Connotative Interpretations of the “Sex” Word in a Sample of Iranian Students: A Pilot Study

Abstract

Objective: Sex is a ubiquitous word which is widely used in other languages with a meaning somewhat different from the English one. This study plan to examine the attributes assigned by a group of Iranian Farsi speakers to “sex” constructs.

Method: the total of 33 women and 31 men (45 single and 19 married mean, age= 28.26), of medical students of Tehran University participated in this study which was done at 2020. Our measurement scale has been borrowed from Osgood; fifteen bipolar items in seven-point Likert that arranged in odd and even order is offered to participants. Some of poles are: “Cold-Warm”, “Weak-Strong”, “Secure-Unsecure”, “Hidden-Obvious”, “Up-Down”, “Funky-Fragrant”.

Results: this sample evaluated “sex” as warm, strong, up, fragrant, beautiful, sweet, white, good taste, good and active. Interestingly, there are more agreement than disagreement in comparison of two genders. However, there is a significant difference between male and female in the item of “unsecure-secure”. Also, regarding the marital status no significant difference was found between single and married students. The only marginal was Hidden-Obvious and Bad Taste-Good Taste.

Conclusion: When communication involves the use of sexuality-related words, semantics may play a particularly important role. Therefore, exploring the meaning of sex assigned by users seems necessary.