ALBERT Z. FREEDMAN, PhD
August 5, 1981
EDITOR’S NOTE
This doctoral dissertation has existed as a hand typed and bound document since 1981, but now with the availability of a sheet fed scanner, good OCR, and some editing time, it has been converted to electronic text and provided to the reader as an historical document that fills in some of the blanks in this area of research. Dr. Freedman was the founder of Forum magazine and is an executive in the Penthouse organization. DSH
ABSTRACT
This study investigated trends in the behavior and attitudes of both legally married and unmarried couples towards sex outside their primary relationship. The readers of Forum magazine were surveyed via a questionnaire to determine their extra-monogamous practices, and the reasons for them, during both their current and previous relationships. Three hundred and fifty two readers took part in the study. Among the results were found an increasing average rate of extra-monogamous sex between past and present relationships for both men and women in the sample. When correlated with such background variables as age and religion, it was noted that some groups with lower than average rates of extra-monogamous sex in past relationships experienced higher than average rates of increase. Attitudinal changes included a trend towards the expression of less guilt and ambivalence about extra-monogamous sex in current versus previous relationships.