We discovered that people’s sexual behavior – both men’s and women’s – could be described in terms of three distinct traits. We call them life satisfaction, sensuality, and eroticism.

To see how much life satisfaction a person had, we asked such questions as: Are you happy or unhappy about your sex life? About your life in general? Your state of being single or married? The way your body looks? How easy is it for you to talk to your partner about sex? How good are you as a lover? How often do you have intercourse?

We then discovered that if you answer that you are happy about your life in general, you are most likely to answer that you are happy with your sex life, your marital status, and the way your body looks. You are also more likely to be at ease with sex talk, be proud of your lovemaking, and say that you have intercourse frequently. You are essentially a happy, satisfied person. You therefore have a high life satisfaction trait.

If you say you are unhappy with life in general, then all of your answers to these questions will likely be negative. Unhappy and unsatisfied, you have a low life satisfaction trait.

To measure the trait called sensuality, we asked questions such as, Are you aroused or repulsed by kissing? Hands on breasts? Mouth to breasts? Hugging? Tongue kissing? Genital touching?

Again, people who are aroused by one of these activities are likely to be aroused by the rest. They like cuddling, fondling, nestling. Many people were not aroused by such sensual behavior, which we usually call foreplay. They scored low on sensuality.

The eroticism trait comes from answers to such questions as, Are you aroused by pornography? By erotic fantasy? By mouth to genital contact? By anal sex? Do you have a strong sex drive? Is sex important to you? Do you frequently masturbate?

If you answer yes to such questions, you have a high degree of the erotic trait; answer no and you have low eroticism.

Here’s an important point: You may score high on one trait, low on the other two; or high on two, low on the third, and so on. In fact, eight different combinations of the three traits are possible; hence, the eight sexual styles.

*116/266/5*

GENERAL HEALTH