Sexual Relationships

5 Key excerpts on "Sexual Relationships"

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  Social Exchange in Developing Relationships

  • Robert L. Burgess, Ted L. Huston, Robert L. Burgess, Ted L. Huston(Authors)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Academic Press

    (Publisher)

  There is surprisingly little direct study of the rela-tionship between different person variables and sexual behavior. There is even less empirical work on the vicissitudes of interaction over time or on relationship variables related to sexual behavior. This chapter has as its purpose the articulation of one approach to sexual involvement linking person, interaction, and relationship variables. The conceptualization of the relationship between the interactive context of sexual behavior and its meaning for each person and for their relationship is the critical problem: Does, as Masters and Johnson (1975) assert, the sexual relationship mirror the interpersonal relationship? This, indeed, exemplifies the more generic problem of relating social behavior to social relationships. We are in general agreement with Harré and Second (1972) who argue that a mechanistic model has severe limitations in the area of social behavior since meanings are crucial to understanding interpersonal phenomena. We will attempt to make the case that social behavior and social relation-ships can be linked heuristically using a cognitive-developmental framework that delineates qualitative individual differences in the pro-cesses by which personal and interpersonal meaning are ascribed to social behavior. Although we will start with a discussion of sexual behavior, we end by suggesting that a broader focus, on relationship development, is a profitable avenue for the future.

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  Sexuality in Close Relationships

  • Kathleen McKinney, Susan Sprecher(Authors)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Psychology Press

    (Publisher)

  3 Emotions and Sexuality 1

  John DeLamater University of Wisconsin—Madison

  This chapter analyzes the interrelations of emotions and sexuality within close relationships and reviews the recent relevant literature within psychology, sociology, and sexology.

  Psychologists and sociologists concerned with emotion rarely mention sexuality, and those who study human sexual expression mention emotion only slightly more often (Everaerd, 1988). Among them, there is considerable disagreement about the definition of emotion, For the present, emotion is defined as a combination of physiological response and subjective experience whose meaning is influenced by cognitive appraisal (Victor, 1980). A definition of sexuality is offered by Aron and Aron (this volume): "the constellation of sensations, emotions, and cognitions that an individual associates with physiological sexual arousal and that generally gives rise to sexual desire and/or behavior." The concept of sexuality is much broader than overt sexual behavior; in addition, it includes internal or subjective responses to stimulation.

  In the first section I review the literature on emotion and consider the two prominent psychological perspectives on emotion, the "two-factor" and "three-factor" theories. The debate between them concerns the components of the experience of emotion by the person. I then turn to the literature on overt expression of emotion and two current arguments: (a) whether the behavioral expression of emotion reflects inner experience and (b) whether "emotional" behavior is more heavily influenced by social norms than by internal state.

  The ensuing analysis of the relationship between emotions and sexuality in close relationships is divided into three discussions: emotion as an antecedent of sexuality, emotion as a component of sexual behavior, and emotion as a consequence of sexual desire and behavior. The final section of the chapter briefly discusses sexual jealousy, which combines sexuality and emotion.

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  Sexuality

  • Susan Sprecher, Kathleen McKinney(Authors)
  • 1993(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications, Inc

    (Publisher)

  5 Sexuality and Other Dimensions of the Close Relationship T he sexual part of a close relationship, although important to the overall relationship, is still only one aspect of it. In this chapter we discuss how sexuality in the relationship is related to other im• portant dimensions of the relationship. This chapter is divided into three sections. First, we discuss how sexuality (especially the sexual act) can be considered as one element among several that characterize close relationships; that is, we address the major question, What are couples expressing when they have sex? Second, we address the question, How does sexuality in the relationship affect other dimen• sions of the relationship, such as satisfaction and love? Furthermore, do these other dimensions have an impact on sexuality? We also discuss whether sexuality has an influence on whether couples stay together or break up. Finally, we discuss communication and sexuality 99 100 SEXUALITY in close relationships: Who initiates sex and how? How is com-munication about sexuality related to sexual satisfaction? **-Sex as One Element in the Close Relationship In a close relationship, sex is more than a physical act. When two bodies belonging to two intertwined lives join in an act of sex, much more than physical sensations gets expressed. In this section we consider higher order constructs that have been identified by rela-tionship researchers as important to understanding behaviors in close relationships. Having sex is one aspect of each of these higher order constructs or approaches in close relationships (see Figure 5.1). Sex as an Act of Self-Disclosure Self-disclosure is the process by which one person reveals personal information about him-or herself to another person. Self-disclosure is a major facet of the close relationship. As two people become close, they tend to reveal more and more aspects of themselves (e.g., Altman & Taylor, 1973; Derlega & Berg, 1987).

