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 relation-ships 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 within 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 richness and casual sexual experience without tendency to non-coital sexual play. The results are discussed in the context of the evolutionary theories of behavior.Cilj ovog istrazivanja je ispitivanje strukture i intenziteta povezanosti dimenzija seksualnog ponasanja i osobina licnosti u kontekstu polnog dimorfizma. Istrazivanje je sprovedeno na uzorku od 233 ispitanika, oba pola i prosecne starosti od 29,34 godine. Dimenzije seksualnog ponasanja su merene Upit-nikom o seksualnom ponasanju, a osobine licnosti upitnicima Big Five Inventory i kracom formom upitnika Delta 10. Rezultati nagovestavaju da vaznost licnosti u razumevanju seksualnog ponasanja ljudi ne zaostaje za onom koja potice iz polnog dimorfizma. Utvrdjeno je da je licnost znacajan prediktor gotovo svih dimenzija seksualnog ponasanja, i to nezavisno od pola, a u slucaju sklonosti neobaveznom seksu nadjen je snazan efekat interakcije Savesnosti i pola. Priroda povezanosti dimenzija seksualnog ponasanja i osobina licnosti je vrlo slicna kod muskaraca i zena. Naime, ono sto obicno karakterisemo kao adaptirano licnosno funkcionisanje preslikava se u prostor seksualnog ponasanja u bogato seksualno iskustvo praceno snizenim nivoom seksualnog fantaziranja i snizenom sklonoscu parafilijama. Mala, ali vazna razlika je u tome sto se kod muskaraca ovakav profil povezuje sa pojacanom sklonoscu ka neobaveznom seksu, a kod zena sa odsustvom te sklonosti. Kod zena se jos izdvaja i relacija koja upucuje da psihopatska struktura licnosti ima seksualni stil koji podrazumeva bogato i neobavezno seksualno iskustvo, bez potrebe za nekoitalnom seksualnom igrom. Rezultati su diskutovani u kontekstu evolucionistickih teorija ponasanja.