“Some days are much holier than others”: Relational uncertainty and partner influence in Christian dating couples' sexual intimacy negotiation

When intrafaith couples' religion strictly prohibits premarital sexual intercourse, negotiating sexual intimacy can become a multilayered process of identity negotiation that compounds the difficulty of sexual communication. Through the lens of relational turbulence theory, this study explored how devout Christian couples negotiate sexual intimacy by reanalyzing qualitative interview data the first author collected in 2017 from 16 self-identified Christians (8 heterosexual couples). Seven themes revealed how relational uncertainty, partner interference, and partner facilitation manifested in the context of sexual intimacy negotiation. Themes of relational uncertainty experience and prevention included assumption of shared values, relationship talk, and sexual behaviors as an uncertainty catalyst. Partner facilitation and interference emerged as themes of sexual escalation and de-escalation including snowball effect, pinpointing underlying motivations for boundary violations, gatekeeping sexual temptation, and drawing from shared values of sacrifice and prayer. These interpretive findings advance the literature on relational turbulence theory and provide Christian dating couples with practical advice for how to negotiate sexual intimacy in committed premarital relationships.     

Review, critique, and synthesis of personality theory in motivation to sexually assault

A widely-cited meta-analysis of recidivism amongst adult male perpetrators or sexual assult [Hanson and Bussiere, J. Consult. Clin. Psychol. 66 (1998) 348–362] found that the presence of any personality disorder (APA, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: DSM-III-R. (1987); [APA, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: DSM-IV (1994)] was the only variable to significantly predict sexual recidivism in a category measuring “Psychological Maladjustment” (r₊=.16, n=315). The relationship between personality disturbance and new sexual offenses is undoubtedly a dynamic relationship that deserves exploration. This review and critique of theory covers two theories of personality: (1) a psychoanalytic theory of rapist personality offered by Groth [Men Who Rape: The Psychology of the Offender. (1979), New York: Plenum] and (2) a general biosocial theory or personality disturbance offered by Millon [Disorders of Personality: DSM-IV and Beyond. (1996). New York: Wiley]. Theory offered by Groth is critiqued and limitations considered. Theory offered by Millon is offered and the two approaches are synthesized to suggest possible causes of characteristic psychological disturbance associated with perpetration of sexual assault. Applications for research and practice are considered, and implications of this line of research for risk assessment and sexual assault prevention are reviewed.     

Sex on the Shore: Wishful Identification and Parasocial Relationships as Mediators in the Relationship Between Jersey Shore Exposure and Emerging Adults' Sexual Attitudes and Behaviors

Exposure to highly sexualized television programs has been correlated with emerging adults' sexual attitudes and behaviors. However, little is known about the variables that may mediate these relationships. The studies presented here investigated wishful identification and parasocial relationships withJersey Shore cast members as mediators in the relationship between exposure to Jersey Shore and permissive sexual attitudes. In Study 1, a secondary examination of content analysis data suggested that sex was pervasive on Jersey Shore. Analyses revealed that, on average, one sexual instance occurred every minute on Jersey Shore. The frequency of sexual instances on Jersey Shore was significantly higher than the frequency of sexual instances in other popular primetime television programs. In Study 2, data collected from a sample of emerging adults revealed a positive relationship between Jersey Shore exposure and permissive sexual attitudes mediated by participants' wishful identification and parasocial relationships with Jersey Shore cast members. Permissive sexual attitudes were positively correlated with sexual activity. Results are consistent with predictions made by cultivation and social cognitive theory. The relationships between television exposure, wishful identification, parasocial relationships, and emerging adults' sexual attitudes and behaviors are the focus of the discussion.     

Testing Error Management Theory: Exploring the Commitment Skepticism Bias and the Sexual Overperception Bias

Research on error management theory indicates that men tend to overestimate women's sexual interest and women underestimate men's interest in committed relationships ( Haselton & Buss, 2000 ). We test the assumptions of the theory in face‐to‐face, stranger interactions with 111 man‐woman dyads. Support for the theory emerges, but potential boundary conditions are observed. In addition, we find that women's perceptions of men's desire for commitment is related to the women's own self‐reported sexual interest but that the reverse does not hold for men. Finally, we find evidence consistent with the proposition that people project their own level of interest in sex or in a committed relationship onto their interaction partners.     

