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Biomedical subjects

J I Baldwin

Publications and source records attributed to J I Baldwin.

7 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2000

Heterosexual anal intercourse: an understudied, high-risk sexual behavior.

Differences between heterosexuals who have or have not engaged in anal intercourse were analyzed. Though anal intercourse is widely recognized as an activity that greatly increases the risks for HIV transmission, it has received little attention in heterosexual populations. A questionnaire was mailed to a random sample of university students, a population in which many people engage in vaginal intercourse with several partners each year. The three largest minorities were randomly oversampled in order that all four major ethnic/racial groups could be statistically evaluated for possible differences. Almost 23% of nonvirgin students had engaged in anal intercourse. Regression analysis indicated that people who had participated in anal intercourse were more likely than people without anal experience to have been younger at first vaginal intercourse, to be older when the data were collected, to have engaged in vaginal intercourse in the last three months before data collection, to be more erotophilic, to use less effective contraceptive methods, and to have used no condom at last coitus. Overall, people who engage in anal intercourse take more sexual risks when engaging in vaginal intercourse than do people without anal experience. No major ethnic/racial differences were detected. Sexologists have not explored anal sex in much detail, hence we have been weak in educating those 20 to 25% of young adults who are not reluctant or (inhibited about) exploring anal intercourse. As young adults use condoms less for anal than vaginal intercourse, they have not learned enough about the risk of anal sex.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

Gender differences in sexual interest.

A common gender stereotype is that males are more interested than females in sex for purely physical reasons. Sociobiologists claim that this difference is biologically determined. In contrast, many sociologists and anthropologists claim that the difference is cultural. The debate about nature versus nurture regarding sexual interest has been long-standing without resolution. We propose a biosocial model that integrates data about nature and nurture to show (i) how several biological factors tilt males and females in different directions related to sexual interest, and (ii) how numerous social factors influence the way the biological tilts can be redirected in countless different ways as individuals grow up in subsets of their culture and subculture. This interactionist approach does not down-play the importance of either biological or social factors: It avoids nature-nurture debates that pit nature against nurture by showing how biological and social factors act in concert, combining their influences. The resulting work contributes to both the theoretical and practical literature, not only showing how sexology can deal with issues of nature and nurture but also providing information useful to people who are troubled about common gender differences in sexual interest.

Culture↗
PubMed1989

The socialization of homosexuality and heterosexuality in a non-Western society.

Data on the Sambia--a tribe living in Papua New Guinea--are presented to demonstrate how Sambia males develop a homosexual orientation in boyhood and adolescence, then switch to become heterosexuals in adulthood. Social learning theory is used to explain how sexual orientation in the Sambia change from homo- to heterosexual during the transition to adulthood. Whereas most learning analyses of sexual orientation are based on data from Western cultures, this manuscript extends that literature to deal with a non-Western culture. While including Pavlovian and operant conditioning, which is stressed in many learning analyses of sexual learning, the present analysis also includes detail on the social and cognitive learning principles that are important in understanding the learning of sexual orientation and behavior.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1976

Effects of food ecology on social play: a laboratory simulation.

A laboratory group of 8 squirrel monkeys was exposed to two experimental conditions in which food was made moderately and extremely difficult to obtain, compared with the free access conditions of baseline. Both experiments produced sharp decreased in the frequency of social play within 4 to 6 days. The stronger manipulation produced the more dramatic effect, reducing play to 1% of the baseline level (P less than .001). Neither experiment produced a total absence of play as was observed in a previous field study in southwestern Panama (Baldwin and Baldwin 1973, 1974) which suggests that the field study sampled conditions of even more severe and/or prolonged food deprivation. No pathological or dysfunctional consequences were observed in any of the circumstances where play was reduced to zero or near zero. The question is raised whether certain theories of play have overstated the case for the necessity of play experience in producing normal socialization in primates. Alternative hypotheses are presented concerning the factors that determine the frequency of play and the consequences of play versus no-play for socialization. After both experiments, the frequency of play rose to a level 50% higher than the average baseline levels of play. This "rebound" reached a peak 5 to 6 days after the termination of each experiment; and during the subsequent days the frequency of play declined to more normal levels. A reinforcement theory is presented as a possible explanation of the rebound effect.

Animals↗
PubMed1976

Vocalizations of howler monkeys (Alouatta palliata) in southwestern Panama.

This report presents an analysis of the vocal repertoire of howler monkeys (Alouatta palliata) observed during a field study in southwestern Panama. 26 types of vocalizations were identified and described, and sonagrams are presented for 21 of them. The vocal repertoire contained many nondiscrete calls that graded continuously into each other, and all of the calls appeared to fit into 5 or 6 broad families. A tape recording of the vocalizations described in this study is available.

Alouatta↗