Research has shown that college students understand the risks associated with risky sexual behavior, but make up to close to 50% of new STI cases every year. Previous research suggests that lower perceived susceptibility to negative consequences, extroversion, openness, and neuroticism are all related to risky sexual behavior. Three hypotheses are proposed. Hypothesis one proposes that men and women will have significantly different levels of perceived susceptibility. Hypothesis two proposes that perceived susceptibility, extroversion, openness, and neuroticism predict sexual risk taking. Finally, hypothesis three proposes that perceived susceptibility will be negatively correlated with sexual risk taking, whereas extroversion, openness, and neuroticism will be positively correlated with sexual risk taking. Hypothesis one was not supported, hypothesis two was supported, and hypothesis three was only partially supported. Future directions in safe sex education are suggested. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

Wright and Adams (1994; 1999) developed a Choice Reaction Time measure to assess sexual interests in men and women. In their studies, men responded in accordance to their self-reported sexual interests much more consistently than women. Placing these results in the framework of objectification theories (e.g., Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997), the present study was designed to examine the relationship between body image and young women's CRT responses.Forty-two females participated in the CRT task. Consistent with previous studies, 21 (50%) of the women took longer to respond on male trials than female trials. These women were compared to those who took longer on female trials on all the body image and sexuality measures using ANOVA's. Results indicated no significant differences on any of the body image measures, but a small number of differences on sexuality measures. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for gender differences in sexual interest. / Department of Psychological Science

Since Kinsey and his colleagues (Kinsey, Pomeroy, Martin, & Gebhard, 1948; 1953) first began to empirically examine human sexual behavior researchers have found that heterosexual men tend to report having had more sexual partners than heterosexual women. The purpose of the present study was to explore this phenomena using a within subject design. Participants were 124 undergraduate women who completed a packet of surveys on sensitive topics, such as sexuality, and body image, in two conditions: Anonymity Threat Condition: Participants were led to believe that the principle investigator would come in a view their responses while completing the surveys and Bogus Pipeline: Participants were led to believe that they were `hooked-up' to a lie detector. Results found within as well as between subject effects for measures of social desirability and one sexual attitude measure. However, these results did not generalize to the body image measures or sexual behavior questions. / Department of Psychological Science

The definition of child sexual abuse is problematic as it encompasses various meanings within different cultures. This in turn leads to difficulty in measuring the exact incidence and prevalence of child sexual abuse within a country. Many researchers, however, agree that the incidence and prevalence of child sexual abuse within South Africa is significantly high and poses a large threat to many children. As a result, the government has implemented legislation and various policies to protect children from sexual abuse, as well as to provide the victims of such abuse with the necessary assistance. As child sexual abuse may have considerable short- and long-term effects on the child, it is essential that the child be adequately supported. Through various welfare programmes, the government aims to provide support and treatment to children who have been sexually abused. Professionals working with sexually abused children work in a highly stressful environment and often show symptoms of vicarious traumatisation, secondary trauma, burnout and compassion fatigue as a result. South Africa in particular faces further problems, in that the welfare programmes are often underfunded and lack the support needed to effectively help sexually abused children. This has led to a need for community members to volunteer in order to help alleviate some of the stress on professionals working within the field of child sexual abuse. Community members can volunteer in various ways within many different spheres of the community. Their motivations to volunteer vary and range from wanting to give back to the community, to wanting to further their education. Volunteers in South Africa that work within the field of child sexual abuse may also, however, experience many of the same symptoms as the professionals with whom they work. This often leads to a high dropout and turnover rate in volunteer programmes. That said, if volunteers feel a sense of satisfaction and support within their work environment, the organisation’s retention rate will be higher. Literature has shown that South Africa’s mental health services rely on volunteers to help alleviate the workload, particularly in the area of sexual abuse. While much research has been done on the supportive needs of professionals working with sexually abused children, little research has been conducted on the secondary trauma experienced by volunteers working within this field. This qualitative study is therefore important because it explores the supportive needs of volunteers working at an organisation for sexually abused children in a small community in Somerset West. Ethical approval for the study was obtained from the North-West University and the participants gave their informed consent before taking part in the study. Data were gathered through discussion groups and individual interviews with six volunteers. Through the process of crystallisation and the four standards of trustworthiness, the reliability of the findings was ensured. Using thematic analysis, various themes and subthemes were identified. From the data obtained in the group discussions and individual interviews, it was revealed that the volunteers had similar supportive needs to those of psychologists, social workers and counsellors working in the field of child sexual abuse. These included a need for supervision and debriefing; a need for appreciation, acknowledgement, value and worth; a need for more contact and support from the organisation; a need for emotional support from the organisation and supportive others; as well as a need for assistance in coping with anger, all of which is consistent with previous research. As volunteer retention is essential to the continuity of organisations such as the one in this study, it is imperative that the volunteers’ supportive needs are understood and fulfilled. These findings have contributed to an understanding of the volunteers’ supportive needs and what organisations and significant others can do to fulfil these needs, in order for the volunteers to render effective services to the sexually abused children with whom they work / Thesis (MA (Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

