foods such as Kellogg’s corn flakes and graham crackers were developed to encourage masturbation.
False; Easy
30. Clelia Duel Mosher’s extensive research on female sexuality and women’s health found out that women were unable to breathe deep breaths and were incapable of physical exercise.
False; Moderate
31. Sigmund Freud’s theory on human sexuality is still accepted as entirely true.
False; Easy
32. People in developing countries face challenges in terms of health and education of a magnitude that is similar to that in highly industrialized countries.
False; Easy
33. Cultures that historically view sexual pleasure as a positive part of human experience, to be enjoyed for its own sake, are referred to as being sex positive
True; Easy
34. Patriarchal cultures, agricultural societies, and those influenced by the Abrahamic religions mostly fall into the sex-positive category.
False; Moderate
35. Sex outside of a sexually exclusive marriage would generally affect an individual’s employment if discovered.
False; Easy
36. Patriarchal families are more common in African American families than among other ethnic groups in the United States.
False; Easy
37. Orthodox Judaism considers the only purpose of sex between a husband and wife to be for procreation.
True; Easy
Multiple Choice Questions
38. _____ is the scientific study of sexuality, which may include many different academic disciplines, such as anthropology, biology, history, psychology, and sociology.
a. Sex therapy
b. Syntactics
c. Sexology
d. Semiology
e. Sexual orientation
c; Easy
39. _____ includes the behavioral, social, and cultural manifestations of femaleness or maleness
a. Biological sex
b. Sexual identity
c. Sexual orientation
d. Gender
e. Race
d; Easy
40. Which of the following best describes gender?
a. It refers to the way people perceive themselves or some aspect of self, or how people represent themselves to others.
b. It refers solely to the biological aspects of maleness and femaleness.
c. It is the genetic, hormonal, anatomical, and functional manifestations of femaleness and maleness.
d. It is the scientific study of sexuality, and it may include many different academic disciplines, such as anthropology, biology, history, psychology, and sociology.
e. It includes the behavioral, social, and cultural manifestations of femaleness or maleness.
e; Easy © 2025 FlatWorld
41. _____ is the genetic, hormonal, anatomical, and functional manifestations of femaleness and maleness.
a. Genital distinction
b. Sexual orientation
c. Sexual celibacy
d. Race
e. Biological sex
e; Easy
42. Which of the following statements is true about biological sex?
a. It includes the behavioral, social, and cultural manifestations of femaleness or maleness.
b. It refers to the way people perceive themselves or some aspect of self, or how people represent themselves to others.
c. It is the study of individual sexual identity based on the gender to which they are attracted.
d. It is the genetic, hormonal, anatomical, and functional manifestations of femaleness and maleness.
e. It is the study of sexuality including different academic disciplines, such as anthropology, biology, history, psychology, and sociology.
d; Easy
43. _____ refer(s) to the way people perceive themselves or some aspect of self, or how people represent themselves to others
a. Mentifact
b. Trait
c. Identity
d. Norm
e. Mores
c; Easy
44. Which of the following statements best defines identity?
a. It is the study of the interactions between biology and sociocultural influences on the expression of various traits.
b. It refers to the way people perceive themselves or some aspect of self, or how people represent themselves to others
c. It is the genetic, hormonal, anatomical, and functional manifestations of femaleness and maleness.
d. It is the study of sexuality including different academic disciplines, such as anthropology, biology, history, psychology, and sociology.
e. It includes the behavioral, social, and cultural manifestations of femaleness or maleness.
b; Easy
45. In a cultural or family tradition with an independent view of self, _____.
a. a diffuse boundary exists between self-identity and people within one’s family
b. there is a sharp boundary between in-group and out-group
c. clear boundaries exist between self-identity and others
d. one views self as needing to change to accommodate different relationships
e. people typically depend on family members rather than self for making decisions
c; Moderate
46. In a cultural or family tradition with an independent view of self,
a. a diffuse boundary exists between self-identity and people within one’s closest group and family.
