The multidimensional sexuality questionnaire: An objective self-report measure of psychological tendencies associated with human sexuality

Abstract

The purpose of the present investigation was to develop and validate an objective self-report instrument, the Multidimensional Sexuality Questionnaire (MSQ), designed to measure psychological tendencies associated with sexual relationships. Results indicated that the MSQ subscales had high internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and were largely independent of social desirability tendencies. Other results indicated that women and men responded in unique ways to the MSQ, with women reporting greater sexual-fear and men reporting greater sexual-esteem, sexual-preoccupation, sexual-motivation, sexual-assertiveness, and external-sexual-control. Additional evidence for the concurrent, discriminant, and convergent validity of the MSQ was found: the MSQ was associated not only with women's and men's sexual attitudes and their exchange and communal approaches to sexual relations, but also with their scores on other instruments conceptually similar to the MSQ. Men's and women's sexual behaviors were also predictably related to their scores on the MSQ subscales. The discussion focuses on research and applied uses of the Multidimensional Sexuality Questionnaire.