Emotional satisfaction and physical pleasure in sexual unions: Time horizon, sexual behavior, and sexual exclusivity

This paper uses data from the 1992 National Health and Social Life Survey to examine emotional satisfaction and physical pleasure from sex in intimate unions for adults in the U.S. Using perspectives from evolutionary biology and rational choice theory, we examine the effects of the following factors on emotional satisfaction and physical pleasure: time horizon expected for the relationship, sexual behavior within the relationship, and sexual exclusivity. We find a significant effect of measures for all 3 of these dimensions on emotional satisfaction with sex. For both men and women, time horizon and sexual exclusivity are more strongly tied to emotional satisfaction than they are to physical pleasure from sex, but sexual behavior has the same impact on emotional satisfaction as it does on physical pleasure. Key Words: gender differences, sexual satisfaction, sexual unions. The sexual revolution of the mid-to-late 1960s marked a change in sexual practices, increasing both the amount of sexual activity outside of marriage and the number of partners people have over their lifetimes. The opening shot in this revolution may have been the introduction and dissemination of the pill, but the legalization of abortion in 1972 and the Women's Movement were both allies in the war. Other dramatic social changes occurred in this period, both contributing to and propelled by changes in sexual behavior. The proportion of young adults who were never married increased as age at marriage rose. Divorce rates climbed dramatically beginning in about 1960, and the divorced remarried less quickly (Cherlin, 1992). Attitudes have tracked these changes in behavior; American adults have become more tolerant of both nonmarriage and divorce (Thornton, 1989) and more accepting of premarital sexual relations (Smith, 1994). Currently, more adults are unmarried than at any time since 1950 (Waite, 1995). About three quarters of unmarried men and about two thirds of unmarried women engage in some form of partnered sexual activity during the course of a year (Laumann, Gagnon, Michael, & Michaels, 1994). A growing number of the sexually active, unmarried individuals live with their partner in a socially recognized union that we have come to call cohabitation. In the early 1990s, almost one quarter of single adults in their mid-20s were cohabiting, with smaller but substantial and increasing proportions at progressively older ages (Cherlin, 1992; Waite). The married and cohabiting and many of the sexually active single share an important characteristic-they are in "sexually based primary relationships" (Scanzoni, Polonko, Teachman, & Thompson, 1989). In their landmark volume, The Social Organization of Sex, Laumann, Gagnon, Michael, and Michaels (1994) compared the physical pleasure from and emotional satisfaction with sex as reported by married, cohabiting, and single men and women. Laumann and colleagues found higher reported levels of emotional and physical pleasure for married people than for cohabiting or single people. The authors reported only the percent of respondents in each group who are extremely satisfied with sex. Consequently, we do not know the extent to which characteristics of the individual, partner, or relationship explain these differences. The present study seeks to address this issue. It also develops and tests hypotheses about differences in emotional satisfaction and physical pleasure among married, cohabiting, and sexually active single people. THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES ON SEXUAL SATISFACTION Previous theories of sexuality suggest that satisfaction in sexual relationships is based on biological, individual, and social factors; these factors structure both the preferences and behavior of individuals in these relationships. Perspectives on evolutionary biology suggest that men and women are "hardwired" differently in ways that affect their feelings about physical and emotional involvement and, to a lesser extent, their actual involvement. …