b. a diffuse boundary exists between in-group and out-group with easier inclusion of others into one’s in-group.
c. there is a sharp boundary between in-group and out-group with less easy inclusion of others.
d. one views self as needing to change to accommodate different relationships with an emphasis on these relationships.
e. people typically depend on family members rather than self for making decisions.
b; Moderate
47. Which of the following statements is true about a cultural tradition with an independent view of self?
a. There is a sharp boundary between in-group and out-group.
b. One views self as needing to change to accommodate different relationships.
c. Clear boundaries seldom exist between self-identity and others.
d. One views self as an unchanging entity over time, with an emphasis on individualism.
e. People typically depend on family members rather than self for making decisions.
d; Moderate
48. In a cultural tradition with an interdependent view of self,
a. there is a sharp boundary between in-group and out-group with less easy inclusion of others into one’s in-group.
b. clear boundaries exist between self-identity and people with one’s closest group and family.
c. a diffuse boundary exists between in-group and out-group with easier inclusion of others into one’s in-group.
d. one views self as an unchanging entity over time, with an emphasis on individualism.
e. people are typically independent and are more likely to make choices for themselves.
a; Moderate
49. Which of the following is most likely to be true about a family tradition with an interdependent view of self?
a. One views self as an unchanging entity over time, with an emphasis on individualism.
b. Clear boundaries exist between self-identity and people with one’s closest group and family.
c. A diffuse boundary exists between in-group and out-group with easier inclusion of others into one’s in-group.
d. One views self as needing to change to accommodate different relationships, with an emphasis on these relationships.
e. People typically are more independent and likely to make choices for themselves.
d; Moderate
50. Which of the following distinctions is more important in terms of gender and sexuality as well as psychological sense of self?
a. Western versus non-Western cultures
b. urban versus rural
c. age versus race
d. men versus women
e. science versus religion
b; Easy
51. Which of the following are often rooted in biology and can best be appreciated through understanding evolution and mechanisms that are found across species?
a. aesthetics
b. ascribed statuses
c. semantics
d. universals
e. achieved statuses
d; Easy
52. Which of the following is a cross-cultural universal found after studying the neurological basis of pair bonding in mammals and observing parallels in humans?
a. the tradition of marriage
b. continuity of family after marriage
c. matriarchal tradition
d. the capacity to fall in love
e. food habits
d; Easy
53. What is a benefit of understanding biological universals?
a. Biology recognizes cultural trends and patterns in society.
b. Biology produces a wide range of individual differences within a species.
c. Biology restricts our understanding of behavioral trends to the impact of evolution.
d. The existence of individual variations in the frequency and duration of falling in love is assumed to be abnormal in biology.
e. Biology helps in understanding that the capacity to love is not a cross-cultural universal.
b; Moderate
54. In ancient Greece, which of the following was considered appropriate for males?
a. to maintain celibacy
b. to abstain from sex with adolescent males
c. to remain a misogynist
d. to have two outlets for sexual desire and behavior
e. to maintain asceticism
d; Moderate
55. Pre-Christian Roman culture likely held similar permissive attitudes as the Greeks toward many aspects of sexuality—in particular, a toleration or encouragement of _____ enjoying sex for pleasure.
a. only men
b. only middle-class individuals
c. only women
d. same-sex individuals
e. both women and men
e; Easy
56. _____ is a social structure where power, wealth, property, and status are largely controlled by males.
a. Matriarchy
b. Polyarchy
c. Patriarchy
d. Autarky
e. Demarchy
c; Easy
57. _____ was on the rise during the fourth and fifth centuries in Christian philosophy, was viewed as a way of being godly, and involved the giving up of pleasures.
a. Celibacy
b. Materialism
c. Aestheticism
d. Asceticism
e. Hedonism
d; Easy
58. _____ is an example of the Abrahamic religions.