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  Odyssey of the Heart

  Close Relationships in the 21st Century

  • John H. Harvey, Ann L. Weber(Authors)
  • 2001(Publication Date)
  • Psychology Press

    (Publisher)

  4SEXUALITY IN CLOSE RELATIONSHIPS

  Sex is a wave that just sweeps over me. When the urge comes, I am helpless.

  —Michael Douglas in describing his many romances, Parade Magazine (August 29, 1999, p. 2)

  Sex is hardly ever just about sex.

  —Shirley MacLaine (The Quotable Woman, 1991, p. 119)

  In this chapter, the varied meanings of sexuality in close relationships is discussed. Far from being simply a biological process, sexuality emerges from the circumstances and meanings available to people. As we will see in each chapter, gender difference questions are at the forefront of a large stream of contemporary work on sexuality in close relationships.

  An illustrative recent study was conducted by Regan and colleagues (2000). They assessed college students’ partner preferences for short-term sexual and long-term romantic partners. For a sample of 561 respondents, it was found that for either short-term sexual liaisons or long-term romance, men emphasized attributes related to sexual desirability more than did women, and women valued characteristics related to social status more than did men. For short-term sexual interactions, both men and women emphasized qualities such as attractiveness, health, sex drive, and athleticism. On the other hand, both women and men emphasized personality qualities such as intelligence, honesty, and warmth in their long-term romantic partners. The gender differences in this study partially support an evolutionary psychology position on dating and mating, which stresses men’s emphasis on health and attractiveness and women’s emphasis on resources and social status for sexual contacts, romance, and mating.

  The vastness of meanings of sexuality was suggested by Sanders and Reinisch (1999) who reported on a sample of 600 college undergraduates concerning their notions of what sex is. Fifty-nine percent did not consider oral–genital contact to be “having sex.” Nineteen percent believed that penile–anal contact was not “having sex.” And these are just the physical relations. How varied might the answers be if psychological aspects of sexuality were included in such a survey?

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  Sexual Subjects

  Young People, Sexuality and Education

  • L. Allen(Author)
  • 2005(Publication Date)
  • Palgrave Macmillan

    (Publisher)

  6 Desire, Pleasure, Power: Understanding Young People’s Sexual Relationships Chapter 4 revealed that relationships are the context in which young people’s sense of themselves as a sexual person is realised and formed. As such relationships are an important site for contextualising our understandings of how young people live out (hetero)sexuality. Relationships are also the place in which sexual knowledge can find application and exploring their micro-politics may shed light on why knowledge retained from sexuality education is not always translated into practice. The aim of this chapter then, is to gain a sense of rela- tionships as experienced by young people in this research. A number of key questions are addressed in order to better understand how relation- ships offer a site in which young people’s knowledge and subjectivities are played out. The first question is descriptive and asks what do young people’s relationships look like in terms of their length, frequency and way they are characterised for example, as fun or serious. How young people talk about the pleasure they derive from relationships is also considered. Endeavouring to understand how pleasure is conceptu- alised in this context is a political act in its acknowledgement that this is an important element of young people’s lives and one often institu- tionally ignored. A final question concerns the micro practices of rela- tionships and the gendered operation of power within them. It asks how do young people describe decision making and negotiation around sexual activity in their relationships? Before embarking on an exploration of the these data, I want to make a general point about the nature of young people’s relationships. It is commonly presumed that the relationships young people engage in are taken less seriously by them and involve less personal investment than those that may follow in later life.

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