The definition of child sexual abuse is problematic as it encompasses various meanings within different cultures. This in turn leads to difficulty in measuring the exact incidence and prevalence of child sexual abuse within a country. Many researchers, however, agree that the incidence and prevalence of child sexual abuse within South Africa is significantly high and poses a large threat to many children. As a result, the government has implemented legislation and various policies to protect children from sexual abuse, as well as to provide the victims of such abuse with the necessary assistance. As child sexual abuse may have considerable short- and long-term effects on the child, it is essential that the child be adequately supported. Through various welfare programmes, the government aims to provide support and treatment to children who have been sexually abused. Professionals working with sexually abused children work in a highly stressful environment and often show symptoms of vicarious traumatisation, secondary trauma, burnout and compassion fatigue as a result. South Africa in particular faces further problems, in that the welfare programmes are often underfunded and lack the support needed to effectively help sexually abused children. This has led to a need for community members to volunteer in order to help alleviate some of the stress on professionals working within the field of child sexual abuse. Community members can volunteer in various ways within many different spheres of the community. Their motivations to volunteer vary and range from wanting to give back to the community, to wanting to further their education. Volunteers in South Africa that work within the field of child sexual abuse may also, however, experience many of the same symptoms as the professionals with whom they work. This often leads to a high dropout and turnover rate in volunteer programmes. That said, if volunteers feel a sense of satisfaction and support within their work environment, the organisation’s retention rate will be higher. Literature has shown that South Africa’s mental health services rely on volunteers to help alleviate the workload, particularly in the area of sexual abuse. While much research has been done on the supportive needs of professionals working with sexually abused children, little research has been conducted on the secondary trauma experienced by volunteers working within this field. This qualitative study is therefore important because it explores the supportive needs of volunteers working at an organisation for sexually abused children in a small community in Somerset West. Ethical approval for the study was obtained from the North-West University and the participants gave their informed consent before taking part in the study. Data were gathered through discussion groups and individual interviews with six volunteers. Through the process of crystallisation and the four standards of trustworthiness, the reliability of the findings was ensured. Using thematic analysis, various themes and subthemes were identified. From the data obtained in the group discussions and individual interviews, it was revealed that the volunteers had similar supportive needs to those of psychologists, social workers and counsellors working in the field of child sexual abuse. These included a need for supervision and debriefing; a need for appreciation, acknowledgement, value and worth; a need for more contact and support from the organisation; a need for emotional support from the organisation and supportive others; as well as a need for assistance in coping with anger, all of which is consistent with previous research. As volunteer retention is essential to the continuity of organisations such as the one in this study, it is imperative that the volunteers’ supportive needs are understood and fulfilled. These findings have contributed to an understanding of the volunteers’ supportive needs and what organisations and significant others can do to fulfil these needs, in order for the volunteers to render effective services to the sexually abused children with whom they work / Thesis (MA (Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

