Psychological Factors: Counselling and Motivation of Contraceptive Patients

Abstract

In the study of fertility and sterility, researchers have directed their attention to the physiological factors, as these were most obviously relevant and could be studied rigorously with available techniques. Some factors, previously not unnoticed but of less vital importance, have become of greater significance now that the technical side of fertility control has come closer to being mastered. If basic research has provided man with an adequate means for the accomplishment of family planning and if it promises even better controls in the future, then success of the actual application of these controls depends entirely on the intrapersonal and interpersonal factors that are relevant to the problem. Therefore, while the study of basic physiology and fertility continues to move forward, it is necessary that the sociological and psychological factors involved be subjected to systematic study.