Emotions and Sexuality

Dr Marija Axiak MD MRCPsych

Emotions
Emotions
 Emotions are transient, internal experiences
involving sensations, feelings and changes in
bodily arousal. They connect us to thoughts
and images and influence how we react to
and communicate with others
 To Get at
Emotion
Go
Deep...
Amygdala is
deep within the most elemental parts
of the brain.

The main purpose of the innermost

part of the brain is survival
Cognition and Emotion
The brain’s shortcut for emotions
Emotions
Emotion Triggered by Behavioural response

Anger Being prevented from Destroy the thing

doing something you in your way
want

Fear Any threat or danger Protection often through

‘freezing’ so you are
not noticed
Sadness Loss of something Search for help
important and comfort

Disgust Something gruesome, Reject or push away the

awful thing that is revolting

Surprise A sudden unexpected Focus on the new thing,

event wide eyes take in as
much as possible
 
Emotions
 An emotion involves physiological arousal,
expressive behavior and conscious experience
 What psychologists do agree on is that emotions

contain both a cognitive and physiological element

 What they do not agree on is, which comes first?

When we encounter a situation that scares us, do we

become aroused and from this state of arousal
deduce that we are scared? Or do we decide mentally
that the situation is scary, which then causes our
physiology to react?
What are the functions of emotions?

1. They are a source of information

2. They prepare us for action
3. They help us communicate with
others, e.g. facial expressions and
attachment  
4. They regulate social behaviour
5. They can create cognitive bias and
maintain self-esteem
Basic characteristics of Emotions
 Pure emotions do not last long and have a
short duration. Mood, on the other hand,
tends to last longer

 Emotional experience can act as a motivation

for action. The disgusted diner, for example,
sending his uncooked steak back to the chef
and putting his coat on to leave the
restaurant. Where motivations are internal
stimuli, emotions are reactions (responses)
Basic characteristics of Emotions
 Emotional experience is elicited in part by
conscious mental assessments. Such perceptual
assessment can lead to very different emotional
expressions. So getting an annual bonus might
bring joy, which might turn to anger when you
learn your co-workers all got bigger bonuses
than you. Therefore cognitive appraisal is central
to emotional experience

 Emotional experience is either positive or

negative, pleasant or unpleasant to us
Biological explanations of emotions

 Theorists such as William James and Carl

Lange suggest that emotional experience is a
direct result of physiological arousal

 For some, physiological arousal is seen to

cause the emotion (James & Lange); while for
others, such arousal is a signal system for the
brain to act and produce emotions (Cannon)
James-Lange Somatic Theory of
Emotions
James-Lange Somatic Theory of
Emotions
 The body informs the mind (we know we are
sad because we cry)
 Distinctive body changes/symptoms are
accompanied by different emotions
 Perception of these changes/symptoms
determines the experience of emotion
 Differences between emotions are a direct
result of the different patterns of
physiological response associated with them
Evidence for the Physiological Basis
of Emotion
 Levenson, Ekman & Friesen (1990) reported
distinctive patterns of autonomic nervous
system (ANS) activity for anger, fear and
disgust
 Rimm-Kaufman & Kagan (1996) have

reported that hand and face temperatures

were different in a sample of females viewing
different film clips
Challenges to the James-Lange
Theory

 Cannon (1927): emotional encounters are

emergency situations which directly trigger a
central brain process in the thalamus. Which
lead to two simultaneous but independent
outcomes:
◦ heightened arousal system which prepares the body to cope
with the emergency
◦ the conscious experience of the emotion is registered in the
cortex
Cannon-Bard Theory
 Cannon argues the James-Lange theory is too
slow in accounting for instantaneous
emotional feeling
Cannon-Bard Theory
 Yet his own theory also contains a flaw. If the
brain decides upon emotional experience
based upon physiological arousal, then
individuals who receive no physiological
arousal signals should not experience
emotion

 Chwalisz et al. (1988) reported that people

who had sustained spinal injuries do
experience them!
Evaluation of the Biological Basis of
Emotion

 For example feeling nervous often feels

similar to excitement
 One major criticism – we are not very good at

detecting our levels of physiological arousal

 Cognition should play a major role in

emotions too, as we appraise situations

Cognitive Explanations of Emotional
Experience

 Suggest we recognise different emotions

because of our mental evaluations of our
current situation
 Schachter & Singer (1962, 1964) two-factor

theory
 Emphasised the importance of both

physiological and situational factors in

determining emotion. They called this the
two-factor theory of emotions
Schachter & Singer
Schachter & Singer
 The basis of the theory suggested that autonomic
arousal provided the energy and intensity of an
emotion
 In other words physiological arousal by itself

could determine the quantity but not the quality

of arousal
 Schachter and Singer proposed an element of

cognitive attribution as the critical factor in

emotional experience
 We evaluate the situation in terms of recognising

what emotion we should be experiencing

The Schachter theory
 Situation  bodily reaction 
emotion + cognitive appraisal

FEAR



LOVE
The Schachter theory
 Testing the theory:

 Hypothesis: The same bodily reaction will

cause one emotion in one situation, and
another emotion in a different situation.
◦ Give people a dose of adrenaline;
◦ Put them in different situations;
◦ What happens?

