I started off this week's search with the intent of concentrating on popular self help psychology, but I realized that the links that I found were very similar to topics that I have previously reported on. So from these findings, I decided to concentrate on sexuality because I haven't covered this topic yet and I very much wanted to do so. Under the main topic of sexuality, I consider anything related to men's and women's issues, such as relationships, male/female health, sexual disorders, and sexual orientations. Thus, this week's report will consider all these aspects of human sexuality.
I started off by doing a search on Savvy Search on "popular self help psychology". I like Savvy Search because it is so simple and easy to use. All you have to do is type in your search word and Savvy Search searches on multiple search engines for you. When it returns the hits, there are many, but not too many, and the ones they return are usually relevant to the topic at hand. The hits are merely listed when they are returned, so there's no explanation of the hit and you have to just judge which one you want to visit based on the title of the page. I like this because it's less for me to read, but others may want a search engine that also gives a synopsis of the page. Unfortunately, Savvy Search was busy this time, but another cool service they provide for you is that if they are too busy, you can choose another search engine you want to search on and Savvy Search will hook you up and start the search on the other engine so that you don't have to type in the search all over again.
Well, I chose to do a search on Excite instead so I got to see how this search engine works. The Excite search engine was really cool because they rate the confidence of each link that they return to you and group the links from the most confident to the least. Aside from the link, they give a short summary of what's in the link. I haven't seen this confidence rating in other search engines, so this is a big bonus that Excite offers its users.
Many of the pertinent links that I found this week were links that I had reported on in previous weeks, but the one that I didn't was from
Self Help Magazine has a lot of great articles concerning sexuality and other related issues, and also provides many links to other related sites concerning these topics. My interest is to present these links to you so that you know what's out there.
Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual Articles and Resources
All articles are written by Gail Bernstein, Ph.D. and are related to gay/lesbian/bisexual issues. In "Defining Sexual Orientation" she explores the ambiguity with which the term "sexual orientation" has been defined and the need for a more definitive definition of sexual orientation. In "35 Going On 13? Welcome to Gay and Lesbian Adolescence", she describes how, because most homosexuals do not realize they are homosexuals until long after their teens, they tend to revert back to the characteristic mood swings and intense sexual feelings experienced during this time of sexual awakening. She gives gays and lesbians suggestions on how to handle this period of "adolescence, revisited". Another very helpful article that she writes is about "Finding Gay and Lesbian Information Off the Net". I found her articles particularly helpful and reassuring to those who are homo- or bisexual because she points out problems that they might encounter and offers explanations and guidance in dealing with such problems. As a bonus, the articles were interesting and easy to read.
Many of the links I tried to access from Links Index were not found of did not have a DNS server entry, so I couldn't access them, but one that I did find was Infoqueer. This was a really great link because it merely lists the various categories of links related to "queer" sites and so it was very easy to use. Specifically, the link to health and sexuality was very pertinent to my topic and listed lots of links by category, such as sexuality and safer sex, cancer, and HIV/AIDS. There was also a list of transgender and transsexual resources which may be helpful to those wrestling with gender issues. I liked the layout of these pages because they were very simple and very neat and so they were quite easy to read.
Socially, I think it's important for these resources to be out there. These pages that I have found definitely perform the social psychological function of helping others by putting many links to other sources. These links could be helpful to anyone, not really targeting the gay community, but in the articles, I noticed that the author was, herself, a lesbian, and she chose to help those who were homosexual like herself. It's interesting to see that people tend to chose to help other people like themselves. For example, many people tend to do home pages on what they are interested in. These home pages are obviously geared toward others who are interested in the same topic, and so, like tends to attract like. It seems that we are psychologically bound to others with our same mentality and so want to help others like us.
The articles on concerning masculine psychology are written by Ray Bruce, Ph.D. They are basically targeted toward men and helping them to overcome stigmas or obstacles that men, in particular, face. The article "Men: How To Avoid Becoming A Statistic" talks about ways to overcome the disturbing realities that men are faced with in today's society, such as a much shorter life expectancy and higher suicide rate than females. He gives five tips to increase the chance of living a full life. In his article "Income and Penis Size: Overcoming Masculine Doubts", he identifies ways in which men find satisfaction and how they can find this satisfaction for themselves.