a. Confucianism
b. Jainism
c. Mayan religion
d. Hinduism
e. Christianity
e; Easy
59. The Abrahamic religions are Judaism, Christianity, and:
a. Hinduism
b. Buddhism
c. Islam
d. Jainism
e. Confucianism
c; Easy
60. All three Abrahamic religions historically have reflected the _____ structures of Mediterranean antiquity.
a. oligarchical
b. patriarchal
c. matriarchal
d. demarchical
e. anarchical
b; Easy
61. In the most traditional sects of the Abrahamic religions’ faiths, sex for sexual pleasure, particularly outside of marriage, is viewed as:
a. recreational
b. humorous
c. sinful
d. hedonic
e. sacred
c; Easy
62. Which statement is most likely to describe original sin according to The Old Testament?
a. Adam and Eve exemplified humanity’s ignorance of the holy teaching by eating fruit from the forbidden tree of knowledge.
b. God instructed Adam and Eve to eat fruit from the forbidden tree and sample knowledge.
c. Eve ate fruit from the forbidden tree to sample knowledge, had sexual relations with Adam, fell from Eden, and thus created the human race.
d. Adam and Eve followed God’s instructions and exemplified sexism and also started patriarchal family structures by eating fruit from the forbidden tree of knowledge.
e. Adam instructed Eve to eat fruit from the forbidden tree and sample knowledge, starting patriarchy.
c; Moderate
63. Which era was of the view that most females wantonly sexually corrupt males?
a. the Industrial Era
b. the Greco-Roman Era
c. the Renaissance
d. the Medieval Era
e. the Enlightenment
c; Easy
64. Which of the following had a powerful cultural influence on sexuality and gender roles in modern countries?
a. evolutionary findings
b. industrialization
c. literary movements
d. agricultural abandonment
e. world wars
b; Easy
65. Identify a similarity between postagricultural societies and indigenous societies that have adopted agriculture.
a. They have adopted urbanization.
b. They continue to depend on forage-and-return hunting and gathering.
c. They have developed patriarchal structures.
d. They have similar cultural patterns.
e. They have identical linguistic patterns.
c; Moderate
66. Both the postagricultural societies and indigenous societies that have adopted agriculture developed patriarchal structures after adopting agriculture because
a. agricultural advancement brought suffrage movement.
b. the upper body strength favored males for production of food.
c. women unanimously preferred to be the weaker sex.
d. women were reluctant to continue the hunting and gathering tradition.
e. religious books instructed societies to consider males as superior to females.
b; Moderate
67. Which of the following is a reason that both the postagricultural societies and indigenous societies developed patriarchal structures after adopting agriculture?
a. It was proved that women were unable to breathe deep breaths and that they were incapable of physical exercise.
b. Females unanimously preferred to be the weaker sex and voluntarily chose to do household tasks.
c. Women were reluctant to continue the hunting and gathering tradition which encouraged the males to head the families.
d. Increased fertility made possible by more food led women to have more babies and spend a greater proportion of their lives pregnant.
e. Religious books instructed societies to consider males as superior to females.
d; Moderate
68. Identify an influence on gender and sexuality shared by the postagricultural societies and indigenous societies.
a. literary awareness
b. industrialization
c. the suffrage movement
d. world war
e. food scarcity
b; Easy
69. Some powerful and shared influences on gender and sexuality across different societies are industrialization, urban living, and a(n):
a. similar geographic distribution
b. shared cultural experience
c. global climatic change
d. identical gene inheritance
e. identical political situation worldwide
b; Easy
70. Which of the following statements is true about cultures with low concern for controlling reproduction?
a. They seldom tolerate the idea of both women and men enjoying sex for pleasure.
b. They view sex strictly in terms of procreative activity.
c. They have fewer regulations on sexual behavior.
d. They perceive sex precisely in terms of religious sanction.
e. They place greater restrictions on sexual behavior for females.
