22nd World Congress on
Psychology and Behavioral Science

Biography:

Konina M.A. has her expertise in research of sexual behavior in modern Russian culture, and in improving the sexual, personal and interpersonal relations health. The trends she has found are confirmed in several independent samples, based on more than 800 interviews. They show that promiscuity is a phenomenon of Russian culture and prove the cultural pathology. The studies confirmed one of the principle idea of the cultural and historical psychology grounds (the famous Russian school, established by L.S. Vygotsky); it says that the formation of the human psyche takes place in the process of assimilation of cultural experience.

 

Abstract:

Unrestricted sexual behavior (promiscuity) is a phenomenon of modern Russian culture and one of the characteristics of personality pathology. There were two samples in the study.

Sample 1: 492 people (235 men and 237 women) were surveyed anonymously through the website, specifically created for this study. Methods: revised Sociosexual Orientation Inventory (SOI-R), the scale of dysfunctional beliefs with BPD (PBQ-BPD). Conclusions: The SOI-R method, first used in Russian sample, fully confirmed its traditional structure. Unrestricted sexual behavior is widespread in modern Russian society: 24% of the sample had more than three partners per year, 17,5% had more than 10 "one night stand" partners, 50% agreed with the statement that "sex without love is fine." The analysis showed that 16,7% of the sample show promiscuous behavior (5 or more sexual partners per year), which is close to the level of European countries. There is a progressive growth of all indicators of unrestricted sexuality (behavior, attitude, desire) from age group 18-25, to age group 26-35, to age group 36-41 and to age group 41-52 - unrestricted sexual strategies become confidently fixed with age. Contrary to initial expectations, it was found that the percentage of persons with BPD among people that meet the criteria for unrestricted sexual behavior does not exceed the general population (2%). It can indicate the leading role of cultural trends in the phenomenon of unrestricted sexual behavior as a trend to normalize it. It was found that two factors characterizing BPD — dependency factor (reflecting fears of abandonment and helplessness) and protection factor (reflecting the tendency to impulsivity) — are connected in opposite ways with different factors of unrestricted sexual behavior: expressed dependence reduces promiscuity and expressed impulsivity increases it.

Sample 2: 50 men with profiles on a dating website. Methods: revised Sociosexual Orientation Inventory (SOI-R), short version of the Personality Beliefs Questionnaire (PBQ-SF), Symptom Checklist-90 Revised (SCL-90-R). Conclusions: beliefs that promiscuity is accepted are linked to the beliefs specific to dependent, obsessive-compulsive, antisocial, schizoid and paranoid personality disorders. Promiscuity is related to hostility and distrust to people, first of all, to intimate partners.