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Baumeister & Tice Chapter 2

Baumeister & Tice Chapter 2. How Much Sex Is Going On?. Sexual Frequency. How many sexual partners have you had? How many would you like to have? How many partners do most people have? Class 2003: M = 5.48 Current class: M = 3.29. Sexual Frequency. Important information

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Baumeister & Tice Chapter 2

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  1. Baumeister & Tice Chapter 2 How Much Sex Is Going On?

  2. Sexual Frequency • How many sexual partners have you had? • How many would you like to have? • How many partners do most people have? • Class 2003: M = 5.48 • Current class: M = 3.29

  3. Sexual Frequency • Important information • Need to understand ourselves, relative standing • Want to be relatively normal • Socially normal (like everyone else) • Sexuality key aspect of how we see ourselves • Frequency, partners, preferences • Hard to evaluate our own sexuality (what is normal?)

  4. Social Comparison Theory (Festinger) • Need to evaluate our status/normality • Attitudes, behaviors, preferences (SEX) • Evaluate by comparing ourselves with others • How many sex partners should I have? • 1? 5? 50? • Feelings about self based on results of comparisons

  5. Sexual Comparison • Difficult • Sex is private • Shifting standards of ‘normal’ • Victorian era women thought frigid • Homosexuality thought to be a ‘disease’ until 1970s • Sexual revolution in 1970s v. virginity pacts in 2000 • Great confusion/interest about what is ‘normal’ • Frequency & partners

  6. How Many Partners? Janus Report NHSLS Median 19 3 Women w/ > 10 partners 55% 9% Elderly had sex > 1/week 70% 7% • Why the difference? • Sampling, volunteer bias • NHSLS ~best

  7. Class Data 03 (N = 103, Female = 71) FemalesMales Miller & Fishkin (1997) # desired (M) 2.7 64 # desired (Mdn) 1 1 ----------------------Class results---------------------- # partners (M) 5.54 (NHSLS = 2) 5.31(NHSLS = 6) # partners (Mdn) 4.5 2 # desired (M) 6.83a 83.04a # desired (Mdn) 4 5.5 ap< .01

  8. Class Data 04 (N = 93, Female = 71) FemalesMales Miller & Fishkin (1997) # desired (M) 2.7 64 # desired (Mdn) 1 1 ----------------------Class results---------------------- # partners (M) 4.18 (NHSLS = 2) 2.95(NHSLS = 6) # partners (Mdn) 2.0 2 # desired (M) 4.19a 9.14a # desired (Mdn) 4.0 5.0 ap< .05

  9. Class Data 03 (N = 103, Female = 71) FemalesMales Too many (M) 23.55a 21,025a Too many (Mdn) 11 10.5 Too few (M) 1.03† 3.25† Too few (Mdn) 0 1 • †p< .08, ap< .01

  10. Class Data 04 (N = 93, Female = 71) FemalesMales Too many (M) 16.61a 29.74a Too many (Mdn) 10 2.0 Too few (M) 1.18 2.05 Too few (Mdn) 0.0 1.0 • †p< .05

  11. Mean v. Median • Extreme scores impact mean NOT median • Most men & women desire similar number of partners (1) • Minority of men want many partners • Inflates mean for men • Example: 5 men & 5 women • Men: 1, 1, 1, 1, 100 (M = 20.8) • Women: 1, 1, 1, 1, 1 (M = 1.0)

  12. Gender Difference • Men report more sexual partners (6 v. 2) • Mathematically impossible (females~male in pop) • 10 men and 10 women • All men report 10 partners all women have to also • Assuming only heterosexual sex • Why?

  13. Gender Difference • 1. Homosexuality ~No • Lesbian sex also occurs and counter-acts the difference • Not enough homosexual sex • 9% men ever had homosexual sex (NHSLS) • 5% had homosexual sex > = 1 time since age 18 (NHSLS) • 3% exclusively homosexual (NHSLS) • Average man needs to have 5 male partners (NOPE!)

  14. Gender Difference • 2. Uncounted (female) prostitutes ~No • Frequency would show up for males not for females • Einon (1994) • Number of prostitutes not counted > most liberal estimates of existing prostitutes • Philis & Gromkp (1985) • No evidence that prostitutes or promiscuous women caused the gender difference

  15. Gender Difference • 3. Social Desirability ~ No • Men might exaggerate, women might underreport • Men want more partners than do women • NHSLS concluded little confabulation • Several checks failed to reveal lying • Responses consistent • Honest but mistaken?

  16. Gender Difference • 4. Differential criteria ~Yes • Personal criteria used to maintain positive self-perception • Standards favor many partners for men, few for women • Men want more partners than do women • Men use more liberal standards & count more than do women

  17. Gender Difference FemalesMales • Hand-Genital 12.2% 19.2% • Oral-genital 37.7% 43.9% • JAMA (1999)

  18. Gender Difference • 5. Selective forgetting ~ Yes • Memory bias for self-esteem-boosting experiences • Forget experiences that reflect poorly on us • May forget bad sexual experiences • Downey et al. (1995) found people ‘forgot’ risky sex • ANY sex may boost male self-esteem (conquest) • Most sex may reduce female self-esteem (lapse in judgement) • Selective forgetting by women

  19. Gender Difference • 6. Computation ~Yes • Different computation strategies are used • Men estimate, tending to round up which inflates their number • Women count

  20. Conclusions • Socially compare to evaluate our own sexuality • Difficult to do and reveals social/cultural influence on our sexuality • Attitudes, preferences for number of partners • Gender difference not due to different behaviors • Men & women report and desire similar sexual lives • Gender difference likely due to methodology • Self-reports not always reliable

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