OF

SEX RESEARCH

FIRST ANNUAL MEETING
September 13, 14, 1975
 

PAPER ABSTRACTS

THE TREATMENT OF MARITAL SEXUAL PROBLEMS;

COMPARISON OF THREE METHODS
John Bancroft, Oxford, England

 

The purposes of this study were two-fold:

(a) to compare the effects of three methods of treatment for marital sexual problems,. the methods chosen to contrast specific components of the Masters and Johnson approach .

(b) to compare the efficacy of using one and two therapists in couple therapy.

The three methods used were:

(1)  Directed practice plus counselling (i.e. Masters & Johnson approach adapted to the national Health Service outpatient clinic setting).

(2)  Directed practice with minimal counselling and therapist contact (Masters & Johnson type directions given to the couple by postal service).

(3)  Systematic desensitisation plus counselling.

Treatment (2) was designed to separate specific Masters & Johnson type behavioral direction from the psychotherapeutic counselling component. Treatment (3) was designed to combine counselling vith a different type of behavioral direc­tion (i.e. systematic desensitiaation).

Thirty-six couples were treated, 18 vith male presenters, 18 with female presenters. They were randomly allocated according to a balanced, factorial design to either Treatment (1) (2) or (3), and to either one therapist or two.

Treatment consisted of 12 weekly sessions (or weekly postal contact with Treatment 2 ).

The first two sessions involving assessment, were the same in each of the three methods.

Assessment was carried out by independent assessors and therapists before, 1 month, and 4 months after treatment.

A variety of outcome measures -were used including global ratings of sexual enjoyment, behavioral ratings (e.g. frequency of intercourse, occurrence of erecticns, orgasms etc.) and attitude measures.

RESULTS

(1)   Comparison of methods. The assessors’ global ratings of sexual relationship shoved no significant differences between the three methods although there was twice as much change in Treatment 1 as in the other two methods. The therapists' ratings of female sexual enjoyment showed a between methods effect. significant only at the 10$ level, with Treatment 1 showing most improvement and Treatment 3 least. Non parametric analysis of increase in frequency of intercourse showed a weak effect (10$ level) in favour of Treatment 1 .

(2)   Comparison of one and two therapists. Overall there was no significance in outcome between one and two therapists. There was a weak interaction (at the 10# level) suggesting that Treatment 1' showed best results with two therapists.

These results and some of the methodological problems in this type of study will be briefly discussed.

This research was carried out in collaboration with Andrew Mathews „ Antonia Whitehead, Ann Hackman, David Julier, Judy Bancroft, Dennis Gath and Bjtiyllis Shaw.

 

 

VAGINAL BLOOD VOLUME RESPONSES DURING MASTURBATION AND RESULTANT ORGASM
James H. Geer, State- Uhiversityi-of New/York Stony Brook, New York

 

Seven women masturbated to orgasm while photoplethysmographic recordings of

vaginal pressure pulse arid blood volume were being obtained. Pressure pulse Increased from i-esting baseline through orgasm and then decreased during resolution. Total blood volume shoved a dramatic decrease at the time of orgasm for all subjects. The results demonstrate that vaginal photoplethysomo- graphic resxjonses track sexual arousal to physical» i.e.„ masturbatory stimuli. Further, the device also appears to give a reliable indication of the occurrence of orgasm.

 

SEXUAL HOMICIDE; SOCIAL, PSYCHOLOGICAL AMD LEGAL ASPECTS
Ronald A. Farrell;, Victoria Lynn Svigert, and William C. Yoels, State University of New York at Albany Albany_t Hey York

 

Social, psychological, and legal asxiects of sexual homicide (i.e., homicides involving sexual molestation} are explored. The data are from case studies of offenses occuring over a twenty year period in a large industrial city in Northeastern United States. The 3tatus characteristics, psychological profiles, circumstances surrounding offenses, and legal disposition of offenders are discussed. Relative to the general population of homicide offenders, those in­volved in sexual homicides appear to be predominantly white males of average intelligence. White defendants were diagnosed as having severe psychological disorders, while blacks were more often diagnosed as normal. Regarding circumstances of offenses, it was found that sexual homicide was more likely to occur among strangers and to involve homosexual acts. Concerning their legal disposition, sexual homicide defendants were less likely to receive bond, more often tried by a judge than a jury, and received more severe convictions

and sentences than the general population of homicide defendants. Excerpts from transcripts of clinical evaluations of these cases are presented and discussed in terms of sociological implications.

