Sex Area Research Articles

Gender Disparity in Administrative Effectiveness of Heads of Academic Departments in Nigerian Universities

The study was on the level of administrative effectiveness of Heads of Academic Departments in Nigerian universities and the significant difference (if any) in administrative effectiveness of male and female Heads of Academic Departments. One research question and one hypothesis were raised / formulated to direct the investigation. Out of 1520 Heads of Academic Departments in all 36 public universities in Nigeria, 1326 academic staff in nine universities were selected from 362 Departments in nine universities for the study. The results of investigation revealed that the administrative effectiveness of Heads of Departments in Nigerian universities was high. Since there was no significant difference in the area of sex, it was recommended among others that gender should not be a hindrance in the appointment of Heads of Departments.

The Big Five and Sexuality Trait Terms as Predictors of Relationships and Sex

A pool of sexuality trait terms were factor analyzed across two overlapping studies. In both studies the sexuality trait terms loaded heavily on a single unrotated factor. The sexuality trait terms were moderately related to the Big Five, but also displayed variation independent of the Big Five and did not appear to be parallel to any specific Big Five factor. In study one (N = 252) the relation of the sexuality trait terms, gender, and the Big Five to measures of attachment, the life task of intimacy, dating attitudes, and dating history were examined. In study two (N = 189) the relation of the sexuality trait terms, gender, and the Big Five to measures of sexual attitudes and behavior were examined. In both studies multiple regression revealed that the sexuality trait terms had an effect independent of both gender and the Big Five as predictors of sexual and relationship criteria. The differential predictive validity of the sexuality trait terms suggests they may represent a potentially important influence in the areas of sex and relationships that are not at this time classified within the Big Five framework.

HIV risk behaviour among men who have sex with men in public sex environments: An ecological evaluation

Men who have sex with men (MSM) in public sex environments (PSE) may be at high risk for HIV/AIDS. The majority of research on HIV risk behaviour among MSM has been conducted in open access venues more likely to be linked to networks that openly endorse preventive messages and safer sex norms. This study investigated risk practices among MSM in a PSE in order to develop effective prevention intervention strategies. Three outreach workers with previous MSM prevention experience trained in ethnographic and fieldwork observation techniques provided direct observation data. Seventy-seven observations, each lasting a minimum of two hours, were conducted over a five-month period at three city public parks. Of 614 men observed, over 250 exhibited activities and behaviours related to, or potentially related, to HIV-risk relevant sexual behaviour. Direct sexual contact between two or more men was observed 19 times, while men entering or leaving a sex area of the park was observed 66 times. Outreach workers were able to interact directly with 72 MSM, primarily discussing safer sex strategies. Sexual encounters occurred in more open areas of the PSE with partners migrating to secluded areas for intense and sexual interactions. Future prevention interventions will need to be tailored, and targeted, to specific sexual exchange access points in PSE.

Domestic Dangers: Women, Words, and Sex in Early Modern London

'What else is woman but a foe to friendship ...a domestic danger.' These words, taken from a biblical commentary by St John Chrysostom, are frequently quoted in early modern literature, showing that sexual morality was central to the patriarchal society of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England. In this fascinating and original book, Laura Gowing considers what gender difference meant in the practice of daily life, examining the working of gender relations in sex, courtship, marriage conflict, and verbal disputes. Her focus is the richly detailed and previously unused records of litigation over sexual insult, contracts of marriage, and marital separation in London, c.1560-1640. Gowing takes a new approach to these legal testimonies, reading them as texts with complicated layers of meanings in order to reveal precisely how culture, language, stories, and experience connected. Arguing that women's and men's sexual honour had such different meanings as to make them incommensurable, she reveals how, in every area of sex and marriage, women were perceived as acting differently, and with different results, from men. This is the first analysis of women's special experiences in the metropolis, and presents powerful evidence for women's use of legal agency. From the formal world of law to the daily world of the street, Domestic Dangers reveals the organization of gender relations and the shape of ordinary women's lives in early modern London.

Sex with ex-clients: theoretical rationales for prohibition.

Two decades of literature and discussion on the topic of therapist-client sexual relationships have revealed much about the nature and consequences of these relationships and have produced an explicit prohibition against such relationships in American Psychological Association (APA) Ethical Principle 6a. This article reviews the literature as it relates to the ethically gray area of sex with former clients. The relative lack of an empirical basis for extending the prohibition of Principle 6a to posttermination relationships is noted. This article describes concepts from three theoretical perspectives about psychotherapy that support an extension of the prohibition to sexual relationships with ex-clients.

