PERSONALITY AND SEXUALITY: CORRELATES BETWEEN PERSONALITY TRAITS ON THE NEO-PI-R AND TWO MEASURES OF SEXUAL ATTITUDES AND PRACTICES Thesis Submitted to The College of Arts and Science of the UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for The Degree Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology by William John Bobowicz Jr. UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON Dayton, Ohio October 1997 at ur V'»i );,«• APPROVED BY: Elizabeth M. Corbitt, PhD. Chairperson, Thesis Committee Greg Culvers, Ph.D. Committee Member Rog^N. Reeb, PhD. Committee Member CONCURRANCE: ------------------------------------------------ Thomas F. Eggemier, Ph.D. Chairperson, Psychology Department ii ABSTRACT PERSONALITY AND SEXUALITY: CORRELATES BETWEEN PERSONALITY TRAITS ON THE NEO-PI-R AND TWO MEASURES OF SEXUAL ATTITUDES AND PRACTICES Name: Bobowicz Jr., William, John University of Dayton, 1997 Advisor: Dr. Elizabeth M. Corbitt The relationship between personality traits on the NEO Personality Inventory-Revised and sexual attitudes and practices reported on the Multidimensional Sexuality Questionnaire and the Bobowicz Sex Inventory were investigated. Neuroticism (N), Extraversion (E), Openness to Experience (O) and Agreeableness (A) were hypothesized to have a combined positive relationship with riskiness for acquiring HIV. Conscientiousness (C) was hypothesized to have a negative correlation with risk for acquiring HIV. Likewise, E, O and A were predicted to have a combined positive relationship with internal sexual locus of control; N was predicted to have a positive correlation with the fear of engaging in sexual encounters; and A was predicted to have a negative correlation with sexual assertiveness. While the multiple regression of N, E, O, and A was significant, not all of the correlations for the individual domains resulted in their hypothesized directions. The predictions for C with risk for acquiring HIV, and E, O and A with sexual locus of control were not significant. The predictions for N with fear of sexual relationships and A with sexual assertiveness were significant. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to thank Dr. Elizabeth Corbitt, my advisor, for her invaluable time, knowledge and effort in guiding me through this research venture. Her services lightened the load on an extremely grueling task. I would also like to thank the other members of my committee, Dr. Greg Elvers and Dr. Roger Reeb, for their time, questions and evaluation of this project. Likewise, I wish to thank Dr. David Biers for his statistical knowledge and computer expertise. Finally, I wish to thank my parents for all that they have done to bring me to this point, and to my lover, Chuck Zimmerle, whose love and support had been with me through the toughest times in this work. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT................................................................................................................................. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS....................................................................................................... iv LIST OF TABLES................................................................................................................... vii CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION.............................................................................................. 1 Personality and Human Sexuality The Five-Factor Model of Personality Hypotheses II. METHOD..........................................................................................................11 Participants Materials Procedure Analyses III. RESULTS.........................................................................................................15 IV. DISCUSSION..................................................................................................21 Overview Personality Traits and HIV Risk The Relationship Between Personality Traits and Sexual Attitudes Post Hoc Exploratory Analyses Conclusion and Recommendations v TABLE OF CONTENTS (continued) APPENDICES Appendix A............................................................................... 29 Appendix B................................................. 30 Appendix C................................................................................................................31 Appendix D................................................................................................................32 Appendix E................................................................................................................33 Appendix F.................................................................... ...........................................34 Appendix G...................................................................................... 37 Appendix H................................................................................................................38 Appendix I..................................... 42 REFERENCES............................................................................................................................44 vi LIST OF TABLES 1. Descriptive Statistics.............................................................................................................18 2. Summary of the Primary Analyses.......................................................................................19 3. Exploratory Bivariate Correlations of Sexual Orientation and Sex with Personality and Sexual Behavior and Attitudes........................................................20 vii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Human sexuality has been an area of interest for most human societies throughout the millennia. While much of the interest in sexuality has involved practical application and enjoyment of sexual knowledge, scientific researchers have also investigated more objectively the human ability to reproduce. Researchers have studied everything from the frequency of particular behaviors to why we are attracted to certain individuals. However, little research has been done to see if there is a relationship between an individual’s personality traits, and the attitudes one has toward sexuality, as well as one’s sexual behavior. Likewise, in this age where the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and other infectious diseases are acquired through risky sexual behavior, there has been virtually no research on the relationship between personality traits and risky sexual practices. The goals of the current study are to provide additional research to the area of personality and sexuality; to contribute further to the literature on the Five-Factor model of personality; and to attempt a first step toward investigating the relationship between personality traits and behaviors that lead to the risk of HIV infection. Personality and Human Sexuality Of all of the research that has been conducted to observe whether there is a relationship between sexual behaviors, sexual attitudes, and personality traits, perhaps the most classic and influential study is Eysenck’s Sex and Personality (1976). In this study, 423 male and 379 female college students (ages 18 to 22) were administered two self-report inventories under completely anonymous conditions. The first inventory 1 2 measured the students’ sexual attitudes and their sexual behaviors. It was constructed using a few already existing questionnaires, with a particular emphasis placed on a questionnaire designed by Thome (1966). The second inventory measured the students’ personality traits based on Eysenck’s model of personality, which consists of three major dimensions: E (extraversion; outgoing and gregarious), N (neuroticism; anxiety, depression, and obsessive tendencies) and P (psychoticism; socially unacceptable thoughts and behaviors, and an inability to control impulses). There was also an L (lie) dimension that acted as a validity scale for the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ; Eysenck & Eysenck, 1975). The scales on the questionnaires were intercorrelated by product-moment correlation. The results demonstrated a relationship between a personality type and particular sexual attitudes and behaviors. Under the N dimension, the results indicated that high N scorers tended to have high feelings of guilt and low satisfaction regarding sexual activity. “Sexual behavior is seen as troublesome and disgusting, and the high N scorer stresses his inability to contact members of the other sex; in spite of all this he has strong sexual drives which he finds it difficult to control. Homosexuality is a problem” (Eysenck, 1976, p. 56). Those who scored high on the E scale tended to be less nervous and more promiscuous with sexual experiences, than the low E scorer (introvert). Likewise, the high E scorer was not against homosexuality; it just did not pose any attraction for the high E heterosexual scorer. According to Eysenck, the E scale was thus viewed as the “non-pathological” scale of sexual adjustment in that either extreme led to relatively healthy ways of behaving sexually. The extrovert had more freedom and less guilt in sexual contact, whereas the introvert upheld fidelity in relationships and virginity as his/her strengths. Both strengths can be healthy, depending on how they combine with the other two scales. Finally on the P dimension, high P scorers were characterized by feeling deprived of sexual contact; they were not satisfied with their sex lives; they felt 3 hostility toward their sex partners; and they tended to suffer from “perverted” thoughts which they did not wish to possess. In a study similar to Eysenck’s, Barnes, Malamuth, and Check (1984) investigated