Friends with Benefits

Lehmiller, J. , “Sex Differences in Approaching Friends with Benefits Relationships”, Journal of Sex Research, Vol. 48, Issue 2-3, 2011, pgs 275 – 284. Friends With Benefits “‘Friends with benefits’ (FWB) relationships consist of friends who are sexually, but not romantically, involved. In other words, such relationships are comprised of persons who engage in sexual activity on occasion, but otherwise have a basic friendship… it is important to recognize that FWB partners do not consider their involvements to be romantic relationships.
Rather, FWB relationships are perhaps best regarded as friendships in which the partners involved have casual sex with one another. ” (Lehmiller, 275) This passage tells what friends with benefit relationships are but why are they being studied in this instance? This article concludes the information concerning this specific type of odd relationship and how it’s seen in the eyes of the individuals who enter them. It also touches on the threat of sexually transmitted disease, the downfall of these relationships, and what type of people are more likely to enter one and how it changes their views of love.
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Friends with benefits relationships are being studied with the goal of finding out what motivates people to get into this type of relationship, what defines friends with benefits and how the changes in the relationship effect it. Most of the studies on this subject occur with nonrandom sampling that were advertised around college campuses which poses the implication that only younger generations involve themselves in friend with benefit relationships, which is false. The independent variable are the people themselves.
Every person has a different view on this type of relationship and it can be easily skewed by what their friends, family, or peers believe about this type of situation. The dependent variable is the relationship itself. Once the terms are set by the two people in the relationship there is very little space for change, because trust can be questioned. There is no knowing if someone will develop feelings or not, which can ruin the whole point of a friends with benefits relationship. The main find in this article is that the studies on this subject should be cast in a broader net and there really isn’t enough research done on this subject.
There should be more circumstances and variables. Most of the studies were taken from people who were recollecting past friends with benefits relationships and not currently in one which is subject to memory distortion and lapses. The studies should show current relationships, one’s including people of all ages, and what happened to the friendship before and afterward. This article touches a little on most subjects in the friends with benefits spectrum, but they could center in on one thing to be more specific in their findings.