The influence of culture and gender on sexual self-schemas and satisfaction in romantic relationships

Abstract

Recently, scholars have become interested in the impact of culture on people's attitudes, emotions, and behavior. In this study, it was predicted that culture and gender would have an impact on people's sexual self-schemas – especially, women's self-schemas. It was also predicted that couples that verified one another's sexual self-schemas would be more satisfied than those couples that did not. Contrary to the predictions, race did not prove to be a good predictor of either women's or men's sexual self-schemas. However, self-construal was a significant predictor of women's sexual self-schemas. Again, contrary to prediction, whether or not couples verified one another's sexual self-schemas did not appear to be an important predictor of either sexual or general relationship satisfaction. Some unexpected findings were found, however. Women who perceived their partners to be passionate and men who perceived their partners to be romantic were more sexually and generally satisfied in their relationships than were their peers. Men were also less satisfied if they viewed their partners as more shy/embarrassed sexually. These data demonstrate that culture (as indicated by self-construal) may influence how women see themselves sexually and that perception (for both men and women) of their partner's sense of sexual self are important predictors of sexual and relationship satisfaction.