John H. Gagnon
John H. Gagnon (born November 22, 1931 in Fall River , Massachusetts , † February 11, 2016 in Palm Springs , California ) was an American sociologist and sexologist and most recently professor at the State University of New York at Stony Brook . He was a member of the International Board of Trustees within the German Society for Social Science Sex Research .
Scientific positions
John Gagnon developed the concept of sexual scripts together with William S. Simon . This theory states that sexual behavior and experience is influenced by one's own subjective understanding of one's own sexuality. Especially in childhood and adolescence, but also afterwards, stimulus-response patterns and meaningful content and contexts in relation to sexuality are acquired by socialization instances in a learning process and are then applied. It is learned what is defined as sexual and what behavior should follow in such situations. The theory is based on symbolic interactionism . Since sexual behavior was thus ostensibly explained in social science, as a process of complex learning, the authors reject the idea of a sex drive .
Publications (selection)
- with William S. Simon: Sexual Conduct. The Social Sources of Human Sexuality. 1973.
- Gender Preference in Erotic Relations. The Kinsey Scale and Sexual Scripts. 1990.
- with Robert T. Michael, Edward O. Laumann and Gina Colat: Sexwende. Love in the 90s. Munich 1994.
literature
- An unlikely story , in: Bennett M. Berger (Ed.): Authors of their own lives: intellectual autobiographies by twenty American sociologists , Berkeley: Univ. of California Pr., 1990, pp. 213-234
Individual evidence
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Gagnon, John |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American sociologist and sexologist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 22, 1931 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Fall River, Massachusetts |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 11, 2016 |
| Place of death | Palm Springs |