In a recent study@), college girls who sought psychotherapy for neurotic symptoms also engaged in sexual behavior significantly more frequently than girls not suffering from similar symptoms. That study was undertaken as a test of Mowrer's hypothesis that the neurotic suffers from neurotic symptoms because he feels guilty for violating some moral precept. Sex is an area of conflict for college girls, since they have a fairly clearcut moral code regarding sexual behavior, but are also pushed toward engaging in sexual behavior by their own drives, and by their male companions. The results of that study raise the question of whether or not similar results would be found among college men. That is, would college men seeking psychotherapeutic help for neurotic symptoms also have engaged in sexual behavior to a significantly greater extent than college men who were relatively free from neurotic symptoms?
Ehrmann('), in his study of premarital dating behavior, found that 86% of college girls disapproved of premarital intercourse for themselves. This would suggest that these girls would feel guilty if they engaged in premarital sexual behavior, and if, as Mower hypothesizes, guilt leads to neurotic symptoms, we would expect to find that girls who had engaged in premarital sexual behavior would suffer from significantly more neurotic symptoms than girls who had not engaged in premarital sexual behavior. Basically, this was what was found to occur in the author's earlier study(5). However, Ehrmann also reported that under some circumstances 72% of college men would approve of premarital sexual behavior for themselves. This would suggest that most college men would not feel guilty about premarital sexual behavior, and therefore probably should not be expected to have any symptoms related t o guilt. Or to put it another way, this study tests the hypothesis that college men who have sought psychotherapy for neurotic symptoms will not have engaged in sexual behavior significantly more often than college men who are relatively free from neurotic symptoms.