The "Problem of Number" Revisited: The Relative Contributions of Psychosocial, Experiential, and Evolutionary Factors to the Desired Number of Sexual Partners

Sex Roles

Volumn 64, Issue 9, 2011, Pages 644-657

  Tate, Chuck ^a,b  

^a CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^b SAN FRANCISCO STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

Bem Sex Role Inventory; Femininity; Gender identity; Problem of number; Sexual partners; Sexual strategies

Indexed keywords

EID: 79956314907     PISSN: 03600025     EISSN: 15732762     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1007/s11199-010-9774-6     Document Type: Article

References (56)

1. Archer, J. (1996). Sex differences in social behavior: Are the social role and evolutionary explanations compatible? American Psychologist, 51, 909-917.
2. Ashmore, R. D. (1990). Sex, gender, and the individual. In L. A. Pervin (Ed.), Handbook of personality theory and research (pp. 486-526). New York: Guilford.
3. Bem, S. L. (1974). The measurement of psychological androgyny. Journal of Consulting and Counseling Psychology, 42, 155-162.
4. Bem, S. L. (1981). Gender schema theory: A cognitive account of sex typing. Psychological Review, 88, 354-364.
5. Bem, S. L. (1985). Androgyny and gender schema theory: A conceptual and empirical integration. In T. B. Sonderegger (Ed.), Nebraska symposium on motivation: Psychology of gender (pp. 179-226). Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
6. Buss, D. M. (1989). Sex differences in human mate preferences: Evolutionary hypotheses tested in 37 cultures. Brain and Behavioral Sciences, 12, 1-14.
7. Buss, D. M. (1995). Psychological sex diffences: Origins through sexual selection. American Psychologist, 50, 164-168.
8. Buss, D. M. (1998). Sexual strategies theory: Historical origins and current status. The Journal of Sex Research, 35, 19-31.
9. Buss, D. M., Larsen, R. J., Westen, D., & Semmelroth, J. (1992). Sex differences in jealousy: Evolution, physiology, and psychology. Psychological Science, 3, 251-255.
10. Buss, D. M., & Schmitt, D. P. (1993). Sexual strategies theory: An evolutionary perspective on human mating. Psychological Review, 100, 204-232.
11. Buss, D. M., et al. (1990). International preferences in selecting mates: A study of 37 cultures. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 21, 5-47.
12. Clarnette, T., Sugita, Y., & Hutson, J. (1997). Genital anomalies in human and animal models reveal the mechanisms and hormones governing testicular descent. British Journal of Urology, 79, 99-112.
13. Constantinople, A. (1973). Masculinity-femininity: An exception to the famous dictum? Psychology Bulletin, 80, 389-407.
14. Eagly, A. H. (1987). Sex differences in social behavior: A social-role interpretation. Hillsdale: Erlbaum.
15. Eagly, A. H. (1997). Sex differences in social behavior: Comparing social role theory and evolutionary psychology. American Psychologist, 52, 1380-1383.
16. Eagly, A. H., & Wood, W. (1999). The origins of sex differences in human behavior: Evolved dispositions versus social roles. American Psychologist, 54, 408-423.
17. Eagly, A. H., Wood, W., & Diekman, A. (2000). Social role theory of sex differences and similarities: A current appraisal. In T. Eckes & H. M. Trautner (Eds.), The developmental social psychology of gender (pp. 123-174). Mahwah: Erlbaum.
18. Eagly, A. H., Wood, W., & Johannesen-Schmidt, M. C. (2004). Social role theory of sex differences and similarities: Implications for the partner preferences of women and men. In A. H. Eagly, A. Beall, & R. J. Sternberg (Eds.), The psychology of gender (2nd ed., pp. 269-295). New York: Guilford.
19. Edwards, V. J., & Spence, J. T. (1987). Gender-related traits, stereotypes, and schemata. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53, 146-154.
20. Friedman, J. H. (1991). Multivariate adaptive regression splines. Annals of Statistics, 19, 1-141.
21. Glick, P., & Fiske, S. T. (1996). The Ambivalent Sexism Inventory: Differentiating hostile and benevolent sexism. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70, 491-512.
22. Glick, P., & Fiske, S. T. (1997). Hostile and benevolent sexism: Measuring ambivalent sexist attitudes toward women. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 21, 119-135.
23. Glick, P., & Fiske, S. T. (1999). The Ambivalence toward Men Inventory: Differentiating hostile and benevolent beliefs about men. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 23, 519-536.
24. Gravholt, C., Juul, S., Naera, R., & Hansen, J. (1998). Morbidity in Turner syndrome. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 51, 147-158.
25. Hammond, W. P., Banks, K. H., & Mattis, J. S. (2006). Masculinity ideology and forgiveness of discrimination among African American men: Direct and interactive relationships. Sex Roles, 55, 679-692.
26. Harris, C. R. (2003). A review of sex differences in sexual jealousy, including self-report data, psychophysiological responses, interpersonal violence, and morbid jealousy. Personality & Social Psychology Review, 7, 102-128.
27. Hines, M., Ahmed, S., & Hughes, I. (2003). Psychological outcomes and gender-related development in complete androgen insensitivity syndrome. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 32, 93-101.
28. Hoffman, R. M., & Borders, L. D. (2001). Twenty-five years after the Bem Sex-Role Inventory: A reassessment and new issues regarding classification variability. Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development, 34, 39-55.