Adolescence is a period of physical, emotional, and social development that represents the transition from childhood toward adulthood. Adolescents therefore experience intense and vigorous physical changes and an increased awareness of their own sexuality. They are also in a physical and mental period of preparation to become a social being, and have a natural curiosity about sexual matters. To satisfy their sexual curiosity, they obtain sexual information mostly from their friends and from lascivious media, especially websites on the internet. Consequently, they obtain incorrect knowledge and distorted sexual views. Moreover, adolescents in Korea, especially in the middle period of adolescence, are much more tolerant and open about many aspects of sexual attitudes and behaviour. They now engage in sexual relations at an earlier age as a result of the weakening of sexual morals and materialism in Korean society. They are exposed to sexual risks such as unwanted pregnancy, abortion, STDs, and HIV/Aids. It is therefore important for adolescents to be educated on sexual matters, and to protect themselves against sexual risks. They should have accurate sexual knowledge to make critical sexual decisions, and to form positive sexual attitudes to enhance sexual behaviour. The purpose of this study was to investigate the sexual knowledge and attitudes towards sexuality of adolescents in Korea, so as to compile a comprehensive programme in sexuality education and to evaluate the influence of the comprehensive sexuality education programme on the knowledge and attitudes of adolescents in Korea. The Randomized Solomon four-group design was used as the method of this study. The selected sample consisted of two groups for the experimental group and two groups for the control group, from two randomly selected co-educated middle schools in Youngdo-gu in Busan, Korea. The experimental group was exposed to the sexuality education programme, while the control group received reading matter similar in content to the sexuality education programme, to reduce the Hawthorne effect. A questionnaire was compiled by the researcher to evaluate adolescents' knowledge of and attitudes towards sexuality. A comprehensive sexuality education programme was compiled based on the literature. The sexuality education programme consisted of fifteen sessions of 45 minutes each. A session was presented each week for fifteen consecutive weeks. A questionnaire was used to collect data on two occasions: one week before the programme was presented and again two weeks after the end of the programme. The data was analysed by means of a frequency analysis, t-tests and correlations by using the SPSS/PC Window 10.0 programme. The results of the research indicated that the effect of the sexuality education programme obviously increased the sexual knowledge adolescents and brought about a positive change in their sexual attitudes. It is therefore recommended that the sexuality education programme for adolescents with its comprehensive content should be presented in an interactive style to learners by a skilful sexuality education educator. The recommendations of this study focus on adolescents as the object of education, the sexuality education programme, the educator and general recommendations. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Nursing))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.

The purpose of this research was to identify the contributors to optimal sexual experiences. At present, there is a lack of clinical knowledge, research knowledge and in-depth public discourse concerning the nature of healthy sexuality. The theoretical and research literature in this area has focused almost exclusively on defining and conceptualizing sexual dysfunctions with little attention paid to either normal or satisfactory experiences. Very little theory exists on the nature and components of optimal sexuality. To date, no empirical investigations have been done to determine the contributors to optimal sexual experiences. In order to identify the contributors to optimal sexual experiences, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 individuals who reported having experienced “great sex”. A phenomenologically-oriented content analysis was performed on interview transcripts to determine the contributors to optimal sexual experiences. Analysis led to the identification of seven major contributors, two pathways towards optimal sexual experiences and two minor contributors. The major contributors included developmental contributors, individual qualities overall, individual qualities in-the moment, skills, relationship qualities overall, relationship qualities in-the-moment and environmental, situational and preparatory contributors. Each of these larger themes was also characterized by a variety of more specific themes. The two pathways that led to optimal sexual experiences included individual qualities that facilitated relationship qualities and relationship qualities that facilitated individual qualities. Finally, the minor contributors consisted of personal proclivities and miscellaneous contributors. Noteworthy findings of this investigation are discussed and then compared and contrasted with existing research and theory. The implications of this work for the general public, sex therapy, sex education, theory and research are considered as well as the strengths and limitations of this study.

