Laurie L. Cohen and Lance R. Shotland are the authors of the article, “ Timing of First Sexual Intercourse in a Relationship: Expectations, Experiences, and Perceptions of Others.” The article was published in "The Journal of Sex Research," volume 33, issue number four. The researchers were investigating the expectations about when sexual intercourse would first occur within different types of relationships.
The researchers used questionnaires to gather information on the research topic. It is evident that the researchers used questionnaires as indicated in the article under the sub-topic, "method." Questionnaires are the best research method in this kind of research. A 17-page questionnaire in this research was large enough to gather a lot of information from the sample. A questionnaire with both open and closed-ended questions would gather facts and opinions from the participants, thus a good method for this kind of research. However, if the study used a different research method, such as interviewing the participants, the results would be different.
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There were 242 college students in the study, of which 138 were females, and 104 were males. The study's primary aim was to assess when, within relationships, participants first expect sexual intercourse to occur. Additionally, the researchers wanted to compare the actual experiences to the participants’ expectations. A research outcome, which was consistent with the hypothesis is that generally, men and women tend to report different expectations on when within relationships sexual intercourse will occur. For instance, the research found that in relationships characterized by attraction, with and without emotional closeness, women tend to expect sex after eight to nine weeks later, while men expect sex four to five weeks of dating. Thus, the researchers concluded that men tend to become sexual considerably sooner than women.
One of the limitations of the current study was in the range of sexual behaviors, whereby the researchers only inquired on the sexual intercourse, and various stages of behavior generally referred to as petting. For instance, the research did not include questions about the timing of oral sex. Thus, it is recommended for future researchers to examine patterns of expectations, experiences, and beliefs about others on matters of oral sex. Another limitation lay on the participants, whereby most were heterosexual, first-year undergraduates, introductory psychology students, thus recommending a more ethnically diverse population in the future.
One of the challenges in the current research that the researchers recommended for future authors is to assess to what extent men’s and women’s expectations are met, which can be analyzed with couple’s responses. Another challenge is assessing whether the pluralistic ignorance effect is replicated when people are asked to estimate the sexual expectations of people described as increasingly similar to themselves in terms of age and year in school.
Reference
Cohen, L. & Shotland, L. (1996). Timing of First Sexual Intercourse in a Relationship: Expectations, Experiences, and Perceptions of Others. The Journal of Sex Research, 33(4), 291-296.
