Retrospective Parental Ratings and Free Associative Sexual Responsivity in Male and Female College Students
The purpose of this study was that of examining the verbal sexuality of males and females in relation co their perception of the child-rearing attitudes and behavior of their parents. Subjects rated both their mothers and fathers on the Parent-child Relations Questionnaire and the Traditional Family Ideology Scale. All subjects also gave free associations to homophones and double-entendre words loaded for sexual meaning. For both sexes, but especially females, free associative sexual responses were significantly correlated with maternal ratings, while paternal ratings were unrelated to sexual responses. There was some evidence that mothers have opposite effects upon the verbal sexuality of sons and daughters. All subjects gave their free associations to a female experimenter.