Abstract
BackgroundPrevious studies have shown that personality characteristics affect sexual functioning. The aim of this exploratory study was to assess and describe the relationship between global personality traits and the stereotypical femininity and masculinity levels with the broad aspects of sexual behaviours and attitudes in the group of 97 heterosexual young adult men aged 19–39 and living in Poland.MethodsThe ‘Big Five’ personality traits were measured with the NEO-FFI questionnaire; stereotypical femininity and masculinity with the Bem sex role inventory (BSRI); sexual disorders with the International index of erectile function (IIEF); socio-epidemiological data, sexual behaviours and attitudes towards sexuality with a self-constructed questionnaire.ResultsWe identified weak to moderate associations with particular sexual behaviours and attitudes. Neuroticism correlated positively with lower sexual satisfaction, self-acceptance and more negative attitudes towards sexuality; extraversion with higher desire, frequency of sexual intercourses, their diversity, sexual satisfaction, masculinity level and lower report of erectile problems; openness to experience with better quality of partnership, more positive attitudes towards sexual activity and masculinity level; conscientiousness with later sexual initiation age, more frequent and diverse sexual behaviours (but lower interest in masturbation and coitus interruptus), overall sexual satisfaction, satisfaction with one’s body and femininity level; agreeableness with a better quality of relationship with a partner, satisfaction from body, lower number of previous partners and more frequent sexual encounters (but less masturbation). Stereotypical masculinity, more so than femininity, was related to a wide range of positive aspects of sexuality.ConclusionsThe Big Five personality traits and stereotypical femininity/masculinity dimensions were found to have a noticeable, but weak to moderate influence on sexual behaviour in young adult males.
Highlights
Previous studies have shown that personality characteristics affect sexual functioning
It proves that the studied sample presented a great individual diversity of these measures
Hitherto findings revealed that Neuroticism was associated with higher sexual excitement, sexual curiosity, sexual guilt [3], higher sexual anxiety, sexual depression, sexual self-monitoring, lower sexual esteem and sexual assertiveness [4], lower sexual satisfaction [7], higher chance of infidelity in relationship [20], marital
Summary
Previous studies have shown that personality characteristics affect sexual functioning. The aim of this exploratory study was to assess and describe the relationship between global personality traits and the stereotypical femininity and masculinity levels with the broad aspects of sexual behaviours and attitudes in the group of 97 hetero‐ sexual young adult men aged 19–39 and living in Poland. The quest for exploring the relationship between traits that describe human personality and sexual expression was initiated by Eysenck [3]. He used his 3-factor model (EPQ) to examine extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism and describe patterns of sexual activity. According to Buss [11], the Big Five may capture some important features that represent individual differences in evolutionary strategies, which could be significantly related to engaging in specific sexual behaviours
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