Journal of Psychology and Theology 1993, Vol. 21, No. 4, 315-318 Copyright 1993 by Rosemead School of Psychology Biola University, 0091-6471/410-730 315 This research had tw o objectives: (a) to extend our understanding of the sexual behavior, attitudes, and love styles of reli- giously mature and immature individuals using recent measures of love styles and sexual attitudes and (b) to investigate, for the first time, the sexual and love correlates of the quest religious orientation. The results are consistent with prior research using other measures, and they suggest that intrinsically religious individuals are highly discriminating in their conservative approach to sexuality, while extrinsics are somew hat self-serving. While only exploratory, these results should encourage scholars and practitioners to appreciate the highly complex relationships between reli- giosity and sexuality, and that global state- ments (e.g., religious individuals are sexually conservative) need to take into account a particular individual’s religious orientation as w ell as the nature of the sexual dimen- sion being considered. (1989) discovered that religiosity fosters a conserva- tive orientation toward sexual intercourse. On the other hand, the link between religiosity and sexual activity is not always clear-cut and can be moderat- ed by other variables (e.g., race and gender [Miller and Moore, 1990]). While the literature on sexuality and religiosity is extensive, only a few studies have examined this relationship using measures of intrinsic ( IR) and extrinsic (ER) religiosity (Allport & Ross, 1967), clearly among the most popular and important measures in the psychology of religion. The research that does exist has tended to indicate that intrinsics are more conservative in their sexual behavior than are extrin- sics (Woodroof, 1985). In contrast to intrinsic and extrinsic religiousness, Batson has championed the “religion-as-quest” ori- entation (Batson & Ventis, 1982). The individual who possesses a quest orientation is hypothesized to approach religious issues with flexibility, tenta- tiveness, and a willingness to face these issues with- out reducing their complexity. Evidence for the validity of the Quest (Q) scale is summarized in sev- eral sources (Batson & Schoenrade, 1991; Batson, Schoenrade, & Pych, 1985). Debate exists concern- ing the theoretical meaning and empirical validity of each of the three orientations. Several scholars have pointed out flaws in the Quest scale (Kojetin, McIn- tosh, Bridges, & Spilka, 1987), while others have found conceptual and empirical problems with IR and ER (Batson & Ventis, 1982; Kirkpatrick & Hood, 1990). Despite these concerns, these three orienta- tions were the foundation of this research because of their enormous influence in the psychology of religion, and because they are probably the best available measures of mature and immature reli- giousness. To date, no research has been reported examining the relationship between quest religiosity Relationship Between Religious Orientation and Love Styles, Sexual Attitudes, and Sexual Behaviors GARY K. LEAK Creighton University Omaha, Nebraska Reprint requests may be sent to Gary K. Leak, PhD, Depart- ment of Psychology, Creighton University, California at 24th Street, Omaha, Nebraska 68178. R eligion has been shown to be one of the best predictors of conservative sexual behavior, and this trend is most pronounced with non- married, adolescent populations (Spilka, Hood, & Gorsuch, 1985). Benson, Donahue, and Erickson (1989) reviewed the literature on adolescent sexual- ity and religion, and they concluded that there exists “strong constraining effects of religion on the likelihood of engaging in premarital intercourse” (p. 170; see also Miller & Moore, 1990, for a review). In a recent and careful study, Thornton and Camburn