FEAR LOVE
 Comparison of the Theories of Emotion

Theory Initial reaction Secondary reaction

James–Lange Physical reaction Emotion occurs

Cannon–Bard Emotion occurs at the same time as

the physical response

Schachter–Singer Physical and Situation–search

emotional environment
reactions occur at
the same time
Why is it relevant to us?
 Disconnecting from emotional experience is
disconnecting from important information and
can contribute to the development of symptoms
of psychological distress or physical illness
 People can experience positive emotion even

when they are upset or stressed. This may be

important to effective coping
 Emotional management of consultations is

crucial to patients response to doctors and,

therefore, to the effectiveness of consultations
Sexuality
How does sexuality develop?
 Sexual development is influenced by
biological, social and cultural factors

 The sex chromosomes determined at

conception, and the subsequent hormonal
activity in the fetus, set the pattern for
development of the internal and external sex
organs and the sexual differentiation of the
brain
Defining Key Terms

 Sexual Identity
 Sexual Orientation
 Gender Identity
Sexual Identity
 Biological Sex
 Defined primarily by anatomy and physiology
 Combination of Genotype (chromosomes) and

Phenotype (expression of genes)

Sexual Orientation
 Which sex a person is attracted to
 Determined, in part, by brain’s exposure to

prenatal hormones (sexual differentiation)

 Evolves by adolescence
Sexual Orientation: Homosexuality
 Normal variant-
◦ As of 1980, no longer considered a disorder in
Psychiatric diagnostics
 Higher prevalence in males
 Biology plays significant role:

◦ Genetics: higher concordance rates in monozygotes

◦ Analogous behaviors in 60 species
‘The gay gene’ ??
 Geneticists search for a ‘gay gene’ to prove there
is a biological basis for, and explanation of,
male homosexuality
◦ Small differences found between the post-mortem
brains of heterosexual and homosexual young men
(LeVay, 1991)
◦ Research on pairs of homosexual brothers found that
some had similar markers on the X chromosome,
indicating a genetic basis for sexuality (Hamer et al.
1993)
 LeVay’s work proved difficult to replicate
 Hamer et al.’s work refuted

33
What the majority of respected scientists now believe is that
homosexuality is attributable to a combination of
psychological, social, and biological factors.

 From the American Psychological Association

“Many scientists share the view that sexual orientation is
shaped for most people at an early age through complex
interactions of biological, psychological and social factors.
 From Dennis McFadden, University of Texas neuroscientist

Any human behavior is going to be the result of complex

intermingling of genetics and environment. It would be
astonishing if it were not true for homosexuality
 From Sociologist Steven Goldberg

I know of no one in the field who argues that

homosexuality can be explained without reference to
environmental factors
Gender Identity (Gender Awareness)
 Innate sense of being male or female
 Established by age 2 or 3
 Results from interaction of multiple factors…
Factors in Gender Identity
 Environmental Influences: societal attitudes-
family, friends, teachers, culture interacting
with…
 Sexual Identity (biological sex) and…
 Prenatal Sexual Differentiation of brain:

exposure to prenatal hormones leads to

feelings attitudes about gender
Sexual Development
 Gender Identity: established by age 2-3
 Sexual Orientation: established by early

adolescence
 Both gender identity and Sex Orientation are

influenced by brain development during 2nd

Trimester- sexual differentiation
Definitions
 Heterosexuality:
◦ Attraction to the opposite sex
 Homosexuals/Homosexuality:
◦ Same-sex attraction
 Transsexuals/Transsexuality:
◦ People who have surgery to “change sex”
 Gender Dysphoria
◦ discomfort with assigned gender.
 Transgender (definitions vary)
◦ living in “opposite” gender-role without surgery
Definitions (cont.)
 Androgynous:
◦ People who identify as neither male or female
 Intersex:
◦ People born somewhere between the sexes
◦ People with atypical chromosomes
◦ People with hormonal anomalies
◦ People with atypical genitalia

Metrosexual is a term coined in 1994 describing a man

(especially one living in a post-industrial, capitalist culture)
who displays attributes stereotypically associated with
homosexual men (such as a strong concern for his
appearance), although he is not homosexual.
Think...
 You are more than likely to meet several
homosexuals in your lives. It is likely that a class
this size will have several.

 You are not likely to meet many transsexuals, but

there may be two or three here at the University.

 At a University of this size there may well be a few

intersexed people. So, you could find yourself
sitting next to someone who is – and you would
never know.
Why Sex is Difficult to Study
 Patients don’t spontaneously report sexual
concerns, behaviors
 Physicians often neglect to ask
 Result: much of our understanding is

anecdotal
 Journal of the American Medical Association

(JAMA) reported that in 1999, of US adults

between the ages of 18-59, 43% of women
and 31% of men experience sexual problems
Potential Pitfalls for Physicians
 Lack of awareness of our own feelings, biases
 Making false assumptions about a patient’s

sexuality- don’t assume anything

 Conveying a judgmental attitude about what’s

“normal”
 Remember that sexual problems CAN be

effectively treated by medical (eg Viagra) or

surgical intervention or by counselling (eg
CBT)