 

GRUESOME CRIMES: A STUDY OF HOMICIDES WISH GAY VICTIMS OR OFFENDERS
Laud Humphreys, Fitzer College Claremont, California

 

A handful of lav enforcement officials and scientists have teen widely quoted as asserting that homosexuals are more apt to experience death by murder than heterosexuals. A second claim is that a high proportion of such crimes of violence result from jealousy between gay lovers.

Examination of III homicides reported in the gay press over a two year period indicates a sharply different profile. First, given the assumed size of the American gay population, the author finds no indication that persons vith a homosexual identity are more likely than heterosexual men and women to be either victims or offenders in acts of homicide. Moreover, less than two percent of the reported murders could be attributed to quarrels between lovers. These data are contrasted with overall homicide patterns in the United States.

The perception by social control agents of a higher proportion of murder involvinj gajs results, in part, from the characteristically brutal nature of anti-gay homicides These crimes evidence a distinct pattern of multiple stabbing, mutilation and torture setting them in bold contrast with the features of most homicides. Indications of psychodynamic patterns are explored to explain the exceptional brutality involved in a high proportion of these murders.

 

 

BISEXUALITY IN HOMOSEXUAL PEDOPHILIA
Kurt Freund Toronto, Canada

 

In homosexual pedophilac and in androphilic males (i.e. homosexual males who prefer physically mature partners), bisexuality was assessed from the subjects' self reports and by comparing penile responses to male and female body shape. By convergent validation of these two aspects of bisexuality it was possible to differentiate between bisexual and nonbisexual pedophilic males. However, such convergent validation was not possible for androphilic males. This result suggests that only when there is an erotic preference for minors is the dichotomy of bisexuality vs nonbisexuality approximated.

 

 

THE ACQUISITION OF SEXUAL IDENTITY: THE BISEXUAL MODEL

Pepper Schwartz, University of Washington, Seattle

 

The process of self labeling is discussed in terms of taking on a sexual identity. Such identities are seen as more transitional than immutable and the causes of changes in self-identification are discussed. Reasons for taking on a bisexual rather than a homosexual or heterosexual identity are discussed with both psychological and sociological variables evaluated.

 

FAMILY ATTITUDES AND MEXICAN MALE HOMOSEXUAL BEHAVIOR
J. M. Carrier

 

According to the 1970 census about two-thirds of mestizoized Mexican males in their early twenties, and one-third in their late twenties, were not married.

The 1970 census data further suggest that around 80 percent of single Mexican males 20 years of age and older live in some kind of family grouping. The con­currence of these two facts of life mean that during the time period they are trying to meet the demands of a high sexual need* single Mexican males must live at home and cope with their family's attitudes and behavior toward sexuality.

This paper considers some of the ways in which family attitudes toward homosexuality apppear to affect the behavior of those single Mexican males living at home who utilize homosexual encounters as a significant or only outlet for satisfying sexual needs.

The available data suggest that in the mestizo culture in Mexico the family ranks first in importance as a social force opposing homosexuality and a major set of strategies developed by participants in homosexual encounters are directed toward coping with family relationships. Mexican parents consider homosexuality both maladaptive and opprobrious. Their way of dealing with it - and the degree to which it may be considered acceptable behavior - appears to depend to a large extent on whether the involved son is assumed to be playing the active or passive sex role. Masculine males playing the insertor sex role are less stigmatized. Regardless of sex role played, however, none of the participants interviewed by the author (n « 53) wanted their families to know about their involvement in homosexual encounters, The coping strategy most often used, the interview data suggest, is for both sides to act as though the homosexual behavior is not talcing place.

