Lecture 14: Sexuality Part 1 Flashcards
4 broad themes for why people have sex
physical, emotional, goal attainment, insecurity
Why do we have sex? study
- Meston & Buss, 2007: “Please list all the reasons you can think of why you, or someone you know, has engaged in sexual intercourse in the past.”
- 443 participants -> generated 237 distinct reasons
- Identified 4 broad themes with 13 subfactors
1 reason for why people have sex
I was attracted to the person (both men & women)
Most frequently endorsed reasons for having sex
attraction, pressure, affection, love, adventure, desire to please, opportunity, celebration
Least frequently endorsed reasons for having sex
- Retaliation, manipulation, desire to enhance one’s social status, desire to inflict harm
- Less frequent but potentially damaging
gender similarities in sexuality
- Men & women were remarkably similar in most frequently endorsed reasons
- Not a lot of evidence that women are more likely to endorse emotional reasons
gender differences in sexuality
- Men report higher frequencies for the majority of individual items and subfactors. They endorse more reasons centring on physical appearance of partner, experience-seeking, opportunity, enhancement of social status
- Evidence that men have stronger sex drives (strength of sexual motivation)
- Evidence that women exhibit greater relational focus when it comes to sex
sex drives by gender
- Gap gets bigger after having children & menopause
- More spontaneous thoughts about sex, greater frequency, and variety of sexual fantasies, greater desired frequency of intercourse and desired number of partners
- More likely to succumb to sexual temptation (infidelity, mate poaching)
- More willing to incur costs to have sex
- Engage in more masturbation, casual sex, and pornography use
- Hold more permissive sex attitudes (except same-sex behaviour)
relational focus by gender
- Women prefer sex within the ongoing, committed relationships
- Men express more desire for extradyadic sex
- Women’s fantasies are more likely to include familiar partner, affection and commitment, while men’s fantasies are more likely to include strangers & anonymous partners
- But, men feel happier with their sexual experiences when they’re happy with their relationship and when their partner is enjoying themselves
Sociosexual orientation
measure of individual differences in sexual strategies; the extent to which individuals are restrictive or permissive in their attitudes towards casual sex
Low SO (restricted)
- Tend toward long-term mating strategies
- Insist on commitment and closeness in a relationship prior to engaging in sex with a romantic partner
- Fewer sexual partners & one-night stands
high SO (unrestricted)
- Tend toward short-term mating strategies
- Feel comfortable with sex without commitment or closeness
- More sexual partners & one-night standard
- Endorse more reasons for having sex (with the exception of love and commitment)
gender & SOI
- On average, men are higher on SOI
- But, there’s much more variability within each gender than between the genders
- Gender differences account for only 9% of variance in number of desired sex partners, 20% of variance in consenting to sex with attractive acquaintance, 25% of variance in casual sex
- Approximately 30% of US men have less favourable attitudes towards casual sex than the median US woman
evolutionary explanations for gender differences in sexuality
- There is asymmetry in minimal parental investment
- Women may increase their reproductive success by being choosier, selecting mates that will provide resources, care, and protection
- Men may increase reproductive success by pursuing multiple mating opportunities
social roles theory for gender differences in sexuality
- Traditional view of men as initiators and women as gate-keepers
- Changing, but stigma against sexual permissive women still exists
sexual double standard
- Harsher judgment of women (relative to men) for engaging in similar sexual activity
- Women are socialized to restrict feelings of sexual desire to the context of committed, intimate relationships
“would you go to bed with me?” study
- Male & female confederates approached students on campus
- 75% of men and 0% of women accepted the offer
recent replication of the “would you go to bed with me?” study
- Participants were asked to imagine that they were approached with an offer for casual sex
- Women were less likely to accept the offer
- Women also anticipated that they would be seen as more promiscuous, socially inappropriate, desperate, and less intelligent if they accepted the offer
- This perceived negative stigma inhibited their receptiveness (mediation)
Were the women right to expect negative judgment?
