role of sexual desire and sexual activity in dating relationships, The

Previous research indicates that adults believe that sexual desire and sexual activity play different roles in love relationships. Little research, however, has been conducted to document the presumed differences between these two aspects of human sexual response. The purpose of this study was to examine empirically (1) whether sexual desire and sexual activity co-occur in dating relationships; (2) whether desire is more strongly associated than activity with passionate love; and (3) whether desire and activity have different implications for relationship maintenance. The results revealed that sexual desire and sexual activity were moderately (but not significantly) related. In addition, and as expected, only sexual desire was related to passionate love. Sexual desire also was related to relational maintenance; the greater the desire for the partner, the less often participants thought about ending their current relationship, thought about beginning a new relationship, reported being unfaithful to their parmer, and felt attracted to others.

Many individuals believe that sexuality is associated with, and implicated in, several significant human life experiences and interpersonal events. They also appear to believe that different sexual responses (e.g., desire, activity, arousal) play particular roles in these interpersonal events and experiences. For example, both men and women clearly associate sexual desire - the subjective, motivational component of sexuality - with passionate love. The majority ofyoung adults spontaneously think of sexual desire when asked to define the state of "being in love" (Regan, Kocan, & Whitlock, 1998), and conclude that dating partners who do not desire each other sexually are not in love (Regan, 1998a). Conversely, sexual activity - the physical, behavioral aspect of sexuality - is perceived as particularly integral to a relationship's stage of development. For example, adolescents and adults view sexual intercourse between two people as more acceptable in later (e.g., engaged) than in earlier (e.g., first date) stages of relational progression (see Sprecher & McKinney, 1993).

Both of these sexual responses, to varying degrees, occur within romantic relationships. Interestingly, however, little research has been conducted to document the presumed differences between these two aspects of human sexuality The present study was designed to examine empirically the role played by sexual desire and sexual activity in romantic relationships. In particular, I wished to explore the association between these types of sexual response and several important interpersonal experiences (e.g., passionate and companionate love, satisfaction, infidelity) in a sample of young adults involved in dating relationships.

DISTINCTIONS BETWEEN SEXUAL DESIRE AND SEXUAL ACTIVITY

Sexual desire and sexual activity are presumed to have different implications for romantic relationships.

Association with passionate love. Sexual desire is assumed to be more closely associated than sexual activity with the experience of passionate love. Indeed, the notion that sexual desire is a distinguishing feature of passionate love is a common theme running through love discourse in such diverse disciplines as sexual pathology and medicine (e.g., H. Ellis, 1933/1963; Krafft-Ebing, 1886/1945), psychiatry and psychoanalysis (e,g., A. Ellis, 1954; Freud, 1912/1963; Reik, 1945), existential philosophy (e.g., Fromm, 1956), and theology (e.g., Lewis, 1960). In addition, contemporary social psychological discourse on love suggests that the experience of passionate love is strongly linked with sexual desire (see, for example, Regan & Berscheid, 2000).

Research on beliefs about passionate love using adult populations supports these theoretical contentions. For example, Regan and colleagues (1998) asked 120 undergraduate men and women to list in a free response format all of the features which they considered to be characteristic or prototypical of the state of passionate love ("being in love"). Out of 119 features spontaneously generated by the participants, sexual desire received the second highest frequency rating (65. 81/6). In addition, this feature was viewed as more important to the passionate love concept than such behavioral sexual events as kissing (cited by only 101/6 of participants), touching/holding (cited by 17.50/6), and sexual activity (cited by 25%).

In sum, although some adults may engage in intercourse and other sexual behaviors as a way of expressing their feelings of love for one another, sexual activity does not appear to be as integral a component of the passionate love experience as does sexual desire. Therefore, I expected that the amount of sexual desire - but not sexual activity - which men and women experience in their dating relationships would be positively correlated with their feelings of passionate love. A corollary assumption was that sexual desire would not be associated in any significant manner with feelings of companionate love or Wang (two other varieties of interpersonal attraction),