Scribner Seminar Program
Course Description

Love & Lust: The Biopsychology of Sexual Desire

Instructor(s): Hassan Lopez, Psychology

Students will examine human sexual desire and behavior from a scientific perspective. Why do we reproduce through sexual intercourse?  What do men and women find attractive, and why?  Are humans monogamous or polygamous? Students will draw on evidence from across the sciences, including sociology, anthropology, psychology, evolutionary biology, ethology, neuroscience, endocrinology, and genetics, to make sense of human courtship behavior.  Students will discuss the fundamentals of natural selection and Darwinian evolution, which provide an indispensable theoretical framework for understanding human mating strategies and the psychology of romantic attraction. Sources will include recent scientific papers on the hormonal regulation of sexual desire, parts of the brain that may control our experience of love and lust, and the biological basis of sexual orientation.

Course Offered

Fall 2009