The aim of this study was to make an assessment of the role of the cognitive component in the development of sexual dysfunction. Past studies have largely focused on the impact of particular events on sexual dysfunction and have not assessed the role of the perception of these events. A number of theories on sexual dysfunction have been developed to explain the influence of cognitions, but these have not been empirically tested. This study investigated the role of the cognitive evaluation of sexual experiences among 30 sexually dysfunctional participants and 30 control participants who were matched on age, marital status and biological sex. The Cognitive Aspects of Sexual Dysfunction Measure (CASDM) was constructed to evaluate sexual dysfunction. This measure was designed to tap into the major events in participants’ lives and, more importantly, the participants’ perceptions of these events. The components assessed were the intergenerational (family of origin), individual, current life and relationship aspects of the person’s life. These factors were measured from the responses to questions regarding the participant's cognitions about past experiences, the effect of the past experience on the participant at the lime it occurred and the influence this experience had on the participant's sense of self now, their relationship now and sexual functioning now. The main findings in the intergenerational area were that past experiences were perceived by the sexually dysfunctional group to be having an impact on the self, relationships and their sexual functioning although there were no actual differences between the sexually functional and the sexual dysfunctional participants in the occurrence of the event. For the individual factors, there were differences between the sexually functional and sexually dysfunctional participants in both values and lifestyle, although these were not perceived to be having an impact on the self, relationship and sexual functioning. In the relationship area, anger was the major factor separating the sexually functional and sexually dysfunctional groups. Anger was high among the sexually dysfunctional participants and was perceived to be having an impact on self, the couple’s relationship and their sexual functioning. The importance of all these variables in providing a better understanding of the cognitive factors in sexual dysfunction was discussed. The findings demonstrate the importance of cognitions in influencing sexual functioning. Clinicians should not simply deal with the life experiences of sexually dysfunctional people when attempting to change their behaviour, but should focus on changing cognitions about the behaviours in relation to sexual functioning.

Thesis (M.S.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of Marriage and Family Therapy, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 63-72).

Thesis (DPhil)--University of Stellenbosch, 2005. / On cover: Doctor of Philosophy in Social Work. Bibliography. Also available via the Internet.

No description available.

A prostituição feminina é um tema que tem gerado diversas pesquisas científicas. Desde pesquisas relacionadas ao turismo sexual, AIDS/DSTs, prostituição e internet, prostituição e migração. Dentre esses temas, o trabalho mesmo das protitutas como objeto de pesquisas, seu cotidiano e práticas, estrategias de negociação e cobrança são pouco pesquisados. Abordando esses temas, e pela via da formação e desenvolvimento da carreiras das prostitutas e da relação com sua vida pessoal é onde se insere o presente trabalho. Temos como colaboradoras duas prostitutas que trabalham no centro de Salvador-BA (Mariana e Graziela ) e enfocando suas histórias de vida e carreira através de entrevistas realizadas com as mesmas, devidamente gravadas e transcritas. A partir da fala mesma delas, procedemos uma reconstrução de suas carreiras, de todos os percalços e questões importantes ao longo de sua vida profissional. Dentre eles destacamos o início na prostituição, prostituição e escolha, violência nas relações de trabalho, família e maternidade, prostituição de rua e prostituição dentro de locais especializados, questões de gênero: ciúme e (não)aceitação dos companheiros, liberdade de gênero e poder, sexualidade, prazer e o trabalho como prostituta, a recusa do papel de vítima da vida ou das circunstâncias, prostituição e vida pessoal e competências necessárias para ser uma prostituta. Terminamos fazendo apontamentos sobre a carreira de nossas depoentes, o estigma social a que estão sujeitas, liberdades a que estão sujeitas nesse trabalho, a questão da remuneração, a implicação da escolha profissional na vida pessoal e o que mais poderia ser pesquisado em Salvador em termos de prostituição / Female prostitution is a theme that has generates several scientific papers. From the sexual tourism to AIDS/STD researches throw papers that focus prostitution and internet and prostitution and migration. Among all this themes, prostitutes works itself lacks as been the object of researches, their every-day work and practices, negotiation and payment strategies have been very little studied. Covering this themes and through the studies of the career and career development of the prostitutes, and the relation between their work and personal life is where this paper can be placed. Having 2 prostitutes from Salvador-BA as collaborates (Mariana and Graziela) and focusing on their life histories and career through the use of recorded interviews and transcribed. Proceeding from their own speeches we reconstruct their career with all the problems and important issues related to their professional lives. Among them we can state the beginning in prostitution work, prostitution and choice, violence in the sex work relations, family and maternity, indoor and outdoor prostitution, gender issues: the jealousy and (non)acceptance from their mates, gender freedom and power, sexuality, pleasure and work as a prostitute, refuse of being a victim of their life or history so end up as a prostitute, prostitute and personal life, competences needed to be a prostitute. We finish making pointing out issues as: our interviewed careers, social stigma that they are subject, freedoms that they are subject as prostitutes, the payment, implications of the professional choice in personal life and what else could be researched in the prostitution of Salvador