Sex education for persons who are mentally handicapped

The large population of disabled people is going to get educated in the area of sex or sexuality in some way. The question is not whether a person should have sex education, but who is going to give it and how it is to be given. Also, do we want children to gain or gather this knowledge indiscriminately as many of us did-from misinformation, dirty stories, myths, and wild fantasies? Or do we want to direct the information they receive in a wholesome way? This is part of our responsibility-to socialize the person, to train the people who have a disability so that living, just plain living, is not so difficult, not filled with guilt feelings and deep apprehension or confusion about [themselves] as sexual being[s]. (Rubin, 1969) Offering sex education in the schools has been a controversial topic for many years. In the 1970s calls for sex education programs to include persons with mental disabilities appeared as a further challenge. In an atmosphere of misgivings about sex education for any student, these new demands brought attention to a group of students whose human sexuality was badly misunderstood and frequently associated with unreasonable fears. This article will examine the legitimate needs of mentally handicapped people for adequate sex education, and will indicate the widespread misconceptions that have historically stood in the way of such education. A brief description will be given Winifred Kempton is a sexuality education consultant and trainer residing in Media, PA; Lynne Stiggall is a sexuality education consultant in Los Gatos, CA. of the subject matter and teaching methods that are appropriate in effective sex education of persons with mental disabilities. Finally, the article will summarize recent progress in this area and realistic hopes for future improvement.

Differences in test performance and learner satisfaction among nurses with varying autonomy levels.

ABSTRACT A quasi-experimental study, using a posttest only design, was conducted with a convenience sample drawn from nurses in the Los Angeles area. The study sample consisted of 42 subjects, 37 females and 5 males, who volunteered to attend a continuing education course. Autonomy level was tested for all subjects prior to the course, using Ferrell's Autonomous Learner Index (ALI). Subjects were then randomly placed into one of two treatment groups: a 4-hour lecture-discussion method of instruction or a home study course with a one-month span for completion. Course content for both groups was identical. Following course completion all subjects were given a 25-question, multiple-choice posttest to test knowledge level and asked to complete a modified version of Brown and Holtzman's Study Attitudes Scale (SAS) to measure satisfaction with the educational experience. Analysis of demographic data revealed that the groups were essentially alike except in the areas of sex, present position, and nursing specialty. The t-ratio indicated no difference between the lecture-discussion and home study groups on the ALI, Content Posttest, and SAS scores. Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficients revealed directional support but lack of significance for Hypotheses 1, 2, and 3. Significant findings at the .05 level were obtained for Hypothesis 4, which asserted that nurse learners with a lower autonomy level, participating in the lecture-discussion method of instruction would report a higher level of satisfaction with the educational experience than those nurse learners with lower autonomy levels participating in the home study method. Methodological limitations included selection bias and sample size, lack of ability to measure entry-level knowledge, instruction bias, and errors of measurement. Study replication was recommended using a larger sample size and random sample, and refining and further testing the instruments for reliability and validity.

Learning to Become a "Natural Woman": The Process of Socialisation

The term socialization has become a key concept in much psychological and sociological writing particularly in the area of sex and gender. Many feminists see 'socialization' in a negative way. Feminists often see socialization as the overwhelming force which pushes women (and to a lesser extent men) into narrow and detrimental moulds. These moulds determine their identities and behaviour. The term socialization is no longer neutral. Feminists generally encourage women who are trying to challenge their oppression to resist the forces of socialization. This is not the only interpretation: we need to rethink the meaning of socialization before looking at its implications for women and for feminists.

License Plate Language

less, their primary function is motor vehicle identification. In the United States, auto tags have been standardized by the federal government to a six-by-twelve-inch rectangle. Certain features are uniform: name of the political entity; year;' and an identification code which contain arabic numerals and/or upper case Roman letters. Normally, states permit a maximum of six characters (seven in California and New York).2 In addition, license plates have other variable elements: colors; brief mottoes;3 and different visual images which have distinctive and recognizable features of a given political unit.4 The states vary in what combinations of numbers and letters they use. A few of the possibilities include: three letters followed by three numerals (Kentucky, New Jersey, Ohio); three numerals and three letters (New York); all numbers (Illinois up to one million) and two or three letters followed by one to four numbers (Connecticut, Rhode Island). A recent innovative phenomenon in license plates is the advent of the personalized or VANITY plate, which permits an individual to purchase an exclusive identifying statement at extra cost.5 In the remainder of this study two sets of constraints imposed on the creative component of these individualized license plates will be examined. The first section deals with sociolinguistics. The second concerns purely linguistic factors. The highly visible and mobile language of personalized plates is subject to routine and often vigorous censorship by officials of the state agency which is charged with overseeing their dissemination (Division of Motor Vehicles, Department of Revenue or Office of the Secretary of State). This practice is widespread and it has received frequent coverage in the press.6 Such institutional or governmental disapproval is often arbitrary and reflective of the personal tastes of one or more powerful individuals within a bureaucracy who try to act as guardians of public decency. To a certain extent, the objectionable lexical fields of vanity plates reflect cultural fears and national and regional psychoses. The realms of official censure, however, are usually in the areas of sex and drugs. This type of official prejudgment is actually a form of prior restraint and as such is probably a violation of first-amendment constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech.

