Sex and Love: Causes and Effects

Research on love and sex has been reported in a variety of psychological, sociological, and biological journals. This book (see record 2004-13774-000) attempts to cover such variant perspectives on love and sex in an integrative manner. Although the book title does suggest a somewhat narrow focus, the range of topics covered is quite large. Of course, there are chapters on the basic topic of sexuality in close relationships. However, the topics of how love and sex interact in the beginning, maintenance, and end of relationships are not just described, but are also examined from both cultural and biological viewpoints. There is a presentation of the methodological and practical issues associated with such research. The reviewer notes that one positive feature of the book is the presentation of a cross-cultural perspective on various components of sex and love. This material points out how our culture views some aspects of sex and love as "natural" and invariant components of humanity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)