c; Moderate
71. Which of the following statements is true of the effects of agriculture and industrialization in the past century on gender and sexuality?
a. A reason for the development of matriarchal structures after adopting agriculture was that women spent a smaller proportion of their lives being pregnant and most of their time indulging in the production of food.
b. Cultures that were high on controlling reproduction placed restrictions on sexual behavior for males exclusively, which may be seen as a way of ensuring paternity.
c. In most societies that practiced agriculture, a strict division of power emerged with a small percentage of individuals coming to control the political and economic structures within society—mostly males.
d. Feminism was given more importance in societies that practiced agriculture.
e. The Eastern countries that industrialized later had particularly widespread influences in global culture than the Western countries.
c; Moderate
72. One of the impacts of the internet is that
a. it helps countries to place restrictions on an individual’s sexual behavior.
b. it can serve to reinforce traditional cultural values.
c. it ensures that computer users do not bypass restrictions placed on sexual content online.
d. it lays emphasis exclusively on unidirectional cultural transfer.
e. it curbs the global marketing of cultural exports.
b; Moderate
73. Which of the following contributes to people feeling substandard and desiring to modify the body?
a. the cultural transfer of the media for entertainment being mostly unidirectional
b. people being bombarded with digitally manipulated images of more attractive people
c. body image actually relating to the functional impairment of a person
d. Western countries that industrialized earliest having widespread influences in global culture
e. people in industrialized countries being more attractive than less industrialized societies
b; Moderate
74. Countries like Denmark and the Netherlands legalize prostitution as a form of:
a. economic prosperity
b. cultural requirement
c. procreative activity
d. individual liberty
e. female empowerment
d; Easy
75. The philosopher Confucius had a relatively liberal attitude toward sexuality, with the idea of yin and yang
a. seldom coexisting together.
b. requiring a balance of forces.
c. being rival forces.
d. existing one at a time.
e. trying to dominate each other.
b; Moderate
76. Identify a consequence of Mao’s one-child policy in China.
a. It encouraged illegal polygamous relationships.
b. It made it difficult for China to feed its population.
c. It slowed China’s population growth.
d. It encouraged a Western-style culture of sexual relationships.
e. It ensured a balance in the Chinese gender ratio.
c; Moderate
77. Which of the following is more likely to be true about the religion of Islam?
a. There has been more emphasis on celibacy in Islamic religion compared to any other religions.
b. There is no particular negative association with male-female sexual pleasure that is not procreative in the Islamic world.
c. Clothing traditions emphasizing sexual modesty are not requirements in the Islamic societies.
d. Islam shares with traditional interpretations of Christianity and Judaism a positive view of same-sex sexuality.
e. Gender roles and equality in the Islamic societies are uniformly even just as in Western countries.
b; Moderate
78. Which of the following refers to a formal, systematic attempt to kill an entire native population, where the surviving native people would be physically displaced and cultural traditions altered or obliterated?
a. colonization
b. homicide
c. slavery
d. genocide
e. extinction
d; Easy
79. Which of the following most likely characterizes surviving indigenous cultures?
a. industrialized societies
b. geographic remoteness
c. intercultural interaction
d. gender equality
e. matriarchal family structures
b; Easy
80. The modern _____ can be summarized as a process for learning about reality based on objective, verifiable evidence that permits ideas to be tested.
a. instrumentalism approach
b. scientific method
c. critical thinking
d. qualitative method
e. Six Sigma approach
b; Easy
81. Which of the following is a reason physicians started to make proclamations about human nature and sexuality that were actually based not on evidence but on the prevailing culture?
a. the beginning of reason being considered a virtue since Enlightenment
b. focus on faith and religion over scientific findings
c. Bentham’s shocking and radical argument for decriminalizing homosexuality
d. dramatic progress in chemistry, biology, and the sciences
e. later start of medical science than physics, chemistry, and biology © 2025 FlatWorld
d; Moderate
82. Which of the following is a reason why Richard von Krafft-Ebing’s book—Psychopathia Sexualis—is important in studying sexuality?
