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Social Psychology Quarterly.
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JAMESW. BALKWELL
Universityof Georgia
andBarbaraKarcher,whoassistedthethirdauthor
in checking
ofourcodingprocedures.
thereliability
I Meanings
Deto Ira E. Robinson,
Addressall communications
as
are notto be equatedwithattitudes
partmentof Sociology, Universityof Georgia, thelatterare understood
by mostsocial psycholoAthens,GA 30602.
gists;however,it shouldbe notedthatsomeofthe
253
254
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
QUARTERLY
between
The data we have showno difference
groupsofmales.
and inexperienced
theexperienced
Writerssuchas Gagnon& Simon(1970),however,
proposedresolutionsof the "attitudesversusac- wouldsurelynotacceptthisas a disconfirmation
of
tions" controversy
are strongly
processimplicit
suggestiveof the thehypothesis,
becausethelearning
would be expectedto be much
meaning-behavior
relationship
as we conceive it. in the hypothesis
The modelof Fishbein& Azjen(1975)is especially moregradualthanthatwhichproducesmovement
suggestive
of theconceptionsketchedhere.For an towardsbody-centered
meaningsfor females.An
informative
reviewof the attitude-behavior
litera- adequatetestwouldrequirea sampleof somewhat
ture,see Schuman& Johnson(1976).
oldermales.
255
RESULTS
a courtship
processleadingto marriage,
indicating
a long-term
itself,or indicating
marriage
indicating
was thatmalesand
The firsthypothesis
Generally,this
social and economiccommitment.
withrespectto the meanincludeswordsthatseemto implya perma- femalesdiffer
category
between ingstheyhave forsexualconcepts,such
nentor relatively
relationship
permanent
involved.Examples:beingengaged, as "sex," "intercourse,"and "petting."
theindividuals
husband,wife,seriousrelationship.
marriage,
Males are expectedto be more bodyLove: Wordsincludedare thesingleword"love"
and itsderivatives.
Examples:love,loving,beingin centeredthan femalesin the meanings
theyhold.The firstrowofTable 1 reports
love, loved,lovingeach other.
256
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
1 +1 +1+
+1
+I +I + +I
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,uz <,,^
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0
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U.t
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oo
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relationshipsbetween gender(male or
female) and body-centeredresponses
(presentor absent)to each of the three
stimuluswords.As can be seen, the relationship
for"sex" is substantial,
butno
relationship
is evidentfor"intercourse"
or "petting."The otherpartof the hypothesisis thatfemalesareexpectedtobe
moreperson-centered,
moreorientedto
marriage-commitment,
and moreoriented
to loveinthemeanings
theyattachto sexual concepts.Rowstwo,three,andfourof
Table 1 reporttheresultspertaining
tothis
partof thehypothesis.
this
On thewhole,theevidencesupports
the single
secondpartof the hypothesis,
exceptionhavingto do withthecategory
of meaning, "marriage-commitment,"
and the stimulusword, "petting."This
stimulus
wordwas clearlytheleastsensitive of the threein revealinggenderdifferences.Indeed, were "petting"to be
all theobservedcorrelations
disregarded,
and
wouldbe in theexpecteddirections,
seven out of eightwouldbe statistically
significant.
Evidently,forboth men and
women,petting
connotespleasurebutnot
long-term
commitment.
The second hypothesiswas that the
meaningsfor sexual concepts held by
femaleswithoutsexual experiencewill
differfromthose held by femaleswith
sexualexperience.Ofthetwelvepertinent
relationships,
onlytwo were statistically
those withexperiencewere
significant:
more likelyto give person-centered
responses to the concept, "intercourse,"
and thosewithoutexperienceweremore
relikelyto give marriage-commitment
sponsesto theconcept,"intercourse."
Atthispoint,we wishto considera post
hoc variantof this second hypothesis,
which,as was statedabove,receiveslittle
supportfromthe data. Experiencewith
sexual intercourseapparentlydoes not
relateto whether
or nota collegewoman
forsexual
willhave love-related
meanings
to
concepts,nordoes itrelateconsistently
the presence or absence of marriagecommitment
meanings.Nevertheless,it
relatetotheprimacyoftheoneover
might
the other.Recall that the responsesto
stimuluswords were sequences of five
in theorderin whichthey
words,written
A "response
occurredto therespondent.
257
G)
00
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eqO
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00
CZ
ri'
AND CONCLUSION
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258
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
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REFERENCES
B.
Bernstein,
approachto socializa1970 "A sociolinguistic
tion." Pp. 25-61 in FrederickWilliams
(ed.), Language and Poverty.Chicago:
Markam.
W. W.
Ehrmann,
1965 "Being in love, goingsteady,and sexual
intimacy."Pp. 3-16 in HymanRodman
(ed.), Marriage,Family,and Society.New
York:RandomHouse.
datingbehavior."Pp. 215-30
1968 "Premarital
inMarvinB. Sussman(ed.), Sourcebookin
Marriage and the Family. Boston:
Houghton-Mifflin.
Fishbein,M., & I. Azjen
and Behavior:
Intention,
1975 Belief,Attitude,