Psychology Essay

5-8 pages: A paper about your sexual, affectional, loving orientation development and conscious/pre-conscious awareness. The paper must include HOW people and cultural institutions of society such as the family, media, friends, government, law, religion/spirituality, education, variables of race/ethnicity, socioeconomic class, transcultural/generational/historical knowledge of sex & gender identities, roles and interpersonal attraction/consciousness celebrate/challenge/oppress your unique development and “lovemap.”

There are many factors that contribute to the development of an individual’s lovemap. The term lovemap was first coined by John Money, a psychologist who researched on sexual identity and its development. The term lovemap refers to the group of messages encoded in our brains that tell us about our likes and dislikes in romantic partners. These details range from a particular physical type to a personality type. It is said that by age eight, our lovemaps are already largely formed. This suggests that early influences play an enormous role in shaping what and whom we will eventually find romantically and sexually desirable. Because lovemaps are already determined at such a young age, the family, race or ethnicity, culture, gender, socioeconomic, religion, and education level of your immediate family and the relationship the infant had with its mother and father are the single largest contributors to the development of an individual’s unique lovemap.

​An infant’s relationship with their primary caregiver is crucial to how their lovemap is developed. Because mothers tend to be the first introduction to love, the nature of warmth and affection influences what a child comes to view as love. A mother’s personality and nurturance determines what qualities attract us in a mate. If the infant is a male, their relationship with their mother and the personality of their mother also determines how the male will come to view women later in life, whether their...