Premium
Medical education about human sexuality: the impact of film in the workshop setting †
Author(s) -
MANDEL JANE BARCLAY
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
medical education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.776
H-Index - 138
eISSN - 1365-2923
pISSN - 0308-0110
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2923.1983.tb00963.x
Subject(s) - psychosexual development , human sexuality , psychology , test (biology) , inclusion (mineral) , homosexuality , meaning (existential) , social psychology , clinical psychology , transgender , developmental psychology , medical education , applied psychology , medicine , gender studies , psychotherapist , sociology , paleontology , psychoanalysis , biology
Summary The current study uses a pre‐test‐post‐test control group design in which students who were volunteer participants were randomly assigned, controlled for sex, to one of two 1‐day human sexuality workshops ( n =19 , n =21 ) or a control group ( n =17 ). The two workshops were identical in format and content. Each included four topic areas: homosexuality, psychosexual development of the male and female, masturbation, and the meaning of touch. After introduction to topic areas in large group sessions, small group discussions were held, led by trained teams of male and female co‐leaders. The independent variable was the inclusion of films of explicit sexual behaviour in one workshop (film and discussion) during each of the large group sessions, while no films were used in the other workshop (discussion only). Post‐test data from the attitude and knowledge sections of the SKAT test showed that participants in both the film and discussion and discussion‐only workshops changed significantly more than the control group on the heterosexual relations ( P < 0.05 ) and masturbation attitude scales ( P<0.01 ). No significant changes occurred on the knowledge section. Comparisons of pre to post scores of experimental subjects with previous research indicates that the present SKAT results are comparable to those that have been interpreted as significant. However, an analysis of variance comparing pre to post SKAT scores of both experimental groups revealed only one SKAT scale differential between the groups, with discussion‐only participants showing more change (masturbation, P < 0.05 ). Thus, the addition of explicit films to a workshop was not shown to have a significant effect on attitude change and knowledge scores as measured by the SKAT. Implications of the findings for future course planning are discussed.