Gender Differences in Responses to Discrepancies in Desired Level of Sexual Intimacy

Summary

The purpose of the current study was to compare reports of discrepancies in the desired level of sexual intimacy in which a man was the reluctant dating partner and those in which a woman was the reluctant dating partner. To obtain information about this type of dating interaction, 139 male and 159 female unmarried heterosexual students completed the Sexual Situation Questionnaire (O'Sullivan & Byers, 1993), which provided information about a situation in which they or their partner refused a sexual advance. A higher percentage of respondents reported having had a disagreement characterized by a reluctant female than a reluctant male in the year preceding the study. However, few differences were noted in the descriptions of male-reluctant and female-reluctant disagreements, suggesting that men and women share a common script. Differences of these descriptions typically constituted actor-observer differences, rather that differences between the two types of disagreement interactions. Implications for examining men'S and women'S shared experiences of discrepancies in desired sexual intimacy are discussed.