a. It fails to claim sexuality and sexual behavior as medical matters.
b. It rightly describes sexual practices as pathological behaviors.
c. It shows how attitudes over sexuality and many other topics have remained consistent since the 1800s.
d. It follows the style of using English terms for the sexual acts so that everyone could understand.
e. It shows that many of the debates about sexuality in many countries in the twenty-first century are just as contentious as they were in the 1800s.
e; Moderate
83. Which of the following is most likely to be true about masturbation?
a. It is not a legal or a natural sexual act.
b. It is still considered unhealthy by physicians.
c. It is no longer considered pathological.
d. Spicy food encourages masturbation.
e. It is a cause of illness for many people.
c; Easy
84. Which statement is true about the research conducted by Havelock Ellis and Magnus Hirschfeld on human sexuality?
a. They both wrote about sexual desire in a negative light.
b. They suggested that sexual impulses, including masturbation, were unhealthy.
c. They suggested that a constellation of traits was biologically based, suggesting a relationship to an “inversion” of masculinity and femininity in same-sex attraction.
d. They introduced corn flakes and graham crackers for the purpose of being bland so as to curb masturbation as they both agreed that spicy food would ignite sexual passion.
e. Their research suggested that women were unable to breathe deep breaths and that they were incapable of physical exercise.
c; Moderate
85. Which of the following is true about Clelia Duel Mosher’s findings on female sexuality?
a. Women were unable to breathe deep breaths and incapable of physical exercise.
b. Women were just as interested in sex as men.
c. Male and female respiration was biologically predisposed to be different.
d. Enjoying sexual acts was considered a disapproved pathological behavior in the case of females.
e. Women were better at breathing deep breaths and carrying out physical exercise compared to men.
b; Moderate
86. Which one of the following is true about the introduction of foods such as Kellogg’s corn flakes and graham crackers by physician Dr. William Kellogg, and minister Rev. Sylvester Graham, respectively?
a. They were developed to enhance sexual passion.
b. They were developed to curb same-sex attraction.
c. They were developed to encourage physical exercise in women.
d. They were developed to curb masturbation.
e. They were developed to study sexuality based on diet habits.
d; Easy
87. Sigmund Freud theorized that the unconscious contained multiple components that were struggling with one another: the _____, the superego, and the ego.
a. ethos
b. logos
c. id
d. pathos
e. reality
c; Easy
88. According to Sigmund Freud, which of the following is the component of the unconscious that is concerned with the internal moralizations of society that restrain the id?
a. ego
b. ethos
c. superego
d. pathos
e. logos
c; Easy
89. According to Sigmund Freud, which of the following is a part of mind that walls off the unconscious conflicts and struggles and forms our conscious sense of self?
a. ethos
b. superego
c. ego
d. pathos
e. id
c; Easy
90. Which of the following is a factor that resulted in the sexual revolution of the 1960s?
a. support from religious leaders for the availability of effective oral contraceptives
b. the emergence of a popular youth culture that encouraged a rejection of traditional values
c. the acceptance of traditional authority and support for the Vietnam War by youths
d. encouragement from religious leaders for the separation of sex from procreation and the pursuit of sexual activity strictly for pleasure
e. the legalizing of controversial matters like abortion, pornography, and oral sex © 2025 FlatWorld
b; Moderate
91. _____ refers to cultures and attitudes that view sexual pleasure as only being appropriate if expressed in certain contexts or for certain purposes and that view sexual activity outside of these contexts as being inferior or wrong.
a. Sex negative
b. Pansexuality
c. Polysexuality
d. Polyamory
e. Bisexual erasure
a; Easy
92. Both Heinrich Kaan and Richard von Krafft-Ebing wrote medical texts on sexuality. Both books were called:
a. Medicalis Sexualis
b. Androsexualis
c. Psychopathia Sexualis
d. Hominus Sexualis
e. Delectatio Sexualis
c; Moderate
93. Which of the following describes a face veil that is required of women in some branches of Islam?
a. Kǒng Zǐ
b. Niqab
c. Burqa
d. Hijab
e. Yin
b; Moderate
94. What is an argument made by people who favor conscience clauses?
a. They protect health care professionals from religious restrictions.