AN ANALYSIS OF AND INTERVENTION IN THE SEXUAL TRANSMISSION OF DISEASE

Sexually transmitted diseases are a serious threat to the public health. Indeed, when an individual seeks medical treatment for a sexually transmitted disease, health authorities frequently attempt to identify, procure, and treat that individual's sexual contact(s). We conducted a comparative analysis of three alternative approaches to tracing the sexual partners of individuals diagnosed as having a sexually transmitted disease. The first approach involved counseling individuals (n = 27) infected with either gonorrhea or nongonococcal urethritis and exhorting them to procure their sexual partners for treatment. In addition to counseling, the second and third approaches involved distributing “occasion cards” for patients to use when informing sexual contacts of the need for treatment. Moreover, in the second approach, the counselor (a nurse or physician) informed infected patients (n = 19) that they and their partners could waive the $3 clinic fee contingent upon the partners seeking treatment within 1 week. In the third approach, the counselor asked infected persons (n = 19) to accept a follow-up telephone contact if their sexual partners failed to seek treatment within 1 week. The third approach was most effective. Ninety percent of the partners identified through this approach sought treatment, versus only about 60% of the partners in the other two conditions. The third approach was also the least expensive, costing about $2.95 to procure each partner for treatment.     

Father absence,sociosexual orientation,and same-sex sexuality in women and men

A recent evolutionary theory of female sexual fluidity suggests that women may not have sexual orientations in the same sense that men do, and that women's apparent sexual orientation may instead be a byproduct of their sociosexual orientation. One developmental factor that has consistently been shown to influence sociosexual orientation is father absence in childhood. Consistent with the prediction of the theory, the analyses of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) data show that father absence significantly increases women's, but not men's, same-sex sexuality in adulthood, whether it is measured by self identity, sexual behaviour, or romantic attraction. Further consistent with the theory, the association between father absence and same-sex sexuality in women is entirely mediated by their sociosexual orientation.     

Attitudes to sex, sexual behaviour and enjoyment of humour

Freudian (1905 Wien; Der Witz und seine Beziehung zum Unbewuβten. Deuticke) and Salience (Goldstein, Suls and Anthony, 1972; The Psychology of Humor. Academic Press, New York) theory make opposite predictions about the effects of attitudes to sex and sexual behaviour on appreciation of sex humour. Male and female students (N=115) answered a questionnaire of attitudes toward sex, a sexual behaviour inventory (Eysenck, 1976; Sex and Personality. Open Books, London) and a humour test. The results generally supported a positive correlation between appreciation of sex humour and the sex scales (sexual libido, satisfaction, experience and pleasure), although the resulting pattern was very complex. Separation of sex humour according to the jokes structure yielded different predictor patterns. Funniness of humour based on nonsense correlated most frequently and most highly with the sex scales libido, experiences and pleasure. Low sexual satisfaction, low permissiveness, and prudishness were correlated with aversiveness of all types of humour. Furthermore, it was hypothesized that these variables are better predictors of enjoyment of sexual humour than the more general factors of conservatism and toughmindedness (T) which turned out to be potent predictors in a recent study (Ruch and Hehl, 1986; Person. individ. Diff. 7, 861–874). It turned out that the predictive sex scales were located on the toughmindedness axis and were thus as predictive of sex humour as T itself. A refinement of the salience hypothesis was undertaken.     

The Attitudes and Attitude Estimates of Catholic,Protestant, and Jewish Students

Summary

This study was a cross-cultural extension of previous research concerning the relationship between attitudes toward homosexuality, attitudes toward heterosexual sexual practices, personal sex-guilt, and sex stereotyping. One hundred twelve Brazilian male college students completed a series of attitude measures previously administered to a comparable sample of Canadians. As had been previously found in Canada, antihomosexual (Anti-H) Ss were more disapproving of various heterosexual sexual practices and reported greater personal sex-guilt than prohomosexual (Pro-H) Ss. The intercorrelations among the three principle attitude scales were only moderately positive in both samples, suggesting that attitudes toward homosexuality are somewhat independent of more general sexual attitudes. Anti-H Ss also stereotyped the sexes more than did Pro-H respondents and were more willing than Pro-H Ss to label a male as homosexual when he exhibited what they thought was a single feminine characteristic. In these respects the Brazilian and Canadian results were strikingly similar.

