PS276 Chapter Notes - Chapter 11: Calendar-Based Contraceptive Methods, Ambivalence, Comprehensive Sex Education
Document Summary
Puberty and adolescent sexuality: it is not until puberty that males can ejaculate and females can become pregnant, following puberty, individuals develop secondary sex characteristics that serve as a basis for sexual attraction. Four aspects of positive sexual development in adolescence are: accepting one"s changing body, accepting one"s feeling of sexual arousal, understanding that sexual activity is voluntary, practicing safe sex. In restrictive societies, the adolescent"s transition into adult sexual activity is highly discontinuous: pressure is exerted on youngsters to refrain from sexual activity until they either have undergone a formal rite of passage into adulthood or have married. In semirestrictive societies, adults frown upon sexual activity among adolescents but do not consistently enforce prohibitions against it. Premarital promiscuity is common, and the parents do not object as long as the love affairs are kept secret : unmarried pregnancies usually result in forced marriages.
