Date of Award

2016

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Cottrell, Catherine

Area of Concentration

Psychology

Abstract

With the increased prevalence of “hookup” culture, research has focused on why young people choose to hook up (or engage in a short term sexual relationship) and the outcomes of those relationships. A “hookup” or a short term relationship is a relationship including sexual intimacy in which there is no expectation of further encounters and no love or commitment. Although past studies have found multiple variables that affect these decisions and outcomes, few have examined the effects of the interaction between the perceived attitudes of society towards short term relationships and the attitudes and behaviors of the individual. The current study explores how incongruencies between society’s projected acceptability of women engaging in a “hookup” and women’s personal attitudes towards hooking up affect the likeliness to hook up and the satisfaction following the experience. I also examine how sociosexuality and autonomous motives are related to and moderate likeliness to hook up and satisfaction of the hook up experience. I found no effects of incongruency on satisfaction or likeliness to hook up. Sociosexuality had an effect on satisfaction and was related to likeliness to hook up, such that more unrestricted participants reported higher levels of satisfaction and were more likely to hookup than unrestricted participants. Autonomous motives were positively related to anticipated satisfaction of the short term relationship.

Download

Share

COinS