 

 

BEHAVIOURAL THERAPY OF HOMOSEXUALITY
H. McConaghy, Key South Wales, Australia

 

Ethical considerations in the treatment of homosexuality are discussed. The author’s reasons for initiating studies in this field are outlined.

The introduction of measurement of penile changes in relation to these studies is described and possible difficulties in interpretation pointed out.

The design and findings of the studies are reviewed. Apamorphine and electric shock as aversive stimuli were equally effective. No conditioned responses or aversion to homosexual stimuli appeared to follow aversive therapy. Weakening of the desire to become involved in homosexual behaviour was reported. The patients' penile volume responses to nude males appeared to be reduced by treatment. Complex forms of aversive therapy proved to be no more effective than simple ones, though predicted to be so on the basis that these therapies acted by conditioning.

Backward conditioning forms of aversive therapy proved as effective as forward conditioning.

Attempts to increase heterosexual arousal by positive conditioning proved ineffective, so that this procedure acted as an ineffective control for aversive therapy. By comparison, aversive therapy significantly weakened impulses to become involved in homosexual behaviour_s but did not alter sexual orientation as measured by penile plethysmography.

It is suggested that aversive therapy acts by weakening secondary reinforcement.

 

 

DISTINGUISHING FEATURES OF THE ROLE OF ANDROGENS IK THE DIFFERENTIATION  AND
ACTIVATION OF SEXUAL BEHAVIOUR IK FEMALE PRIMATES
J. Herbert, Department of Anatomy, University of Cambridge, England

 

Experimental and clinical evidence is beginning to suggest that androgens play a role in the differentiation and activation of sexual 'behaviour in female primates which is fundamentally different from that in the more commonly studied rodentp. In the latter₉ exposing neonatal females to androgens results "both in a reduction of female type behaviour towards the male (“lordosis") and prevents the rhythmic release of LH from the pituitary 'which is responsible for ovulation. Neither of these effects appears to occur in primates. Prenatal female monkeys exposed to androgens begin to ovulate at puberty; women with treated or untreated adreno-genit&l syndrome also ovulate after treatment with cortisol. Male rhesus monkeys release an LH surge in response to oestrogen. Both adreno-genital girls and prenatally androgenised female monkeys play in a more masculine manner during infancy but there is no evidence that neonatal effects result in changes in either sexual identity (trans-sexualism) or in sex-specific stimuli leading to sexual arousal (lesbianism) in women_s thougjj data for monkeys are not yet available.

These findings may possibly be related to the specific role of androgens in sexuality of adult female primates. Both monkeys and women deprived of androgen by adrenalectomy or ovariectomy show marked loss of sexual receptivity (monkeys) or "libido" (women). Monkeys are restored to normal by being given androgen, not by oestrogen. Ovariectomy alone in women is said not to alter ’’libido". The level of receptivity in female primates is predominantly sensitive to androgens, not oestrogens, in contrast to sub-primate females.

The anterior hypothalamus binds oestrogen in female monkeys though whether this area is involved in release of LH is disputed. However, androgen implants into the anterior hypothalamus restore sexual receptivity to adrenalectomised female monkeys. Thus the primate hypothalamus may contain at least tvo sets of steroid sensitive receptors: androgen-sensitive ones implicated in behaviour; oestrogen-sensitive ones involved in LH release; in sub-primates, both sets seem to be oestrogen-sensitive.

It seems likely that these differences account, at least in part, for the less complete dependence of sexual behaviour on ovarian hormones in primates.

 

 

BEHAVIORAL EFFECTS OF OVARIAN HORMONES IB HATS, MICE MD HAMSTERS

Richard E. Whalen, University of California Irvine, California

 

Female rats, mice and hamsters shov 4-5 day cycles of sexual receptivity.

When the ovaries are removed these cycles cease. Receptivity can, however, be induced in these species by the sequential administration of estrogen and proges­terone * Progesterone has a dual action - it first facilitates receptivity in the estrogen - primed animal and then makes the animal unresponsive to estrogen.

In these species receptivity is characterized by the lordosis response, a concave arching of the back. In rats and mice the probability of lordosis in re­sponse to mounting by a male provides a sensitive measure of hormone action* In the hamster the duration of lordosis reflects hormone action. Individual differences in response to hormone are striking, however.

