Shirley MacLaine: "Sex is hardly ever just about sex." Relates to CR study in which Christopher and Cate (1985) asked couples about aspects of sexual behavior in their relationships. The couples pointed to love, maintenance, conflict and ambivalence as experiences associated with sex. Sprecher & McKinney in a sexuality text, 1993, argue that sex in a CR may be an act of: self-disclosure, intimacy, affection or love, interdependence, maintenance, and exchange.
Definition of sexuality (from McKinney & Sprecher 1991 edited book Sexuality in CRs): "We use sexuality very generally to refer to sexual behaviors, arousal, and responses, as well as sexual attitudes, desires, and communication." I would say that sexuality involves even more and includes constructions of self-identity. The topic can be readily linked to ideas such as Altman & Taylor’s (1973) social penetration conception, since at its core sexuality concerns learning about other and self. Parenthetically, why do we use the term "making love"?
Types of research (both relevant to CRs and more generally): Kinsey’s 1940s and 1950s surveys of sexual attitudes and behavior; Masters & Johnson’s (1966) clinical work to improve functioning; Clark & Hatfield’s 1978, 1982, & 1989 experimental studies of college students’ solicitations of others (strangers) to "go to bed," or "date" (showing women solicitors more successful for former!); Regan & Berscheid & others in 1990s studies of people’s emphasis on personal qualities (including attractiveness and sexual history) for sexual partners (strong evolutionary psychology lean).
Some Major Concepts: Sexual stereotyping (e.g., "slut") done as means of ostracizing and social control; gender differences (e.g., in everything from arousal, visualization, linking sex and love)—but some evidence that gender differences decline as people become older; sexuality communication (relates to satisfaction & skill in maintaining the CR—Cupach & Metts’ 1991 work); re-vising sexuality mores (Ehrenreich et al 1986 book Re-making love) arguing for equality between females and males in pre- and extra-marital sexual practices; Perper’s (1985) work on sexual behavioral scripts & nonverbal cues; and Tiefer’s (1995) interesting feminist analysis Sex is not a natural act that argues we are not born experts in this area and that what is "normal" changes over time—she says that women and men are both unique and representative of their sexes in their sexual behavior.