Development of Sexual Behavior

Introduction: A Script?

Competing Scripts

As we all know from personal experience, even in late childhood, but especially after puberty, we are confronted not with a single sexual script, but with a number of different, often competing, and sometimes even mutually exclusive scripts. This may have been different in static, pre-industrial societies with clear-cut, unchanging sexual standards, but our modern world confronts us with a variety of disparate values. For example, different adults may suggest to us very different concepts of what is appropriate for females and males. Our parents may not want us to have sexual intercourse, while our friends suggest that we should. Our teachers may warn us against certain sexual activities, while the mass media present them as highly desirable. Our religious leaders may condemn the use of condoms, while the health.authorities recommend it etc.
Faced with such contradictions, we eventually have to make choices and develop a script that suits our own character. We can do this by combining selected elements from different scripts in a new, personal code of conduct. However, this is not always easy: After all, our personal script must allow us to find sexual fulfillment with others who may follow different scripts of their own, and we must also observe the limits set by our social environment. At times, we may find it very difficult to find a workable balance between the competing sexual scripts in our culture. This is one of the reasons why, for most of us, adolescence is a period of trial and confusion.

Some sources of sexual scripts
Some of the sexual scripts being offered to young people in our culture are competing with each other or are even mutually exclusive. Shown here are only a few examples. (Clockwise from top left): 1. Family
2. School  3. Books   4. Friends  5. Theater   6. Religious leaders   7. Movies   8. Television   9. Internet   10. Radio  11. Popular music