The purpose of this research is to explore individual behaviour towards authority. The psychodynamic and phenomenological paradigms are used. Unstructured interviews, conducted on five female consultants, produced themes that provide possible insight into individual behaviour towards authority. These themes were; 'daddy and mommy's little girl', need for attention, approval, to not disappoint and sibling rivalry; anxiety and the use of defense mechanisms; conditions for acceptance and/or comfort; dependency for support; clear and/or rigid boundaries; split in experience towards authority; fear of authority; power struggle; and counterdependency. These themes suggest that individual's project and transfer feelings, fantasies, expectations and wishes of their experiences with their parents, their earliest authority figures, onto other authority figures, for example, their managers. The hypothesis generated was "past experiences with authority figures influences individual experiences and hence behaviour towards present authority figures". / Psychology / M.A. (Industrial Psychology)

The purpose of this research is to explore individual behaviour towards authority. The psychodynamic and phenomenological paradigms are used. Unstructured interviews, conducted on five female consultants, produced themes that provide possible insight into individual behaviour towards authority. These themes were; 'daddy and mommy's little girl', need for attention, approval, to not disappoint and sibling rivalry; anxiety and the use of defense mechanisms; conditions for acceptance and/or comfort; dependency for support; clear and/or rigid boundaries; split in experience towards authority; fear of authority; power struggle; and counterdependency. These themes suggest that individual's project and transfer feelings, fantasies, expectations and wishes of their experiences with their parents, their earliest authority figures, onto other authority figures, for example, their managers. The hypothesis generated was "past experiences with authority figures influences individual experiences and hence behaviour towards present authority figures". / Psychology / M.A. (Industrial Psychology)

Thesis (DPhil (Social Work))--University of Stellenbosch, 2005. / It is generally accepted that pre-teen sexual offences are becoming a widespread problem in South Africa and social workers are ill-equipped to render a competent service to prevent these youth offenders from re-offending. To date, the social, judicial and legislative systems do not provide any definite guidelines to prevent pre-teen sexual offenders from re-offending. The purpose of this study was to present guidelines which could serve as a framework when designing prevention programmes for pre-teen sex offenders. With the results of the study an attempt will be made to augment the knowledge and skills in this area in the social service delivery system, in order to render a professional and effective service to prevent pre-teen sexual offenders from reoffending. The objectives of the study were: first, to explain policy under the South African criminal justice system regarding crime according to the Sexual Offences Act, no 23 of 1957, and the Child Care Act, no 74 of 1983, as well as government and non-government services available to children under the age of 13 who sexually offend; second, to describe the social and personal circumstances of pre-teen sexual offenders in order to illustrate the nature of the deviant sexual behaviour of these children and to determine the need for prevention programmes; third, to reflect on the nature and function of prevention programmes for pre-teen sexual offenders and to investigate the need for social workers to utilize these programmes in welfare agencies in South Africa; fourth, to determine the nature of social work programmes which social workers in welfare agencies are using to address the needs and/or problems of pre-teen sexual offenders; and finally, to describe the knowledge and practice skills needed by social workers to design prevention programmes for pre-teen sexual offenders. The literature review was focused on research findings relating to issues examined in this study. An exploratory research design for the study was confined to a purposive sample of 79 respondents who were identified from a universe of 130 social workers to assess their need to develop prevention programmes in order to render a competent service to pre-teen sex offenders and their families. The results were analysed mainly quantitatively. The empirical study enabled the researcher to draw certain conclusions. The main finding was that pre-teen sex offences were on the increase, and that social workers therefore required ever greater knowledge and skills to empower them to use existing prevention of re-offending programmes for preteen sexual offenders, or alternatively, needed to develop their own such programmes. A number of recommendations flowed from the findings. The main recommendation was that welfare organisations rendering child care service should ensure that social workers have at their disposal a diverse knowledge and skills base consisting of the most significant prevention models and approaches to enable them to design their own prevention programmes for pre-teen sexual offenders. The welfare organisations should further supply social workers with training opportunities to enable them to design prevention programmes, thereby empowering them to render a professional service to pre-teen sexual offenders and their families. Finally, preventing pre-teen sex offenders from reoffending should be a state-driven initiative and national and provincial governments should provide adequate policies and facilities for the implementation of prevention programmes for pre-teen sexual offenders.