The effects of estrogen require several hours for their expression. Lordosis does not occur before at least 16 hours after estrogen treatment. During the first 6 hours after estrogen treatment the hormone effects can be blocked completely by onti-estrogens. During the first 12 hours after treatment the hormone effects can be "blocked" by Actinomycin-D.

Following the administration of radiolabeled estradiol the hormone is localized primarily in the diencephalon. Local implants of estradiol in the diencephalon of the rat induce lordosis behavior. Following radiolabeled progesterone the hormone is accumulated primarily in the mesencephalon. Local implants of progesterones in the mesencephalon lead to lordosis in the estrogen-primed rat. In the rat and hamstej a positive response to progesterone can be seen the first time the hormone is administered. In the mouse, sensitivity to progesterone develops over several weeks of administration.

As mentioned earlier progesterone has a biphasic facilitatory and inhibitory action. The inhibitory effect is seen most clearly in the hamster. If progesterone is given concurrent with or up to 24 hours before estrogen, estrogen’s action will be blocked.

How do estrogen and progesterone work at a cellular level? Estrogen enters target cells where it combines with a cytoplasmic protein receptor. The receptor-estrogen complex is transferred to the cell nucleus. This results in a depletion of the cytoplasmic receptor. Synthesis of new receptors begins shortly and 6 hours after estrogen treatment receptor levels exceed initial levels by 50%, Anti-estrogens, which can black estrogen-induced lordosis behavior also deplete the cytoplasmic receptors in the hypothalamus, but unlike estrogen do not lead to a rapid re- synthesis of receptor. This observation, combined with the observation that Actinomy D and cyclohexamide can block behavior suggests the following model: Estrogen enters target neurons and is transferred to the nucleus where the estrogen interacts with the chromatin leading to protein synthesis. Hew receptors are produced which allow additional estrogen to enter the nucleus. This cycling process is necessary to provide sufficient nuclear stimulation to alter neuronal firing patterns. This priming process is necessary for progesterone to have its facilitatory action. It

is not yet clear how progesterone's inhibitory actions are mediated.

 

 

BEHAVIORAL AND ELECTROPHYSIOLOGICAL ATTEMPTS TO ELUCIDATE CMS MECHANISMS
RESPONSIBLE FOR MATERNAL BEHAVIOR
L. Koranyi, K. Lissak, L. Kamaras, V. Tamasy, Institute of Physiology University Medical School Peca, Hungary

 

Maternal behavior in the rat characterized by nest building, retrieving, nursing and crouching can be induced in the virgin vith the proper exteroceptive stimuli. Terkel and RoBenblatt (1972) also induced maternal behavior in virgin females by injecting blood from parturient rats. Using the injection technique, the present experiments demonstrate that typical patterns of maternal behavior can be elicited in 18 to 2h day old female and male rats. These findings suggest that the neuronal network, underlying this behavioral pattern in the weanling rat is competent to respond to the plasma of parturient females.

Since 1968, Levine and his laboratory in a-series of publications demonstrated that some neural and endocrine control mechanisms "may be buffered against disturbing stimuli" in lactating rats, In electrophysiological studies on freely moving cats we have found that the responsiveness of small neuronal pools in the brainstem reticular formation toward a monotonuous tone was significantly decreased during pregnancy and lactation, and recovered to the control anestrus level by the end of lactation.

On the other hand, multiple unit activity and behavioral responsiveness to tape-recorded vocalization of young kittens gradually increased during pregnancy reaching a peak in prepartum and postpartum mothers and then showed a decline by the end of the nursing period. Analysis of the patterns of cell discharges in divers brain areas suggests that in the cat the amygdala forms a part of a system responsible for this shift phenomenon.

