Anika Dowling
Research Mentor: Nazanin Kafaee
Mentor Department: Psychology, LSA
Author(s): Anika Dowling, Nazanin Kafaee
Session: Session 2 (10:00 AM – 10:50 AM)
Presentation Type: Poster 42
Abstract
Sexual norms and behaviours are strongly shaped by socio-ecological changes. Women in particular have been a focal group for moral regulation of their sexuality. Although this topic has been studied within anthropological and historical scholarship, psychological perspectives have been limited. In this study, we will investigate how major socio-ecological events—such as war, disease outbreaks, and economic fluctuations—have influenced the moralization of women’s sexuality in the United States over the past 150 years. We will use computational text analysis of congressional records and the Corpus of Historical and Contemporary American English to examine shifts in perceptions and attitudes toward women’s sexuality. This study aims to provide a more nuanced, psychologically informed account of how sociocultural, and ecological events have shaped perceptions of women’s sexuality in recent history.