In a separate study, participants rated a woman accepting an offer of casual sex more negatively than a man accepting the same offer
concerns with men’s responses to casual sex
They were concerned about what would happen if they rejected the offer?
casual sex and safety
- Women believe a male proposer is more dangerous compared to how men view a female proposer
- Bisexual women were more likely to accept offer from a woman
- Gender gap decreases when the proposed casual sex partner is familiar
experience of pleasure in casual sex
- The gender gap disappears when the proposed casual sex partner is very attractive or believed to be sexually skillful
- This suggests that a key consideration is the expectation of pleasure
- Women orgasm 35% as often as men in first-time casual sex encounters
sexual behavioural system
- Innate: basic operation does not rely on socialization
- Individual differences in sexual motives, emotions, behaviours reflect variations in functioning of the system
- Function (evolutionary purpose): passing on genes to the next generation
- But proximal cause (immediate cause for having sex) isn’t necessarily the same as evolutionary function
sex vs. attachment
- Sexual system is separate from the attachment system
- Can mate without bonding and bond without mating
- Sexual orientation toward same-same or other sex partners does not need to correspond with romantic attachment to same-sex or other-sex partners
- Asexual individuals can still develop attachment toward romantic partner
- Sexual desire can motivate & promote the attachment bonding process
- Most sex occurs in the context of ongoing romantic relationships
evolutionary view of sex and attachment
- Evolutionary view:
- Big brains + bipedalism = serious adaptive problem
- Solution: soft headed, helpless babies
- New problem: how to keep soft headed, helpless babies alive?
- Solution: biparental caregiving & bonding between sexual partners
- Can help understand the somewhat unique sexual tendencies of humans
- Missionary position promotes intimate face-to-face contact
- Sleeping together after sex
- Sex throughout the menstrual cycle
growing intimacy study
- Had individuals watch an erotic video or a video about cats
- There was more intimate self-disclosure after watching erotic video
growing intimacy subsequent study
also more responsive towards a partner discussing an interpersonal dilemma
growing intimacy studies takeaway
activation of sexual system promotes self-disclosure & responsiveness, which plays a key role in the development of intimacy
strengthening pair bonds study
When subliminally primed with erotic cues,
- More willingness to sacrifice for one’s partner
- More preference for using positive conflict resolution strategies
- More desire to do something to make partner happy
reliving positive sexual encounters study
After reliving positive sexual encounter with partner, more enacted responsiveness during live interaction with partner
relationship stage model of sexual desire
- Across different relationship stages (initial awareness -> early contact -> growing interdependence -> established relationships), sexual desire motivates expenditure of effort towards deepening & maintaining the relationship
- May be particularly potent in early stages, but serve a protective role whenever there is adversity or vulnerability
- Sexual desire also makes it difficult to detach if the relationship is terminated
compensation for realtionship vulnerabilities
Relationship stage model predicts that sexual desire may be especially important to relationship persistence for couples facing different types of vulnerability in relationship
neuroticism
tendency to experience negative affect
compensating for neuroticism in relationships
- Generally linked to more negative interpersonal perceptions & experiences, lower relationship satisfaction, and greater likelihood of divorce
- While related to lower marital satisfaction on average, unrelated when couples engage in frequent sex
- See similar buffering effects of attachment insecurity
Why does romantic conflict sometimes increase sexual desire?
- Relationship threat -> attachment system activation, seeking of reassurance and closeness
- Relationship threat prime increases interest in sex with partner
Caveats of make-up sex
- Individual differences (ex. Avoidantly attached individuals are less likely to desire partner following threat)
- More effective when conflict is successfully resolved
- Consistent conflict and feelings of threat/insecurity can damage relationship over time
sexual satisfaction
evaluation of the quality of the sexual aspect of an intimate relationship
sexual satisfaction and relationship satisfaction
Consistently associated with overall relationship satisfaction in both dating & married couples, same-sex, and different-sex couples, young, and old couples
longitudinal sexual satisfaction research in newlyweds
- Bidirectional association during the first few years of marriage
- Relationship satisfaction -> less decline in sexual satisfaction
- Sexual satisfaction -> less decline in relationship satisfaction
- True for men and women
longitudinal sexual satisfaction research in long-term relationships
- Early sexual satisfaction predicts later sexual satisfaction
- Early relationship satisfaction predicts later relationship satisfaction
- Early sexual satisfaction predicts later relationship satisfaction
