Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
943618 | Evolution and Human Behavior | 2007 | 10 Pages |
Recent theoretical perspectives concerning the structure of variation in human mating have focused less on conceptualizations of alternate mating strategies and more on the evolution of a conditional strategy. Empirical evidence suggests that this conditional strategy may involve the simultaneous pursuit of long-term and short-term mating tactics. Despite these developments, empirical measurement has proceeded using the Sociosexual Orientation Inventory (SOI), which measures restricted and unrestricted mating orientations along a single bipolar continuum. To fully capture the pluralistic nature of human mating, we suggest that a multidimensional empirical measure is required. To test our hypothesis, we subjected an expanded version of the SOI, which included items measuring psychological orientation toward short-term mating and long-term mating, to principal components analysis. A three-factor structure representing short-term mating orientation, long-term mating orientation, and previous sexual behavior emerged. In subsequent analyses, we demonstrate that our newly developed long-term and short-term dimensions (a) are largely independent and (b) correlate differentially with other theoretically relevant variables.