Estuda as práticas sexuais de risco para a infecção pelo HIV entre jovens (18 a 25 anos) do período noturno de escolas públicas da cidade de São Paulo; avalia os efeitos de um modelo de prevenção segundo variáveis baseadas no Modelo de Redução de Risco em AIDS; analisa diferenças entre os gêneros. Desenvolveu-se um estudo longitudinal, envolvendo 4 escolas divididas randomicamente em grupo-intervenção e grupo-controle. 394 estudantes participaram do baseline, sendo que 77% completaram o questionário pós-intervenção. Desenvolvimento de Oficinas de Sexo Mais Seguro com 4 encontros, de 3 horas cada, onde foram discutidos: o simbolismo da AIDS; percepção de risco; influência das normas de gênero nas atitudes; informações sobre AIDS; corpo erótico e reprodutivo; prazer sexual; negociação do uso do preservativo. Dados do baseline mostraram que a freqüência do uso de preservativo foi baixa entre os jovens que mantiveram relação sexual, e que há diferenças significativas entre os gêneros com relação à sexualidade e aspectos envolvidos na prevenção de AIDS. Ao avaliar as oficinas, observaram-se efeitos estatisticamente significativos entre as mulheres, que tiveram relações sexuais mais seguras, e em algumas variáveis envolvidas com a prevenção da AIDS. As mudanças foram menos significativas entre os homens. Conclui-se que o risco para a infecção pelo HIV pode ser diminuído, mas resultados mais expressivos podem ser encontrados se forem enfatizados os obstáculos sócio-econômicos e papéis sexuais de gênero através de programas comunitários específicos de longa duração. / Examines sexual risk for HIV infection among young adults (18 to 25 years old) night school students in São Paulo city; evaluates effects of an HIV/AIDS prevention model through AIDS Risk Reduction Model variables; analyzes gender differences. A longitudinal study was conducted among four public night schools that were randomized into intervention group and control group. 394 students participated in the baseline survey, 77% completed a post intervention questionnaire. Development of Safer Sex Workshops during four sessions with 3 hours each, where they discussed: AIDS symbolism, risk perception, influences of gender norms on attitudes, AIDS-related knowledge, erotic and reproductive body, sexual pleasure, condom negotiation. Condom use was low among students that had sexual relation and gender differences were significant at baseline. Workshops evaluation showed significant effects among women that had more safer sex and in some variables involved with AIDS prevention. Changes were less significant among men. We conclude that the risk to HIV infection can be lowered, but more significant results can be achieved if the socioeconomic barriers and gender differences are considered in specific long-term community programs.

Feederism is a fat fetish subculture that eroticizes eating, feeding, and gaining weight. This thesis attempts to explain the practice of Feederism using an evolutionary approach. Chapter one examines the historical and cross-cultural meaning of fat and its association with fertility, health, and beauty. Chapter one also reviews the current literature on fat admiration and Feederism, and introduces some possible explanations for what Feederism is, and how it can be conceptualized. Chapter two describes a case study that was conducted on a female member of the Feederism community. The results of this case study add support to the hypothesis that Feederism is paraphilic. Chapter three describes a psychophysiological study that tested how members of the general population respond to and rate feeding stimuli. This study was conducted to determine whether Feederism is an exaggeration of a more normative and functional mate selection strategy. The results of this study demonstrate that males and females both respond to and rate feeding stimuli similarly. No definitive conclusions were drawn with respect to the exaggeration hypothesis, because, although participants did subjectively rate the feeding stimuli as more sexually arousing than neutral stimuli, they did not genitally respond to the feeding stimuli significantly more than to the neutral stimuli. Chapter four summarizes the results of the two studies and discusses how these finding might inform future research on paraphilias, courtship, and intimacy. / viii, 128 leaves : ill. ; 29 cm