Pornography, Purity, and Pathology: Understanding “Compulsive” Sexual Behaviors in the Context of Religious Belief and Moral Incongruence (3 CE Hours)

Description:

In 2019, the World Health Organization elected to include a new diagnosis of Compulsive Sexual Behavior Disorder in the 11^th edition of the International Classification of Diseases, despite intense controversy around its inclusion. A body of work now suggests that the new diagnosis of Compulsive Sexual Behavior Disorder may be complicated by personal moral and religious beliefs. This seminar will focus on clinical concerns around pornography use, the relationships of conservative values and religiousness with pornography use, the notion of moral incongruence, and all the implication of above on novel diagnosis of Compulsive Sexual Behavior Disorder.

Learning Objectives:

1). Participants will be able to effectively describe the relationships between conservative religiousness and moral disapproval of pornography use

2). Participants will be able to define moral incongruence and explain how it relates to compulsive sexual behavior

3). Participants will be able to distinguish between compulsive sexual behavior and distress related to moral incongruence

Speaker Bio:
Joshua Grubbs is a clinical psychologist and professor at Bowling Green State University, where he researches the psychology of behavioral addictions, psychology of religion and spirituality, and issues related to personality.

His research (and the research of the SPARTA lab) is primarily concerned with the scientific study of addiction, personality, and morality (particularly as it relates to addiction and personality).

The largest portion of Dr. Grubbs’ current research program is concerned with addiction. He is particularly interested in topics related to behavioral addictions or compulsive behavior patterns.