“Hookups,” or uncommitted sexual encounters, are becoming progressively more engrained in popular culture, reflecting both evolved sexual predilections and changing social and sexual scripts. Hook-up activities may include a wide range of sexual behaviors, such as kissing, oral sex, and penetrative intercourse. However, these encounters often transpire without any promise of, or desire for, a more traditional romantic relationship. A review of the literature suggests that these encounters are becoming increasingly normative among adolescents and young adults in North America, representing a marked shift in openness and acceptance of uncommitted sex. We reviewed the current literature on sexual hookups and considered the multiple forces influencing hookup culture, using examples from popular culture to place hooking up in context. We argue that contemporary hookup culture is best understood as the convergence of evolutionary and social forces during the developmental period of emerging adulthood. We suggest that researchers must consider both evolutionary mechanisms and social processes, and be considerate of the contemporary popular cultural climate in which hookups occur, in order to provide a comprehensive and synergistic biopsychosocial view of “casual sex” among emerging adults today.

A multidimensional measure of sexual prejudice was developed to assess the increasing complexity of heterosexuals' attitudes toward gay men and lesbians. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses revealed a valid and reliable 7-factor measure that assessed: 1) traditional heterosexism; 2) tendency to deny anti-gay discrimination continues; 3) aversion toward gay men; 4) aversion to lesbians; 5) judgments regarding the value of the gay and lesbian movement; 6) resistance to heteronormative expectations; and 7) endorsement of positive beliefs about gay people. A modern heterosexism theory was supported and queer/liberationist notions of anti-heteronormativity and positive beliefs were found to be related to pro-homosexual attitudes.

This article introduces and explores the concept impact validity, which is conceptualized as the extent to which research has the potential to play a role in social and political change or is useful as a tool for advocacy or activism. Including impact validity in the design of a research project means that, in addition to considering traditional criteria for determining the methodological rigor of research, it is also critical to consider the many related decisions that researchers make when working toward social change. In this article, the theory and methodology of impact validity and the assumptions that position impact validity as both a valid scientific approach, and a useful tool for promoting a more engaged social science, are considered. A "how to" guide is also provided that offers three guiding principles for enhancing impact validity: the strategic choice of research question, having explicit and realistic strategies for using research, and the strategic framing, communicating, and disseminating of findings.As many who engage political change through research would agree, the misuse, marginalization, and politicization of research is the norm rather than the exception. For example, numerous public policies in the United States, such as those related to: criminal justice (e.g., zero tolerance policing over treatment and prevention for drug-related crimes); educational reform (with the focus on testing and performance measures); abstinence-only sex education (an education policy which limits discussion of sexual health and birth control in school sex education classes); and welfare reform (a change in U.S. assistance to the economically disadvantaged, enacted in 1996), to name only a few, stand in dramatic contradiction to the bodies of empirical data built over decades of research.

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The current study compares the effects of traditional and modern anti-homosexual prejudice on evaluations of parenting practices of same-sex and opposite-sex couples. Undergraduate university student participants (N = 436) completed measures of traditional and modern anti-homosexual prejudice and responded to a vignette describing a restaurant scene in which parents react to their child’s undesirable behavior. The parents’ sexual orientation and the quality of their parenting (positive or negative quality) were varied randomly. It was predicted that participants who score higher in modern prejudice would rate the negative parenting behaviors of same-sex parents more negatively than similar behaviors in opposite-sex parents. It was also predicted that this modern prejudice effect would be most pronounced for male participants. Both hypotheses were supported.