A Course for Medical Students in the Psychology of Sex: Training in Sociocultural Sensitivity
SHERWYN M. WOODS M.D.1
1 Associate professor and co-director of graduate education, department of psychiatry, the University of Southern California School of Medicine, 2025 Zonal Ave., Los Angeles, Calif. 90033
Teaching sexual psychology to medical students must take into consideration their high degree of anxiety and conflict, common obsessive compulsive personality structure, lack of factual knowledge, and lack of awareness of the social class influences on sexual attitudes and behavior. A small group teaching method is presented that encourages the acquisition of knowledge and assists the student to reduce his own anxieties, increase his ease of communication, and broaden his sociocultural sensitivity.