 

 

SEXUAL BEHAVIOR OF ORANG-UTANS
Ronald D. Nadler Yerkes Regional Frimate Research Center Emory University Atlanta, Georgia

 

Casual observations on zoo animals, as well as a few sightings from the wild, suggest that the orang-utan may more resemble man in terms of the regulation of its sexual "behavior than either of the other great apes. These limited data suggest that the male of the species is apparently the primary initiator of sexual activity and he appears to initiate such activity irrespective of the phase of the female’s cycle. In order to obtain systematic data, oppositely-sexed pairs of orang-utans were tested for sexual behavior daily through the menstrual cycle of the females. Preliminary data indicate that the orang-utans copulated on essentially every test and that the male was the predominant initiator of copulation. However, evidence of cyclicity in sexual behavior was also found. Female resistance to sexual advances by the male was lower during the midcycle phase of the cycle and multiple copulations occurred more frequently during that period. The duration of individual copulations ’ greater than that reported for most other primates and the animals used a variety of positions and postural adjustments during each copulation. The data suggest that the orang-utan may be a useful animal for studying the biological background of human sexual behavior.

 

 

TEMPORAL RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN SEXUAL PROCEPTIVITY AND RECEPTIVITY^- IN FEMALE
HAMSTERS: HUMAN SIGNIFICANCE
F. A. Beach University of California Berkeley, California

 

Sexual receptivity is reflected in those patterns of behavior by estrous females necessary and sufficient for the occurrence of fertile copulation with a potent male. Proceptivity refers to behavior shown by estrous females in response to males which reflects feminine initiative in the establishment and maintenance of sexual interactions eventually resulting in heterosexual copulation. Quantitative measurement of receptive and proceptive responses shown by female hamsters in the course of one estrous cycle indicates that receptivity antedates and outlasts proceptivity. Results also shov that estrous but not diestrous females exhibit a strong preference for proximity to males rather than to females_s and to intact males in contrast to castrates. The distinction between proceptive and receptive tendencies is clear in the behavior of all or nearly all mammalian species and may have heuristic applicability to theories of human sexuality.

 

 

EXORCISING THE GEHDER DYSPHORIC SYNDROME
David H. Barlow, Gene G. Abel, Edvard B. Blanchard Brown University Providence, Rhode Island

 

Behavioral and self-report measures of sex-role behavior and gender identity were administered to a pre-surgical, male-to-female transsexual one year prior to planned surgery. Immediately before scheduled surgery the client met with a religious fundamentalist faith healer (also a physician) who attributed the gender dysphoric syndrome to the devil and proceeded with an exorcism. Some months following the two-hour exorcism, measures were again administered which demonstrated a thorough shift in gender identity which has persisted for two years and two months. Impli­cations for modification of the gender dysphoric syndrome will be discussed.

 

 

TRANSSEXUALISM IN JAPAN
Hideo Anada, M.D., Professor of Tokyo Medical College

 

The first legal trial of transsexualism in Japan is the case in which 3 young men working in "Gay Bars" wanted to be converted to female and were operated on. The surgeon was subsequently punished by acting against the eugenic protection law. The fact was wideknown and drew public attention to the problem. That was in 1964.

Thereafter, it is assumed that many transsexualism operations have been done secretly, but the number cannot be ascertained.

Other transsexuals have gone abroad for sex-change surgery. A famous popular Japanese singer is a post-operative transsexual. He{she) told me that he (she) had had the operation in Morocco and appeared to be happily married.

At present, the Japanese police are not conducting active investigations Of those who have had operations or surgeons in charge of operations in order to prosecute them. However, those who have had a transsexualism operation cannot apply for legal change of gender or legal marriage under the certification of doctors.

In Japan, females wanting to become male cannot be found nor doctors who have performed such operations, Such operations are thought to be impossible in Japan. Moreover, public interest in this problem is far less than in Europe and America.

The reason is thought to be divided into two areas: one is national psychology; the other legality.

Japanese persons who earnestly wish to have sex-change operations are increasing in number. In our country many doctors are going abroad to study the theory and the operations.

 

 

VAGINOPLASTY BY SELF-DILATION: TECHNIQUE, APPLICABILITY, RESULTS, AND COUNSELING
Diane S. Fordney-Settlage State University of New York Stony Brook, New York

 

A technique for creation of a vaginal pouch "by progressive, directed, patlent-administered perineal pressure is presented. Eighteen adolescent females with congenital vaginal absence or hypoplasia successfully developed anatomically adequate 12 x Item, vaginas within a 12 week treatment period.