b. They protect the public from religious restrictions on contraception.
c. They protect the right of pharmacists to enforce their beliefs on customers.
d. They protect the right to religious freedom.
e. They protect the public from discrimination.
d; Moderate
95. What is the most practiced form of Christianity, dating back to the Roman adoption of Christianity?
a. Catholicism
b. Protestantism
c. Evangelicalism
d. Lutheranism
© 2025 FlatWorld
e. Presbyterianism
a; Easy
96. A _____ is a widespread concern about some aspect of sexuality or sexual behavior, that is not based on evidence, and may have an unstated origin in morality.
a. sexual revolution
b. gender panic
c. sex panic
d. moral revolution
e. gender revolution
c; Easy
97. Which countries were among the earliest countries to recognize same-sex unions in the late 1990s and early 2000s?
a. Australia, New Zealand, and Canada
b. Germany, England, and the United States
c. Denmark, the Netherlands, and Sweden
d. Germany, China, and Japan
e. Portugal, Spain, and France
e; Moderate
98. Which of the following was a characteristic of the early decades of the Russian Revolution?
a. an emphasis on the dominance of masculine roles in the community
b. a reaction against strict gender roles
c. enforcement of a matriarchal society
d. an emphasis on the importance of practicing religion
e. a reaction against education and training for women
b; Moderate
Short Answer/Essay
99. Distinguish between gender, biological sex, and identity.
Gender includes the behavioral, social, and cultural manifestations of femaleness or maleness Most people in everyday language use gender to refer to biological sex, which refers to the genetic, hormonal, anatomical, and functional manifestations of femaleness and maleness.
Identity refers to the way people perceive themselves or some aspect of self, or how people represent themselves to others A person can have multiple identities, such as cultural identity, religious identity, national identity, and also gender identity.
Moderate
100. Explain the universal of women doing laundry more often than men.
The universal of women doing laundry more often than men comes from common historical roots where, with the development of agriculture and the increase in wealth and quantity of clothing, many societies started to develop sex-segregated roles, assigning domestic tasks more to females than males, particularly within the household, and there is no evidence that women innately prefer domestic tasks. This has continued decades after major transitions of gender roles and attitudes, so that from countries as diverse as Japan, Saudi Arabia, and the United States, it’s still the case that wives are more likely to cook and clean than husbands are.
Moderate
101. Discuss the reasons why both types of societies—postagricultural and indigenous— developed a patriarchal family structure after adopting agriculture. Despite immense linguistic and cultural differences between indigenous societies and the postagricultural cultures of ancient India, China, North Africa, the Middle East, and Europe, all these societies developed patriarchal structures after adopting agriculture. Reasons for this include the division of labor, with the 15 to 20 percent greater upper body strength favoring males for production of food in a preindustrial era, and the increased fertility made possible by more food led women to have more babies and spend a greater proportion of their lives pregnant. In many subsistence societies, women breast-feed for four to five years, during which time ovulation may be suppressed, and there are fewer pregnancies.
Moderate
102. Identify the difference between an interdependent and an independent view of self. In a cultural tradition with an interdependent view of self, a diffuse boundary exists between self-identity and people within one’s closest group and family, there is a sharp boundary between in-group and out-group with less easy inclusion of others into one’s in-group, and one views the self as needing to change to accommodate different relationships, with an emphasis on these relationships. An interdependent view of self is more common in nonWestern cultures and traditional, nonindustrialized societies. It is not unusual in these cultures for decisions like marriage and occupation to be made traditionally by family members rather than self.
