Sexual Relationship Scale, SRS

Test scores

Higher scores indicate a stronger communal and exchange approach, respectively, to sexual relations.

Clark and Mills (1979) proposed a theory of relationship orientation based on the rules governing the giving and receiving of benefits. An exchange relationship orientation was defined as one in which benefits are given on the assumption that a similar benefit would be reciprocated. The recipient of a benefit in such a relationship presumably incurs a debt to make a suitable, comparable return. By contrast, a communal relationship orientation was defined by as one in which benefits are given on the assumption that they are in response to some need. In communal relationships, concern for a partner's welfare mediates interpersonal giving rather than anticipation of a reciprocated benefit.

Sexual relationships may also be viewed from a communal perspective which emphasizes caring and concern for a partner's sexual needs and preferences, or else from an exchange perspective which emphasizes a quid pro quo approach to sexual relations.

Some individuals take a communal approach to their sexual relations in which they feel responsible for and involved in their partner's sexual satisfaction and welfare. They want to respond to their partner's sexual needs and desires. In this sense they contribute to their partner's sexual satisfaction and welfare in order to please the partner and to demonstrate a desire to respond to that person's sexual welfare. Moreover, people who take a communal approach to sexual relations also expect their partner to be responsive and sensitive to their own sexual welfare and needs. By contrast, those who approach sexual relations from an exchange orientation do not feel any special responsibility for their partner's sexual satisfaction and welfare. Nor do they feel any inherent need or desire to be attuned to or responsive to their partner's sexual pleasure. Rather, they give sexual pleasure only in response to sexual benefits they have received in the past or have been promised in the future. An exchange approach to sexual relations often involves sexual debts and obligations. The individuals involved in this type of sexual relationship are usually concerned with how many sexual favors they have given and received, and the comparability of these sexual exchanges.