Development of a novel measure of women's sexual self-schema organization✰

Abstract

Sexual self-schemas are cognitive representations of the sexual self and are associated with multiple aspects of women's sexuality, although no work has considered their organization (i.e., interconnectedness of networks of information pertaining to the self). In an online pilot study (N = 193), we investigated the validity of a novel method for assessing the organization of women's sexual self-schemas. In a modified psychological distance scaling task, participants positioned adjectives individually on a grid in terms of both self-descriptiveness and valence. We found evidence of convergent validity: women with denser (i.e., more closely interrelated) positive sexual self-schemas had more pleasurable sexual experiences in the past, more positive sexual attitudes, and better sexual functioning; women with denser negative sexual self-schemas reported fewer previous partners and sexual experiences and less sexual excitation. Density scores predicted women's sexual functioning and sexual excitation, beyond one-dimensional schema valence scores. Along with future work, this task may offer a useful tool for capturing individual differences in the organization of women's sexual self-schemas.