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Relationship Choices and Sexuality

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Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science
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Synonyms

Casual sex; Long-term mating strategy; Short-term mating strategy; Sociosexuality

Definition

Sociosexuality was originally designed to capture individual differences in people’s willingness to engage in sexual behavior outside a formally/informally committed relationship. Work on the construct has moved from simple one-dimensional models, to models that incorporate the behavioral, attitudinal, and behavioral intention aspects of motivations to engage in casual sex, to, finally, encompassing an expansive model that describes a two-dimensional coordinate system composed of short-term mating interest and long-term mating interest. This model is especially useful in examining the emergent nature of the variety of apparent relationships that characterize the sexual landscape today.

Introduction

Since Kinsey (circa 1953), it has been clear that there is a wide variety of sexual behaviors men and women engage in. Despite this, there is a pervasive myth of heterosexual monogamy in...

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References

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Correspondence to Peter K. Jonason .

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Jonason, P.K. (2016). Relationship Choices and Sexuality. In: Weekes-Shackelford, V., Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3623-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3623-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

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