There are ho failures or complications of the technique in this series. Of the fourteen who are now coitally active, none report difficulties.

Ten adult females with severe vaginal stenosis were similarly treated with restoration of vaginal adequacy and sexual function. All had had prior attempts at surgical repair with stint placement.

Counseling is seen as essential for both groups for problems of anatomic ignorance, genital and sexual behavior inhibition, feelings of denial, anger and confusion; and concerns of reproduction.

 

 

ENDOCRINE AND SEXUAL EFFECTS OF MARIHUANA USE IN MEN
Robert C. Kolodny Reproductive Biology Research Foundation St, Louis, Missouri

 

Carefully controlled studies of the endocrine effects of acute and chronic marihuana smoking in twenty healthy young men were performed while these subjects were hospitalized on a special drug research ward for a three month period. Smoking a single standardized marihuana cigarette produced a drop in plasma testosterone from 754 +/- 40 to 533 +/- 29 (mean +/-S.E.M.) ng/100 ml in 3 hours, in contrast to matched samples from the same subjects on a control day without marihuana smoking_s when the mean baseline testosterone was 725 +/- 44 ng/100 ml and the 3 hour value was 711 +/- 34 ng/100 ml. These acute changes were transient, however. Daily marihuana smoking, did not produce a statistically significant decrease in testosterone until the end of the fifth week, when mean testosterone was 649 +/- 31 ng/100 ml compared to the pre-smoking control of 740 +/- 41 ng/100 ml (p <.0001, paired t-test). Mean testosterone concentra­tions continued to decline with four additional weeks of marihuana smoking and then rapidly increased with one week of abstention from marihuana use. Plasma prolactin and cortisol remained relatively constant during the acute and chronic studies. Plasma luteinizing hormone levels showed changes that generally paralleled those of testosterone. Plasma follicle stimulating hormone levels were not diminished in the acute studies but decreased after 8 weeks of daily marihuana use. Information concerning the sexual behavior of 300 men using marihuana will also be presented.

 

 

SEXUALITY BE IDIOPATHIC HYPOPITUITARISM
Heino F.L. Meyer-Bahlburg State University of New York Buffalo, New York

 

Thirteen idiopathic hypopituitary short-stature patients, aged l6-38 years, were studied with regard to sexual behavior. All patients were sexually matured, either spontaneously (isolated growth hormone deficiency) or by sex hormone injections (multiple hormone deficiencies). Eleven patients had been treated with human growth hormone.

The study involved systematic serai-structured interviews vith regard to sexual, social and other 'behavior, in addition to psychological tests and a medical examination.. Available clinical material was also utilized. Analysis of the sexual data shows a generally delayed and/or impaired psychosexual development, most likely due to a combination of hormonal factors and short- stature related problems in social contacts.

 

 

MASTURBATION BY MALES AND FEMALES: ATTITUDES,KNOWLEDGE, EXPERIENCE,

William Miller,/Research Director Harold I, Lief, Director Center for the Study of Sex Education in Medicine Philadelphia

 

The Sex Knowledge and Attitude Test {SKAT) Is a self-administered mutiple- choice test which was developed as a means for gathering information about sexual attitudes, knowledge, degree of experience in sexual encounters, and demographic information. To date the SKAT has been administered to thousands of subjects in a variety of populations, The SKAT includes an autoeroticisra subscale (M-score) that deals with the subject's general attitudes toward masturbatory activities, and items dealing with the subject’s knowledge about and experience with mastur­bation. The present study examines the responses of the following subject groups to SKAT items dealing with masturbation: (1) high school students; (2) under­graduate students; (3) graduate nonmedical students; (1+) medical students.

Norms for each group were established for the M-score and for the Knowledge and Experiental sections dealing with masturbation. The authors compared the responses of males and females on masturbation items, and included the interrelationships among subjects’ attitudes and knowledge about, and experience vith, masturbation.