Church Involvement in America: Social Factors Affecting Membership and Participation

Some elements of the social learning theory were supported, especially the importance of gender and region. Two newer theories, the localism and value structure theories, were both supported. Persons with local orientations and traditional values in the areas of sex and family, drug use, and civil liberties are more involved in church life. In our models of social determinants of church life, we found that age and value orientations are very important, indicating that value cleavages between older traditionalists and younger modernists explain much about patterns of church membership and activity. Two subcultures have been diverging in America since the middle 1960s which produce a new pattern of churched or unchurched people.

Education and the Sex Discrimination Act

Summary The Sex Discrimination Act came into force on December 29th 1975, covering the areas of employment; education and training; the provision of services and premises; and advertising. Its major objective was to eliminate discrimination on the grounds of sex in areas where discrimination has prevented women from achieving social and economic equality with men. The purpose of this article is to examine the implications of the Act for the different sectors of the education system; and to assess how far current educational practices combat or reinforce undesirable sex‐stereotypes. The form of the article is a review of recent research relevant to the issues encompassed by the Sex Discrimination Act. I shall deal with the primary, the secondary and the higher education sectors in turn and then take a brief look at textbooks and children's readers. The present article is, so far as I am aware, the first attempt to survey educational practices specifically in the light of the Act.

Values and counselling in different societies and cultures

To summarize what is happening in counselling in our country: we are dealing more now than ever before with counselling in groups as well as with individuals; more counsellors are trying to understand the world of the student by discovering for themselves the world the student lives in; counsellors are attempting to help teachers in the classroom develop better human relations, and thereby the counsellor to become more a part of the total educational process; counsellors now realize that counselling done in the office is not adequate, that they must go where the students are. Canada and Sweden are the two countries that seem most like us in these regards. In almost half of the countries the developments do not resemble those in the United States. I am not suggesting that theyshould resemble us. I am convinced that each society must develop counselling out of its own political, educational and social structures. I am convinced of the fact that what is good for me is not necessarily good for you; and in the various countries where I have worked I have reported on the counselling developments that have been found useful in the United States. I can tell you about them-I cannot tell you which of those will be useful to you. I report to you only whatis happening with us and not whatshould happen to either us or you. This report makes clear that values change; the counselling pattern that develops to relate to these changes varies widely from country to country. Changes that appear to be similar to those in the United States are found in ten countries in the value area ofauthority, in nine countries in the value area ofsex attitudes and behaviors. Value changes in Sweden appear to be similar to changes in the United States in all seven areas that I have named. Australia follows with similarities in six areas, Canada and Yugoslavia in five areas each. Counselling similarities are found much less frequently. Counselling begins in most countries with vocational guidance. For some, the next step is to include educational guidance, and for some countries the development of counselling has not gone beyond this stage. I believe that counselling should develop beyond the stage of educational and vocational guidance. There are other areas of human need that are just as important as the choice of an occupation. Particularly in schools and colleges, areas other than those of educational and vocational choice may be of vital importance to the student client. Some of these needs are suggested in the value areas included in this paper, others are discussed in my earlier mentioned book,The World of the Contemporary Counselor. As times change, needs change, needs that are different from those that can be met by an ‘ever so good’, but limited, vocational guidance system. Let me conclude on a forward-looking note. My comments upon our slowness in accepting the reality of change and in acting upon it should not be considered as the reaction of the pessimist. Far from it! I am more confident than ever that mankind will ‘make it’ slowly, painfully, with many plateaus and even regressions, but moving steadily forward toward greater human dignity and justice. He has done so in the past by focusing upon the image of the future (see Polak). This is how man has always changed from chaos to organization, from brutality to islands of beauty and instances of great compassion, He has done this by stressing the future and having these images become his motivation for action. Frequently mentioned as distinctive characteristics of humans as such are the opposing thumb and communicating in abstract language terms. Even more important to me are the following human characteristics (not all of them necessarily unique to the human animal): I propose that the counsellor has as much responsibility for helping the client to identify and develop these basic human characteristics as he has responsibility for understanding educational curricula and occupational descriptions.

A Sample of Married College Students and Aspects of Their Sexual Adjustment

In a recent issue of The Coordinator (vol. III No. 4 December 1954) the adjustment of a sample of married college students to their income was discussed. The current article will discuss aspects of their sexual adjustment. These students were asked to indicate: [(1)] Their current level of adjustment in sex relations. [(2)] The sexual responsiveness of their spouse in relationship to the level of responsiveness that they desired in their spouse. [(3)] Problems that they have had with their spouse which have hindered their adjustment in the sex area. [(4)] Pre-marital sex information which would have helped their own sexual adjustment. [(5)] Pre-marital information which they feel would be valuable in aiding young people to prepare for marriage. [(6)] Their desire for marriage counseling. The portion of the study to be reported here will attempt to throw some light on these topics. It is based on data obtained from a fifty per cent random sample of families in which the husband was attending a small independent college located in Northwest Oregon. The data were obtained by questionnaire completed separately by the husband and the wife in the presence of an interviewer in the spring of 1950. (excerpt)