More antihomosexual prejudice was found in the Brazilians. They also assigned much higher probabilities to a “feminine” male being homosexual than did Canadian Ss. The findings of this study provide potent cross-cultural confirmation of Churchill's theory of antihomosexual prejudice within a sex-negative environment.     

contextualizing the sexual assault event: images from police files

This study focuses on sexual assault from a criminal event perspective, using case files to examine why elements of a crime emerge. Beyond how elements of a crime converge, as proposed by routine activities theory, statements extracted from police files shed light on the precursors to the criminal transaction and contextual elements, allowing insight into questions such as: Why are the offenders motivated? Why are the victims vulnerable? And, why are guardians absent? Results show that actors bring with them unique sets of circumstances that influence the progression of the sexual assault event. Alcohol and/or drugs, broken relationships, and anger were common factors.     

THE MASS ON THE WORLD

The present article has three sections. The first one discusses the relationship of the theological theory of transubstantiation to that of transignification (change of meaning) and transfinalization (change of finality), ideas that were introduced just before the time of Vatican II by northern European theologians. The second section develops a holistic view of the nature of matter. Our present scientific knowledge seems to require that we abandon the Aristotelian theory of hylomorphism in favor of a theory in which real beings of a certain level ‘sublate’ real but subordinate beings of lower levels. For example, a human being is a substance that includes within itself many smaller substances. When he was in the flesh, the physical body of Christ included within itself a vast number of interconnected atoms and molecules. The third section discusses ideas of Teilhard de Chardin about the relationship of Christ to matter.     

Facial emotion recognition in violent men

The goal of this study was to explore the ability of violent men to recognise facial affect. In contrast to traditional approaches to this research question, we took the effects of the models' sex and different types of violent behaviour into consideration. Data obtained from 71 violent men revealed that they recognised facial expressions of fear (p = .019) and disgust (p = .013) more accurately when displayed by female than male models. The opposite was found for angry faces (p = .006), while the models' sex did not affect the recognition of sad, happy and surprised facial expressions or neutral faces. Furthermore, sexual coercion perpetrators were more accurate than other violent men in the recognition of female facial disgust (p = .006). These results are discussed in the context of social learning theory, and the hypothesis that female facial expressions of disgust could be subtle cues to their sexual infidelity that motivate sexual coercion in some men.     

Gendered Purity and Embodied Sexual Flourishing: Moral Agency,Development, and Prudence

Current popular accounts of sexual morality for adolescents based simply on purity or self-determination cannot adequately anchor a Christian sexual ethic, although positions based on both notions hope to facilitate sexual health among young females. Here I critique both popular Christian purity movements and a popular feminist critique of these purity movements (based upon self-determination) and suggest the virtue of prudence as a corrective. Situated within the Catholic theological tradition, prudence (practical wisdom) acknowledges the process of human moral and sexual development and is robust enough to negotiate the concrete complexities of sexual activity and the social realities in which such activity takes place. Further, it honours an embodied sense of female sexual self-determination: females as moral agents directed towards sexual flourishing.     

The Judas Within: A Look at the Sexual Abuse Crisis in the Catholic Church

Drawing from normal accident theory, high reliability theory, and systems theory, we analyze the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People that is promulgated by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in response to the sexual abuses of minors by clergy members. Although the Charter is a step in the right direction, there remain some areas that require immediate attention. In spite of the goodwill processes, the safety of minors must remain the concerted efforts and responsibilities of individuals at all the various levels if the Catholic Church is to prevent further cases of abuse from happening.     

