1. Sexual practices are very hard to study, due to the strong societal norms that go along with them. What are the best ways to get around this inherent problem?

2. In the Willets paper, behaviors such as extradyadic and extramarital infidelity as well as more diverse sexual behaviors correlate with higher education attainment. Why do you think these correlations exist? Essentially, what reasons would you give to explain these findings?

3. Willetts et al. mention that a moderate level of parental control is associated with a later age at the start of sexual intercourse, over high or low levels of parental control. Does this finding make logical sense, and what does it say about parenting techniques?

4. Willetts et al. report that cohabitation is generally considered a “sexier living arrangement” than being married. Why?

5. Willetts et al. discusses relationship experience in adolescents. Are there any negatives to waiting longer to obtain relationship experience?

6. Willetts et al. hypothesize that the advent of the pill in the 1960’s was a contributor to increased sexual frequency in society. Was the creation of the pill actually a good thing for women, or, based on their sexual desires as described by evolutionary theory, has it created a sexual environment that is more compatible with males’ needs?

7. Buss talks about numerous techniques that men use to gain “sexual access with a variety of partners.” With what appears to be such a strong desire for sexual variety and lower standards for short-term mates, why do men ever go into long-term relationships?

8. Buss describes the sexual frequencies of homosexual partnerships as a way to study the different sexual desires between genders. What is he implicitly stating about the biological, or non-biological, basis of homosexuality based on the findings he mentions?

9. Buss describes the idea of “special friendships” as use for male protection. What does this theory suggest about the feasibility of platonic cross-sex friendships? Does it make them implausible if women are actually using male friends as protection?

10. Do the general findings in the college hookup’s paper make sense in terms of evolutionary theory from the Buss chapter? Why or why not?

11. Smith (2007) finds that interaction autonomy, competence, and relatedness are significant predictors of more positive sexual outcomes. While solid results, how can these findings potentially be used to help people in everyday life?

12. What do you think Birnbaum and Gillath would find it they sampled the same sexual subgoals of older age individuals?

13. Do you think that the findings for involuntary celibacy would change if the author’s accounted for gender differences? If so, in what ways would they differ?