Human Sexuality Topic 1 & 2 (200 words each and 1 reference each)

1. How would research on sexuality benefit various groups, religions, and cultures? How could research on sexuality benefit society? How has completing this assignment contributed to your growth and development as a counselor in training? Explain your response.

2. Explain how you could use the information contained in the Masters and Johnson Human Sexual Response Cycle and the Kaplan three Stages of Sexual Response in your work with clients. In your response, include a clinical scenario to illustrate your points.

Human Sexuality Topic 1 & 2

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1. How would research on sexuality benefit various groups, religions, and cultures? How could research on sexuality benefit society? How has completing this assignment contributed to your growth and development as a counselor in training? Explain your response.

Sexuality is an integral part of the society hence research on sexuality would be beneficial to all people. Religion and culture influence how people express their sexuality. Sexuality research helps people understand how religion impacts decisions around sexuality. Research about sexuality can help professionals such as counselors to understand how they can approach the topic when working with clients from diverse religious and cultural backgrounds. Research on sexuality would be beneficial to the society since it would facilitate a better understanding of sexual feelings and relationships and how they impact our lives. Sexual research can help develop comprehensive definitions of sex and how these definitions change over time. Research can also promote a better understanding of why some sexual acts are regarded as morally permissible within the society while others are labeled wrong. Sexuality also encompasses reproductive health hence sexuality research can be beneficial to people looking for contraceptives and those who plan on having children. Research also facilitates the gathering of information on controversial and complex sexuality issues such as abortion, sexual orientation, and gender orientation (Hargons et al., 2017). Completing the assignment has enhanced my understanding of differences in sexual beliefs and why it is important to incorporate culture and religion in counseling.

 

 

2. Explain how you could use the information contained in the Masters and Johnson Human Sexual Response Cycle and the Kaplan three Stages of Sexual Response in your work with clients. In your response, include a clinical scenario to illustrate your points.

The Human Sexual Response Cycle comprises three stages: desire, arousal, orgasm, and resolution. These stages are experienced by both men and women although the timing of their occurrence may be different. For instance, likely, sexual partners will not achieve orgasm at the same time. Kaplan’s stages of sexual response include desire that results in arousal, a plateau stage that leads to orgasm, and resolution (Magon et al., 2012).

I would use the information contained in these frameworks to discuss various components of sexual response to my clients. For instance, Kaplan’s stages begin with desire, a stage that has a significant impact on all other stages. I would explain to my clients that desire impacts sexual response and is just as important as any other psychological and physical factors that impact arousal. For example, when working with a male client with erectile dysfunction that apart from physical issues, psychological factors such as poor communication, relationship problems, and stress impact their desire and consequently, arousal among both males and females. Therefore, working on these issues can be the solution to erectile dysfunction. Other issues such as low body image also make people feel like they are less desirable and may prevent arousal.

3. Why is it important for counselors to understand the similarities and differences between the sexual response cycles in men versus women?

Counselors must understand the similarities and differences between male and female sexual response cycles since they work with clients of both genders and may need to discuss sexuality with them. According to Dawson and Chivers (2014), sexual encounters will always be different even when they involve the same partner and the time people spend in each phase of the sexual response cycle may vary based on factors such as gender. Some of the stages of the sexual response cycle may be absent in some sexual encounters or some cases, they may be out of sequence. Men tend to experience sexual desire more frequently when compared to women and may engage in activities such as masturbation more frequently. However, this does not mean that women tend to lack the desire and that men always experience sexual desire. Counselors should be able to explain that desire and arousal among men and women are influenced by physiological and biological factors. Factors such as age and health impact desire in that desire decrease with poor health and as people age. Counselors can use this information to help clients understand how their partners respond to them and to help them improve their sexual experiences.

4. Identify four countries/cities around the world and their cultural/faith-based and legal approach to prostitution/sex work. What are the pros and cons of each approach?

Prostitution is legal in countries such as Austria and criminalized in other countries such as Russia and most parts of the U.S. The extent of enforcement of the laws varies by region, country, and city. The main advantage of using a legal approach is that there is clear law that describes whether prostitution is legal or illegal. For instance, in countries where prostitution is legal, there is less human trafficking and sex workers operate in relatively safe and regulated environments. However, the legal approach has many limitations. In countries where prostitution is illegal, fear of the law does not deter people from being sex workers. Penalties and fines for sex work also force them to seek more clients and criminal records limit the employability of former sex workers. In Afghanistan, prostitution is illegal and is based on Islamic law. Sex work is considered to be adultery and offenders are liable to a maximum of 15 years in prison or can be stoned to death by religious extremists. The main advantage of the faith-based approach is that sex workers may have less clientele. However, faith-based approaches may not work among non-religious people and may encourage people to engage in sex work secretly (Karlsson, 2022).

References

Dawson, S., & Chivers, M. (2014). Gender Differences and Similarities in Sexual Desire. Current Sexual Health Reports, 6(4), 211-219. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11930-014-0027-5

Hargons, C., Mosley, D., & Stevens-Watkins, D. (2017). Studying Sex: A Content Analysis of Sexuality Research in Counseling Psychology. The Counseling Psychologist, 45(4), 528-546. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011000017713756

Karlsson, H. (2022). Sex Work Policy Worldwide: A Scoping Review. Sexuality &Amp; Culture. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-022-09983-5

Magon, N., Malik, S., Shah, D., & Chauhan, M. (2012). Sexuality in midlife: Where the passion goes? Journal of Mid-Life Health, 3(2), 61. https://doi.org/10.4103/0976-7800.104452