Sexual selection is pervasive in nature and plays an important role in the evolution of biological diversity both within and among sexual species. However, while we have a good understanding of how competition for reproductive opportunities and mate choice can drive the evolution of exaggerated secondary sexual traits, much less is known about how sexual selection interacts with other forms of natural selection and the consequences such interactions may have for adaptation to novel environments, the purging of deleterious mutations, and population divergence/speciation. In my thesis, I carried out a series of experiments with the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster to test hypotheses regarding the operation of sexual selection and to broaden our understanding of how sexual selection may influence adaptation and diversification. Theory suggests that natural and sexual selection may align to promote adaptation and the purging of deleterious mutations, although the harm imposed by sexual conflict may counter this. In two separate experiments, I find no evidence that sexual selection promotes adaptation to a novel environment and, rather than aligning with natural selection, I find that the effects of sexual conflict may cause sexual selection to hamper the purging of deleterious mutations. With respect to diversification, sexual conflict has been suggested to be an important, non-ecological driver of population divergence. However, the traits involved in sexual conflict may also affect nonsexual fitness and natural selection may therefore act to constrain diversification. Using an evolution experiment, I demonstrate ecologically-dependent parallel evolution of traits involved in sexual conflict, providing evidence for ecology’s importance in divergence via sexual conflict. Overall, my work has shed light on the interaction of natural and sexual selection and the consequences this may have beyond the evolution of exaggerated sexual displays and armaments.

Contemporary sex therapy, as a social location within which interventions are made in the field of human sexuality, constitutes a terminal point through which discourses of race, ethnicity, gender and sexuality interface and become meditated. It is also a site in which the particular outcomes of this mediation can be expected to have a significant bearing upon clients who, as social and sexual subjects, carry diverse racialised and ethnicised identities. Though a substantial literature exists pertaining to classical sexology, relatively little is sociologically known about contemporary sex therapy within the UK, and nothing is known of the manner in which discourses of race and ethnicity operate within the field. This exploratory research examines the discourses produced by sex therapists (both in talk and text) regarding the nature and significance of race and ethnicity, and the substantive qualities, significance and effects attributed to these in shaping patterns of human sexuality, sexual dysfunction and sex therapy. The aim is to analyse and account for these discourses as the products of underlying cognitive models of race, ethnicity, gender and sexuality, as these have evolved within the particular social location of sex therapy (as a deposit of a broader racialised and ethnicised social consciousness), and formed the basis of an active utilisation by therapists in the pursuit of `preferred renditions' of sex therapy practice. The thesis also aims to explore sex therapists' accounts of the necessary and sufficient conditions for the achievement of effective, equitable and non-oppressive therapeutic intervention in a context of racial and ethnic diversity. The research supports a rendition of sex therapy as a complex constituency, struggling to make sense of the nature and significance of race and ethnicity as sources of difference, and as dimensions of the social subject. Liberal-humanistic, biological-essentialist and versions of ethnic essentialism compete and coalesce as the primary elements of sex therapists' constructions of race and ethnicity as dimensions of the gendered sexual subject, informing their accounts of the necessary and sufficient conditions for the delivery of appropriate, sensitive and non-oppressive praxis.

This thesis investigates the evolution of two secondary sexual characters in birds, large male body size and exaggerated male tail length. To determine whether the elaboration of these two characters is associated with two correlates of sexual selection intensity, mating system and parental care, I collected and examined morphological information for 1,990 species and natural history data for 745 species. Comparative studies should account for the problem of related species sharing similarities through common descent, so here I investigate associations with contrast scores that measure the variation radiating from unique ancestral nodes in a phylogeny. I show that greater polygyny correlates strongly with increasing male size but only slightly with longer male tail length, and that lesser paternal care correlates strongly with both traits. These results indicate that the evolution of increased male body size and exaggerated male tail length in birds is substantially influenced by the intensity of sexual selection.