Sexual Dimensions of Person Description: Beyond or Subsumed by the Big Five?

This research was designed to accomplish five goals: (1) to explore the sexual dimensions of person description, (2) to evaluate the psychometric properties of scales derived from the lexicon of sexuality, (3) to detail the links between the sexual lexicon and the five dimensions uncovered by previous lexical researchers, (4) to examine whether additional dimensions beyond the Big Five are needed to incorporate the sexual lexicon, and (5) to discover whether sex differences exist along lexical sexuality dimensions. We found seven sexual dimensions of person description—Sexual Attractiveness, Relationship Exclusivity, Gender Orientation, Sexual Restraint, Erotophilic Disposition, Emotional Investment, and Sexual Orientation—based on self-ratings of 67 sexuality adjectives made by women (n 5 217) and men (n 5 150) and on observer-ratings of the opposite sex (n 5 207). The seven sexuality factor scales displayed moderate to high levels construct validity and were modestly correlated with the Big Five. However, we argue that the sexuality factors are best viewed as a reapportionment of general personality variation along seven sex-specific and evolution-relevant dimensions of individual differences. Finally, significant sex differences existed on four of the seven sexuality factors. Discussion focused on the importance and potential utility of lexical dimensions of sexuality.  2000 Academic Press