BELIEFS ABOUT THE STATE, GOALS, AND OBJECTS OF SEXUAL DESIRE

Little is known about how men and women conceptualize sexual desire. T his descriptive study explored beliefs about the nature of sexual desi re. Participants defined sexual desire in a free response format. The results suggest that there is no single common understanding of sexual desire. In particular, although men and women conceptualize the state of sexual desire in a manner similar to researchers and theorists (i. e., as a subjective psychological experience rather than as a physiolo gical or behavioral sexual event), sexual desire represents a more rom antic, interpersonal experience for women than for men. Significantly more women than men believed that love and emotional intimacy are impo rtant goals of sexual desire, and fewer women than men viewed sexual a ctivity as a goal of sexual desire.