Explain sexual attitudes and practices

When studying sex and sexuality, sociologists focus their attention on sexual attitudes and practices, not on physiology or anatomy. Norms regarding gender and sexuality vary across cultures. In general, the United States tends to be fairly conservative in its sexual attitudes. Read this section to learn more about these attitudes and the theories surrounding sexual behavior.

What you’ll learn to do:

• Understand different attitudes associated with sex and sexuality
• Discuss theoretical perspectives on sex and sexuality

Learning Activities

The learning activities for this section include:

• Reading: Sex and Sexuality
• Reading: Theoretical Perspectives on Sex
• Self-Check: Sexual Attitudes and Preferences

Take time to review and reflect on each of these activities in order to improve your performance on the assessment for this section.