29. Imperato-McGinley, J., Peterson, R., Gautier, T., & Sturla, E. (1979). Androgens and the evolution of male gender identity among male pseudohermaphrodites with 5-alpha-reductase deficiency. New England Journal of Medicine, 300, 1233-1237.
30. Johannesen-Schmidt, M. C., & Eagly, A. H. (2002). Another look at sex differences in preferred mate characteristics: The effects of endorsing the traditional female gender role. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 26, 322-328.
31. Kasser, T., & Sharma, Y. S. (1999). Reproductive freedom, education equality, and females' preference for resource-acquisition characteristics in mates. Psychological Science, 10, 374-377.
32. Kenrick, D. T., Groth, G. E., Trost, M. R., & Sadalla, E. K. (1993). Integrating evolutionary and social exchange perspectives on relationships: Effects of gender, self appraisal, and involvement level on mate selection criteria. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64, 951-969.
33. Kruse, R., Guttenbach, M., Schartmann, B., Schubert, R., van der Ven, H., Schmid, M., et al. (1998). Genetic counseling in a patient with XXY/XXXY/XY mosaic Klinfelter's syndrome: Estimates of sex chromosome aberrations in sperm before intracytoplasmic sperm injection. Fertility and Sterility, 69, 482-485.
34. Laumann, E., Ganon, J., Michael, R., & Michael, S. (1994). The social organization of sexuality: Sexual practices in the United States. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
35. Leitenberg, H., & Henning, K. (1995). Sexual fantasy. Psychological Bulletin, 117, 469-496.
36. Levitan, M., & Montagu, A. (1977). A textbook of human genetics (2nd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.
37. Marks, M. J., & Fraley, R. C. (2005). Sexual double-standard: Fact or fiction? Sex Roles, 52, 175-186.
38. Markus, H., Crane, M., Bernstein, S., & Siladi, M. (1982). Self-schemas and gender. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 42, 38-50.
39. McGuire, W. J. (2004). A perspectivist approach to theory construction. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 8, 173-182.
40. Milhausen, R., & Herold, E. (1999). Does the sexual double standard still exist? Perceptions of university women. Journal of Sex Research, 36, 361-368.
41. Miller, L. C., Putcha-Bhagavatula, A., & Pedersen, W. C. (2002). Men's and women's mating preferences: Distinct evolutionary mechanisms? Current Directions in Psychological Science, 11, 88-93.
42. Myers, A. M., & Gonda, G. (1982). Empirical validation of the Bem-Sex Role Inventory. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 43, 304-318.
43. O'Sullivan, L. (1995). Less is more: The effects of sexual experience on judgements of men's and women's personality characteristics and relationship desirability. Sex Roles, 33, 159-181.
44. Pedersen, W. C., Miller, L. C., Putcha-Bhagavatula, A. D., & Yang, Y. (2002). Evolved sex differences in the number of partners desired? The long and the short of it. Psychological Science, 13, 157-161.
45. Rozenboom, W. W. (1997). Good science is abductive, not hypothetico-deductive. In L. L. Harlow, S. A. Mulaik, & J. H. Steiger (Eds.), What if there were no significance tests? (pp. 335-392). Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum.
46. Schmitt, D. P. (2003). Universal sex differences in desire for sexual variety: Tests from 52 nations, 6 continents, and 13 islands. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85, 85-104.
47. Spence, J. T. (1984). Masculinity, femininity, and gender-related traits: A conceptual analysis and critique of current research. In B. A. Maher & W. Maher (Eds.), Progress in Experimental Research (Vol. 13, pp. 2-97). New York: Academic.
48. Spence, J. T. (1985). Gender identity and its implications for the concepts of masculinity and femininity. In T. B. Sonderegger (Ed.), Nebraska symposium on motivation: Psychology of gender (pp. 59-96). Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
49. Spence, J. T., Helmreich, R. L., & Stapp, J. (1975). Ratings of self and peers on sex role attributes and their relations to self-esteem and concepts of masculinity and femininity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 32, 29-39.
50. Strasberg, D. S., & Holty, S. (2003). An experimental study of women's Internet personal ads. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 32, 253-260.
51. Symons, D. (1979). The evolution of human sexuality. New York: Oxford University Press.
52. Thomas, N. S., Ennis, S., Sharp, A. J., Durkie, M., Hassold, T. J., Collins, A. R., et al. (2001). Maternal sex chromosome non-disjunction: Evidence for X-chromosome specific risk factors. Human Molecular Genetics, 10, 243-250.
53. Trivers, R. (1972). Parental investment and sexual selection. In B. Campbell (Ed.), Sexual selection and the descent of man (pp. 136-179). Chicago: Aldine-Atherton.
54. Trivers, R. (1985). Social evolution. Menlo Park: Benjamin/Cummings.
55. Wood, W., & Eagly, A. H. (2002). A cross-cultural analysis of the behavior of men and women: Implications for the origins of sex differences. Psychological Bulletin, 128, 699-727.
56. Zucker, K., Bradley, S., Oliver, G., Blake, J., Fleming, S., & Head, A. (1996). Psychosexual development of women with congenital adrenal hyperplasia. Hormones and Behavior, 30, 300-318.