The Dynamics of Sexual Relationship Development

Abstract

Lisa Diamond’s paper in this volume raises a host of interesting questions and challenges both for relationship researchers and for those who study human sexuality. Whereas she discusses both how and why relationship researchers study sex, her main focus is on the “why” side of the question. In this paper, I’d like to pick up on the “how” side of the question and address new ways of conducting research on the psychology of sexual behaviour in relationship research. the present paper offers a sketch of a methodological approach that might be useful for research in this area, with a focus on the dynamics underlying sexual events and their meaning for the relationship partners. An “idiodynamic” approach (see Rosenzweig, 1958, 1986, 2003) to the content of sexual relationship development can be used in conjunction with modern Dynamic Systems Theory (DST; see Howe and Lewis, 2005) to offer a set of conceptual tools. It is argued that DST offers a coherent framework on which to centre an expanding notion of sexual scripts, a key concept in Diamond’s paper (2013). With a focus on understanding the dynamics underlying sexual events, the concept of sexual scripts can be both enriched and contextualized.