 

 

STATISTICAL INVESTIGATION ON THE SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN JAPANESE STUDENTS IN 1974

Shin^’ichi Asayama, Emeritus Professor of the Osaka City University Osaka, Japan

 

A statistical survey on the sexual behavior in Japanese students was carried out by the Japanese Association for Sex Education (JASE), "being entrusted, by the Youth Problem Council of the Prime Minister’s Office. The present contributor, as an executive director and the planner of the survey, was responsible for the collection and arrangement of samples. The aim of this investigation was the sexual experience of the present-day Japanese student ranging from 16 to 21 years of age. The sample was collected in twelve cities over the whole of Japan, during the period from October, 297^ through February, 1975.

The investigation was conducted by the way of anonymous questionnaire with 53 categories of questions which included 98 sub-questions, covering a wide range of physio-sexual, psycho-sexual, and sex behavior subjects, The investigator, after giving a short explanation about the object of the survey directly to the group of high school or university students which consisted of fifty persons as a survey unit, requaeted them to contribute their own sexual experience for the survey.

Collected samples amounted to 22,915 at the beginning of February, 1975. Five thousand were picked out randomly and proportionately with the number of students who resided in each city where the survey was conducted. The sample was composed of 2,764 males and 2,236 females. These were investigated statistically.

In the present paper, the accumulative incidence of each subject of the questionnaire will be shown in comparison with those found in Asayama¹s investi­gation in 1953 and I960, conducted in the Kansai provinces, i.e., in Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe and Nara areas. The data obtained in the said investigations are the only available findings in such a field of research in Japan.

The findings obtained in the 1974 survey as for the developmental difference between two sexes coincide with the Asayama's earlier findings.

However, a remarkable acceleration of both physical and psychic development regarding sex is notable. As for the latter acceleration, environmental, cultural ,and social factors will be discussed.

 

 

ONE HUNDRED TEN FEMINIZE AND MASCULINE BOYS:

BEHAVIORAL AMD;'FAMILIAL COMPARISONS AND A PHYSIOLOGICAL NOTE

Richard Green, State University of New York^- Stony Brook, New York

 

Sixty boys, age 4-10_s referred for extensive boyhood femininity have been compared with 50 boys matched for age, sibling sequence, and family socio-economic variables. The feminine boys preferred the clothes, toys, activities and compan­ionship of girls, role-played as female, and stated their wish to be girls.

Age of onset of cross-dressing by the feminine group was early: 75% before the fourth birthday; only 3% after the sixth, Doll play began early: 52% before age three; 93% before age five. When playing house, 38% of the feminine boys typically role-played as mother; 13% as father. For the control group, 0% typically role-played as mother; 39% as father.

Porty-two percent of the feminine boys have stated their wish to grow up to be like their mothers, compared to 7% of the control group. Sixty-four percent of the feminine boys have not said they wish to grow up to be like their father vs. 20% of the control group.

Eighty-three percent of the feminine boys have said they want to be girls, vith 25% asserting so "frequently". By contrast, 0% of the control group have said so “frequently" and 6% have said so “occasionally".

Experience with hospitalization for medical reasons discriminates the two groups. The feminine boys vere more likely to have been hospitalized at least once, and earlier in life.

Feminine boys were more often separated from their biological father prior to age 5. Whether an adult male lived in their household during each of their first 9 years of life did not discriminate the groups.

Electroeacephalographic recordings on a subsample of boys-subjected to spectral analysis and used for input to a step-wise discriminant analysis program vere identifiable as emanating from a feminine or masculine boy vith 88% accuracy.

 

 

A GOVERHMEKT AGENCY SUPPORTS HUMAN SEX RESEARCH???

Jack Weiner National Institute of Mental Health

 

The sexuality program of the National Institute of Mental Health, U.S. Department of Health, Education,and Welfare vill be discussed with focus on the following areas: Eligibility to apply for a research grant; domestic and foreign; the application and review process; protection of human subjects; payment of approved grants; reasons for disapproval of applications. Human sex research grants supported in the last five years - sponsoring institutions, scientific disciplines of investigators, subject areas, and methodologies will be elaborated. Current "priority" areas; "no-no" areas, and the current and anticipated funding situation will be discussed.