Attachment styles and sexual preferences in homossexual men

• Grant number: 20/14735-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: March 01, 2021
• End date: February 28, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology - Experimental Psychology
• Principal Investigator: Jaroslava Varella Valentova
• Grantee: João Francisco Goes Braga Takayanagi
• Host Institution: Instituto de Psicologia (IP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Many researchers have explored the ways that the evolutionary history of the species and the environmental contexts experienced during development shape the mechanisms of mate selection in human beings, showing that the choices of sexual partners are related to the individual's life history and attachment style. However, those studies have focused mostly on heterosexual populations. The objective of this research is to evaluate the variation of sexual strategies among homosexual men according to the relationship patterns they developed during the course of their life history. We expect to find associations between the avoidant and anxious dimensions of the individual's attachment style, their sociosexuality level, and their prioritization of physical attraction over other characteristics of inmates. The data will be collected through an online questionnaire containing the following instruments: the Experience in Close Relationships Scale - Reduzida - Brasil, the Escala de Orientação Sociossexual - Revised, and the Budget Allocation Task. For the data analysis, we will test the relation between the attachment style dimensions and the sociosexuality level through a correlational analysis, as well as explore the association between those two parameters and the mate selection preferences by computing general linear models using the attachment dimensions and sociosexuality levels as predictors and the Budget Allocation Task's preferred mate characteristics scores as dependent variables. (AU)