Earlier in this chapter, we discussed gender differences in initiating sexual activity in heterosexual relationships: men often do more of the initiating. Does this mean that les­bians may be uncomfortable initiating sex or that gay men never have problems doing so? According to a classic study done by Blumstein & Schwartz (1983), this may be […]

Although we have been discussing both gay and straight relationships throughout this chapter, in many ways, gay and lesbian relationships have changed more than hetero­sexual relationships over the last few decades. First, these relationships came out of thecloset in the 1960s and 1970s, when there was a blossoming of a gay subculture. Then, the advent […]

There are still a few industrialized cultures in which arranged marriages take place. ^arranged marriage In Iran all marriages are arranged, even those that are based on love (Drew, 2004). A Mamage tlaat is arnang^ by parent or rela­ tives and is often not based on love. young man will visit the home of the […]

f you’re in a relationship, do you expect monogamy from your partner? Most of us would an­swer this question with a resounding "YES"! We live in a society that expects monogamy from our sexual partners. Serial monogamy, a form of monogamy in which partners have only one sexual partner at any one time, is common […]

Some married couples open up their relationships and encourage their partners to have extramarital affairs or to bring other partners into their marital beds, believing that sex­ual variety and experience enhance their own sexual life. This has been referred to as SEX in Real Life

All societies regulate sexual behavior and use marriage as a means to control the be­havior of their members to some degree. Our society is one of the few that have tradi­tionally forbidden sexual contact outside of marriage; research estimates that less than 5% of all societies are as strict about forbidding extramarital intercourse as ours […]

In 2003, older men were more likely than older women to be married. This is because women live longer than men and widowhood is more common among older women. Three-quarters of men between the ages of 65 to 74 were married in 2003, whereas only one-half of women in the same age group were married […]

Sexuality is an essential part of most marriages. Many young people see marriage as an unproblematic feast of sexual pleasure; after all, you have your partner there all the time, and you just make love anytime you want to. (Figure 9.2 illustrates frequency of sex in marriage as compared to other types of relationships.) But […]

ohn Gottman, a renowned marriage and family therapist, claims that he can predict whether a couple’s marriage will succeed or fail from watch­ing and listening to them for just 5 minutes (Gottman, 1999) . And 91% of the time, he’s right. Gottman and his colleagues believe that in order for marriages to succeed, they need […]