A really great link that I found is the Men's Issues Page. This page is full of links to various men's issues such as fatherhood, friendships, and romance & relationships. Of particular interest to me was the section on men's health. There were all kinds of interesting links from stuff about prostatitis, to studies on cardiac arrest between genders to diet to mental health for men. I loved the layout of these pages because they were very easy to follow. Each link had a bullet icon next to it and the major topics were in bigger bolder letters. A lot of blue was used, too. In fact, blue was the only color used. It seems to me that whoever put out the page had its target audience in mind. They made the page more attractive to men by making it very direct and easy to follow, with colors that are subdued and masculine. As I understand it, men are supposedly more left-brained and so appreciate order whereas women think on a more abstract scale and would therefore probably be more drawn to bright colors and pretty pictures. Thus, social psychology plays into home page construction; one must have his/her target audience in mind when constructing a home page.
There were two articles concerning feminine health. The first is a risk checklist for women. This risk checklists are lists of risk factors contributing to heart disease, osteoporosis, and breast cancer. The purpose of this page is to help women to decide if they pursue hormone therapy or not. If they are at risk for heart disease and osteoporosis, hormone therapy is encouraged. However, a person with many risk factors for breast cancer should not consider hormone therapy. "Recovering From Rape" is an incredibly important article for victims of rape because it gives a lot of advice on issues that women who have been raped must deal with, such as whether or not to see a doctor or whether or not to report it to a police. The article also deals with how the make a space for healing as well as where to turn to for support. Such a resource is so important in times of trauma because the rape victim is probably to embarrassed to talk to a person, and having this information available in an anonymous environment where nobody knows that she's accessing the information and she doesn't have to explain to anyone why she wants to know can help the victim immensely in the issues that she must deal with after the rape.
I also found a really great link to Feminist Activist Resources on the Net. Now, I'm not a feminist, but there's some really great links on this page dealing with women's issues, such as reproductive rights, sexual harassment and rape, and women's organizations. Of particular interest to me was the link on women' health. This section was divided in emotional, physical, and sexual health for women. Each section had various links to other sites related to women's health. If you still can't find the women's issue that you are looking for, this page has a search engine that you can use to find your particular topic.
As I mentioned before, home pages must be constructed to accommodate its target audience. With the men's issue page, there was a lot of blue on a very plain background. By contrast, the women's issues page has a pretty yellow background and a brighter icon. Rather than using a much bigger and bolder font to separate sections, this page utilizes variations in italicizing and not italicizing different portions for more variety and a softer effect than the men's issue page. In sum, this page is more aesthetically pleasing than the men's issue page. Thus, different target audiences yield different home page styles.
There were so many great articles under this topic, I wish I could discuss all of them. These articles aimed at finding a mate, as well as helping the relationship that you are already in. In the article Finding Someone Right for You Edward A. Dreyfus, Ph.D. discusses the issue of mate selection in human beings and ways in which you can increase your odds of finding a "compatible mate." He explores many myths that people have about relationships and then disputes these myths. In his article "Developing The Master Relationship Plan", he outlines things that you can do to find your perfect mate. If you already have somebody but want to improve your relationship, then "Transforming Your Relationships" is for you. In the first article of this series, Sheldon Z. Kramer, Ph.D. helps us to be less critical of our mates. The second article teaches you how to relax so that you will be more open and receptive to what your partner is saying or feeling. These articles are very well-written and easy to follow and I highly suggest them to anyone looking to improve their relationship. Lastly, the article "Good Sex is Good For You" discusses the ways in which sex is good for the body, mind, and spirit. The article starts off by discussing how sex is biologically beneficial and then proceeds to the differences between men and women's sexual experiences.
There were two great articles on sexuality. The first is entitled "Spicing Up Your Sex Life". There are very basic suggestions such as "be generous" or "use your imagination." Each listed in bold faced lettering with a short explanation below. The second article, "When the Answer is `Not Tonight'", discusses reasons for lack of interest in sex and what you can do to help your partner become more interested. After reading all of these articles on self help psychology I really get a sense of what "self help" is all about. It really is self help. Each article gives explanations on what you, yourself, can do to help yourself out. It seems so obvious, but only now do I fully get a sense of the word.
The Sexual Assault Information Page (SAIP) is a not-for-profit information and referral service created and maintained by Chris Bartley. SAIP provides information concerning acquaintance rape, child sexual abuse/assault, incest, rape, ritual abuse, sexual assault, and sexual harassment. Information is provided via the WWW, email, a monthly electronic newsletter, as well as occasional hardcopy mailings for specific requests. All information, including the newsletter, is provided totally free of charge. This page is chock full of information on al kinds of sexual assault from acquaintance rape to child sexual abuse to domestic violence. Anything you might want to know about sexual assault is probably on this page. It was rated as one of the top 5% of all internet sites on the web so it must be pretty good. Finally, the Sexual Disorders Page gives a brief overview of the various types of sexual disorders that men and women face, then goes on to the causes and treatments of these disorders.