In contrast, in a family tradition with an independent view of self, clear boundaries exist between self-identity and others, there is a diffuse boundary between in-group and out-group with easier inclusion of others into one’s in-group, and one views self as an unchanging entity over time, with an emphasis on individualism. Such cultures are traditionally Western. People from families with these cultural backgrounds typically make choices for themselves, such as whom to marry or what to study in university.
Moderate
103. Explain the common and widespread influences of agriculture and modernization on gender roles and sexuality.
In most societies that practiced agriculture, a strict division of power emerged with a small percentage of individuals coming to control the political and economic structures within society—mostly males. Mostly all forage-and-return hunter gatherer societies developed © 2025 FlatWorld
patriarchal structures after adopting agriculture. Reasons for this include the division of labor, with the 15 to 20 percent greater upper body strength favoring males for production of food in a preindustrial era, and the increased fertility made possible by more food led women to have more babies and spend a greater proportion of their lives pregnant.
Other powerful and shared influences on gender and sexuality are industrialization, urban living, and a shared cultural experience. Whether in Tokyo or Toronto, Sao Paolo or Shanghai, Boston or Bangalore, people have access to electricity, the internet, and mobile phones, and they often listen to the same music and buy the same clothes. The Western countries that industrialized earliest have particularly widespread influences in global culture. Technology itself exerts a powerful influence on gender and sexuality. For example, reliable oral contraceptives were first discovered in the late 1950s. They give women control over fertility, and today, in all countries where women become more educated and income levels increase sufficiently for access to contraceptives to become possible, a majority of women chose to have far smaller families.
Moderate
104. Consider the roles of mass media and the internet in relation to their influence on sexuality.
Media and artistic products both reflect the values and attitudes of a culture and serve to shape those attitudes. For example, portrayals of positive gay male characters in U.S. television were nonexistent in the 1970s and are relatively common today in domestic U.S. television, both reflecting changes in cultural attitudes and also serving to affect attitudes, particularly among adolescents. However, in part because many countries are more restrictive of material that has nudity or sexual content than material that has violence and because companies market where demand exists, cultural exports that are marketed globally tend not to be as varied in their portrayals of sexuality as material that is produced for domestic markets in the United States.
The internet has been described as a great leveler of information. Although many countries, including the Islamic Middle Eastern nations and China, have strict limits on freedom of expression of political ideas and sexual content online, technology makes it possible for many computer users to bypass these restrictions. The speed of technological innovation is often far faster than that of research or public policy, and technological innovations often quickly become incorporated into sexual relationships and behavior, such as sexting and smartphone GPS-enabled dating apps. The internet can also serve to reinforce in-group and traditional cultural values, providing communities in which people with like-minded views can gather and supporting the spread of misinformation.
Another influence of modern media is on body image. For example, people have a desire to see attractive images, so of course people who are more attractive are more likely to be cast in television programs or to go viral on YouTube. There is a biological basis to many aspects of what is considered attractive as well as to some cross-cultural universals. In a world of billions, it’s easy to find the top 1 or 2 percent who are substantially more attractive than an average person. However, being bombarded with images of people in the top 1 or 2 percent of attractiveness, especially if these images are further enhanced and digitally manipulated, has been shown to contribute to some people feeling © 2025 FlatWorld
substandard, leading to a greater desire to modify the body, sometimes in ways that are unhealthy, such as eating disorders or steroid abuse. Because body image relates to a perceived dissatisfaction or inadequacy, and even though there is no functional impairment, the effect on a person’s sexuality may be as real as if there were a functional impairment. This also leads to surgeries, such as penile and breast enhancements, which are increasingly common in industrialized countries. There are wide variations between industrialized countries in the popularity of such surgeries, showing that even in an era of global media, many local variations exist.
