Question

Sexual behavior is driven by what underlying process/motivation

Answer 1

From a bioevolutionary perspective, sexual behavior functions primarily to assure reproduction, and throughout most of human evolution, sexual activity was closely related to pregnancy and childbearing. Through evolutionary processes, numerous physiological structures have emerged that usually make sexual behavior pleasurable and easy to do, though sexual pain and problems are not uncommon. The thoughts, emotions, and physiological responses involved in sexual behavior are mediated by the brain and spinal cord. The limbic system, which encircles the upper end of the spinal cord below the cortical hemispheres in the brain, plays a crucial role in regulating emotions and sexual behaviors. Stimulation of parts of the limbic system can produce sexual arousal. The cerebral cortex, which processes memory, fantasy, language, and thinking, has multiple connections with the limbic system and plays multiple roles in sexual behavior. These neural structures are, in turn, influenced by countless biological, psychological, and social factors.

People learn to do behaviors that are instrumental in attaining pleasure and avoiding pain. The behavior that is followed by reinforcers is strengthened and made more likely to occur at future times, and behavior that leads to punishers is suppressed and becomes less likely to occur in the future. During sexual activities, all of the external and internal sense organs activate the sensory centers in the brain and arouse sexual perceptions and motor activations. In addition, some sensory inputs activate the pleasure or pain centers in the brain, causing certain types of sexual stimulation to feel pleasurable, whereas other types feel aversive. The human brain is very sensitive to (though not perfectly perceptive of) contingent relationships between behavior and its consequences, especially pleasure and pain. Special neural circuits associate rewards and punishers with the behaviors that precede and predict them, strengthening behaviors associated with reinforcers and suppressing behaviors associated with punishment.

People who are exploring physical intimacies with a new partner may see sexual behavior they have never done before and acquire information about it via observational learning. As people learn longer chains of sexual behavior, they discover the importance of many of the early presexual links of behavioral chains that come before genital stimulation and the sex reflexes of erection, vaginal lubrication, and orgasm. Through observational learning, most people discover countless ways to deal with the long chains of presexual behaviors that begin with meeting, starting a relationship, becoming intimate, suggesting sexual activities, discussing methods of protection from pregnancy and STDs, and then engaging in sexual behavior. During learning experiences, perceptual inputs from all sense modalities trigger thoughts and feelings in both primitive and advanced brain areas. Sensory and motor experiences that are associated with reinforcement or punishment are especially likely to be entered into the brain’s long- term memory systems.There can be countless different cultural variations on sex and gender behavior too.