Relationships between sexual behavior and personality in the context of sexual dimorphism

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the structure and intensity of relationships between dimensions of sexual behavior and personal characteristics in the context of sexual dimorphism. The sample included 233 participants (both genders, mean age 29,34). Dimensions of sexual behavior were measured using the Sexual Behavior Questionnaire, and personal characteristics were measured using the Big Five Inventory and short form of Delta 10 questionnaire. The results suggested that the importance of personality for the understanding of sexual behavior is not far from the relevance of sexual dimorphism. It was found that personality was significant predictor of almost all dimensions of sexual behavior, independent from gender, and in case of tendency to have casual sex a strong interaction effect of gender and Conscientiousness was found. The nature of relationships between dimensions of sexual behavior and personality were very similar withih the subsamples of males and females. Namely, adaptive personality functioning was related to richness of sexual experience following by low sexual fantasies and low tendency to paraphilias. Small, but important difference in the structure of canonical factors extracted in the domain of sexual behavior was the following: in male sample adaptive personality structure correlated with high tendency to casual sex, while in female sample the opposite was obtained. In female sample there was one more significant relation suggesting that psychopatic personal structure has sexual style which include ric-hness and casual sexual experience without tendency to non-coital sexual play. The results are discussed in the context of the evolutionary theories of behavior.