Moderate
105. Specify examples of gender, sexuality, and family structure differences in indigenous cultures.
Indigenous cultures historically show enormous variation in both gender roles and sexuality. Traditional pre-agricultural-society social structures have fewer power differences between individuals or between males and females. The Musuo people in China have a matriarchal structure, with property passing along female lines. The Yanomamo of the Amazon have males trained to be fierce warriors yet also have a concept known as partible paternity, in which all males are viewed as fathering the village’s children. On Jeju Island in South Korea, traditional male-dominated gender roles are inverted, and women historically went out seeking food by deep-sea diving, while men stayed at home. A great many indigenous cultures have traditions for recognizing a “third sex” or “third gender,” which combines aspects of variance in gender identity, gender role conformity, or sexual orientation. In some cultures, such as in Mangaia, a South Pacific island, sexual activity begins in adolescence, with no guilt or shame and with a strong emphasis on sexual pleasure of both sexes. Some cultures, such as the Aka hunters in central Africa, appear to have never heard of masturbation to orgasm, and sex is not viewed as a pleasure, but males view it as a job necessary to bring forth children, and same-sex attractions are rarely reported. In others, such as native Māori society in New Zealand, those with same-sex attraction may traditionally have been accorded status in their communities, but after English colonization and the adoption of Christianity, these attractions became viewed as inferior. Broadly speaking, indigenous cultures show how flexible human nature can be with regard to what is considered gender-typical behavior, normal sexual activity, and a proper family structure.
Moderate
106. Discuss Richard von Krafft-Ebing’s findings on sexuality and why his book is considered important.
In 1886, Richard von Krafft-Ebing wrote and published what became one of the first bestselling medical texts on sexuality, calling it Psychopathia Sexualis. He documented a wide range of sexual practices and described them as both perversions and medical problems, thus pathologizing as medical and mental illness things that today are known to be a normative part of sexual behavior. He included masturbation, same-sex attraction, and numerous examples of focused sexual interest in objects, clothing, or activities, which today we call kinks and fetishes. The book was soon translated into English and affected laws in England,
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the United States, and parts of the world occupied by colonial European governments. He kept the style of using Latin for the sexual acts so that only physicians would understand. Krafft-Ebing’s book is important because it marks the first time that psychiatry claimed sexuality and sexual behavior as medical matters—something that continues today. It also shows that many of the debates about sexuality in the United States and other countries in the twenty-first century were just as contentious as they were in the 1800s. Lastly, it shows how attitudes have changed in many topics.
Moderate
107. Elaborate on the different factors that contributed to the sexual revolution of the 1960s. Effective oral contraceptives became widely available and sexual attitudes underwent a dramatic generational shift during the 1960s, in part as a result of the reduced risk of pregnancy and in part due to the shift in attitudes brought about by Alfred Kinsey’s research. Other factors resulting in the sexual revolution of the 1960s was the emergence of a popular youth culture that encouraged a rejection of traditional values, participated in an antiwar protest movement challenging the Vietnam War, and rejected traditional authority.
Moderate
108. Distinguish between sex-positive and sex-negative value systems. Cultures that historically view sexual pleasure as a positive part of human experience, to be enjoyed for its own sake, are referred to as being sex positive. Sex negative refers to cultures and attitudes that view sexual pleasure as only being appropriate if expressed in certain contexts or for certain purposes and that view sexual activity outside of these contexts as being inferior or wrong.
Moderate
109. Briefly discuss the steps of the modern scientific method.
The scientific method is a process of learning about reality based on objective, verifiable evidence that permits ideas to be tested. The specific steps vary depending on the area of science. In the physical sciences, the approach involves gathering observations about natural phenomena in an objective manner, building theories to explain these, and making specific predictions from theory known as hypotheses. Next, one sets out to test one’s hypotheses in a manner that clearly supports or rejects each hypothesis. If a hypothesis is supported, the theory is strengthened, particularly if supported by multiple experiments by different researchers. If a hypothesis is rejected or the results are counter to those expected, it suggests that the theory is incomplete or false. This leads to revising or even discarding theories on the basis of evidence.
Moderate