Gender and Self-Reported Sexual Arousal in Response to Sexual Stimuli: A Meta-Analytic Review

Social constructionist theories and sociobiological perspectives have led to increased interest in gender differences in sexual behavior. This study involved a meta-analysis of gender differences in sexual arousal in response to sexual stimuli. Forty-six studies in which participants were presented with a sexual stimulus depicting males and females and in which participants responded using a self-report measure of arousal were compiled, and 62 independent effect sizes were aggregated. An overall effect size of d = .31 showed a small to moderate-sized gender difference in sexual arousal with men reporting more arousal than women across all studies. There was significant variation in the effect sizes, though, which was only partially explained by variables coded from the studies. It was found that the gender difference was slightly larger for studies using pornographic vs. erotic stimuli, was larger for studies where participants were tested in a private setting or small group compared to a large group, and was much larger for college age participants compared to those who were older than college age. Generally, the pattern of results provided more support for predictions from social influence theories compared to sociobiological theory.     

Sexual quality of life in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft surgery

Objectives: Despite improvements in many domains of functioning, sexual quality of life often remains impaired following coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery. This study examined associations among sexual quality of life, fear of sexual activity and receiving information from providers about sexual activity in CABG patients.

Methods: Participants completed a survey assessing sexual activity, mental health and physical health at baseline (3–5-day post-surgery; n?=?60) and 2-month post-surgery (n?=?42).

Results: Sexual quality of life showed moderate difficulties at baseline and did not improve by follow-up (p values ≥0.09). At follow-up, greater patient fear was associated with lower sexual quality of life in some domains; receiving information was related to lower fear (p values ≤0.03) and greater sexual satisfaction and interest (p values ≤0.04). Suggestive of mediation, there was a significant indirect effect of information on patient fear and of patient fear on sexual interest (p?=?0.05).

Conclusions: Though data were cross-sectional, findings suggest that fears of sexual activity may play a role in lowering CABG patients’ motivation for sexual activity and that receiving information from a medical provider may assist in hastening sexual rehabilitation. Prospective and intervention studies are needed to support findings.     

THE SECOND SPHERE AND THE STORY OF NO STORY

The author discusses Roy Schafer's ideas of the second self and second reality, as well as his consistent theme of storyteller and story. The latter theme is also explored in the context of more recent psychoanalytic influences, such as Bionian thought, trauma theory, the French approach, and the interpersonal perspective. To illustrate the idea of the nonstory in today's clinical encounters, the author presents two clinical vignettes.     

Feminist Political Theory without Apology: Anna Doyle Wheeler,William Thompson,and the Appeal of One Half the Human Race,Women

Anna Doyle Wheeler was a nineteenth‐century, Irish‐born socialist and feminist. She and another Irish‐born socialist and feminist, William Thompson, produced a book‐length critique in 1825, Appeal of One Half the Human Race, Women: Against the Pretensions of the Other Half, Men, to Retain Them in Political, and Thence in Civil and Domestic, Slavery: In Reply to a Paragraph of Mr. Mill's Celebrated “Article on Government,” to refute the claims of liberal philosopher James Mill in 1820 that women did not need to be enfranchised. In so doing the Appeal undermined the philosophical credibility of Mill's liberal utilitarianism. The Appeal exposed the hypocrisy of the language of contract (whether social, sexual, or marriage) by showing that men's freedom and claims to rights presupposed the unfreedom and sexual subjugation of women. The article argues that the Appeal was an original formulation of feminist political theory that still retains its relevance in the twenty‐first century.     

THE OBJECT‐PRESERVING FUNCTION OF SADOMASOCHISM

The terms sadism, masochism, and sadomasochism seem to have become increasingly, if loosely, associated with aggression in psychoanalytic discourse. This is due in part to the fact that Freud's changing ideas generated confusion about the relative contributions of libido and aggression. The author reviews Freud's variable usage and offers a clinical vignette to illustrate the importance of noticing how sadomasochism may maintain a tie to the object by controlling it. The author offers a developmental speculation for the role reversibility typical of sadomasochistic manifestations. He closes with a comment on the role of sadomasochistic aims in adult sexual perversion.