Brief Mosher Sex Guilt Scale

Abstract

The Brief Mosher Sex Guilt Scale (BMSGS) is a concise, 10-item psychological instrument derived from the much more extensive Revised Mosher Guilt Inventory (RMGI), which was originally conceptualized by Donald L. Mosher in 1966. The abbreviated version was specifically proposed and validated by Janda and Bazemore in 2011 to offer a time-efficient alternative for researchers.

The primary function of the BMSGS is to assess an individual’s internalized moral standards and anxiety related to specific sexual thoughts, desires, and behaviors. It focuses particularly on measuring guilt associated with practices such as masturbation, premarital sex, and unusual sexual practices. This brief form retains strong psychometric properties, minimizing respondent burden while remaining highly valuable in sexual health and psychological research concerning sex guilt.

Keywords

Sex guilt, sexual attitudes, Mosher Guilt Inventory, premarital sex, sexual morality, self-report, personality, sexual repression, psychometrics, moral standards, Likert scale

Authors

Donald L. Mosher, L. H. Janda, S. D. Bazemore, H. J. Cross, K. E. O’Grady

Purpose

The central purpose of the Brief Mosher Sex Guilt Scale is to provide a quick and reliable measure of the intensity of guilt, shame, or anxiety an individual experiences concerning their sexual impulses and actions. It serves as a tool for capturing internalized moral conflicts surrounding sexual expression.

This scale is crucial for differentiating between individuals who hold traditional, prohibitive views on sexuality and those who possess more liberal, accepting attitudes toward behaviors like masturbation, premarital relations, and non-conventional practices. Researchers frequently employ the BMSGS to investigate how high levels of sexual guilt may negatively influence subsequent outcomes, including sexual functioning, subjective sexual arousal, and overall psychological adjustment.

Construct

The BMSGS is designed to quantify the psychological construct of sex guilt. Mosher defined this construct as a stable dimension of personality characterized by the anticipation of self-administered negative consequences, such as self-criticism or anxiety, resulting from the transgression of internalized sexual moral standards.

Individuals scoring high on the scale exhibit strong internalized prohibitions against sexual expression, which frequently manifest as emotional distress, repression of sexual thoughts, and negative affective reactions to sexual stimuli. Conversely, lower scores suggest a greater level of comfort and acceptance regarding diverse sexual behaviors and desires. It is important to note that the scale measures the cognitive and affective dimension of personality related to guilt, rather than the frequency or type of actual sexual behavior.

Validity

The validity of the Brief Mosher Sex Guilt Scale (BMSGS) is strongly supported by its direct derivation from the widely recognized and thoroughly validated Mosher Guilt Inventory. Janda and Bazemore (2011) established that the condensed 10-item version maintains robust convergent validity when compared with scores obtained from the full-length original scale, as well as with other established measures of sexual attitudes and general guilt propensity.

The items included in the brief scale were strategically selected based on their ability to maximize discriminative power between individuals holding traditional versus liberal sexual attitudes. Furthermore, empirical research confirms strong criterion and construct validity: elevated sex guilt scores reliably correlate negatively with measures of actual sexual experience, reported subjective sexual arousal in response to erotica, and the willingness to engage in open communication about sexuality.

Reliability

Analyses conducted on the 10-item BMSGS have consistently confirmed high measures of internal consistency, a critical indicator of reliability. The revised short form typically achieves Cronbach’s alpha coefficients that fall within the acceptable to good range, often between .80 and .90.

This high degree of internal consistency demonstrates that all 10 items reliably measure a single, coherent underlying construct, specifically sexual guilt. This finding confirms the suitability of the brief scale as a unitary measure of sexual moral anxiety, making it a reliable and highly efficient tool for use in research settings where operational constraints, such as time limitations, are significant factors.

Factor Analysis

The development of the efficient 10-item Brief Mosher Sex Guilt Scale was founded upon rigorous factor analysis applied to the data generated by the original and subsequent revised long forms of the Mosher Guilt Inventory. This statistical methodology was employed to systematically identify and isolate the core items that loaded most significantly onto a single, overarching latent factor: the dimension of sexual guilt.

Janda and Bazemore (2011) utilized these factor analytic techniques specifically to eliminate items that were either redundant or exhibited weak loadings. This strategic pruning resulted in a refined, unidimensional measure that effectively captures the variance associated with sexual guilt, significantly enhancing the scale’s efficiency without compromising its established psychometric integrity.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-report inventory/Attitude scale

Format: The scale utilizes a Likert scale response format. The specific range varies depending on the research implementation, but commonly uses scales ranging from 1 to 7 or 0 to 6.

Language Available: Primarily English, although various translations may be available for use in cross-cultural psychological research.

Population Group: General adult population.

Age Group: Adolescents (typically 16 years and older) and Adults.

Population Details: The scale is used extensively with university student populations in studies focused on sexual behavior, attitudes, and adjustment outcomes.

Test Methodology: Respondents are required to indicate their level of agreement or disagreement with a series of 10 statements pertaining to various sexual attitudes and behaviors. To mitigate response bias, specific items, denoted by an asterisk (*), are designated for reverse scoring during data analysis.

Keywords

Sexual functioning, convergent validity, construct validity, internal consistency, factor analysis, personality, sexual repression, moral standards, Likert scale, self-report

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not consistently available in the source materials for all authors.

Affiliation Email addresses: Not provided in the source materials.

Correspondence Address: Correspondence for the original scale authors (Donald L. Mosher) or the brief scale authors (Janda & Bazemore) would typically be directed through their respective university psychology departments.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The foundation of the instrument, the original Mosher Guilt Inventory, was established in 1966. The 10-item Brief Mosher Sex Guilt Scale was formally proposed and validated much later, in 2011, by Janda and Bazemore. Due to its frequent appearance in academic theses, dissertations, and research handbooks, the scale is generally considered readily available for non-commercial academic and research purposes, provided that proper citation of the relevant Mosher and Janda/Bazemore publications is maintained.

No specific fee structure is publicly documented, suggesting that the scale is often used without charge in educational and research settings. The original PDF documents containing the instrument and related research can be accessed via the following links:

• http://dro.deakin.edu.au/eserv/DU:30067449/stefanou-theassociations-2014A.pdf
• http://digitalcommons.odu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1012&context=psychology_etds
• http://tbr2.indstate.edu/bitstream/10484/5576/1/Ann%20E.%20Jones%20Aug%202014.pdf

Reference’s

• Janda‚ L. H.‚ & Bazemore‚ S. D. (2011). The revised Mosher Sex Guilt-Scale: Its psychometric properties and a proposed ten-item version. Journal of Sex Research‚ 48(4)‚ 392-396.
• Mosher‚ Donald L. (1966). The development and multitrait-multimethod matrix analysis of three measures of three aspects of guilt. Journal of Consulting Psychology‚ 30(1)‚ 25-29.
• Mosher‚ D.L.‚ & Cross‚ H.J. (1971). Sex guilt and premarital sexual experiences of college students. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology‚ 36‚ 27-32.
• Mosher‚ D. L. (1998). Revised mosher guilt inventory. Handbook of Sexuality-Related Measures‚ 290-293.
• Mosher‚ D.L. (1979a). Sex guilt and sex myths in college men and women. Journal of Sex Research‚ 15‚ 224-234.
• Mosher‚ D.L. (1979b). The meaning and measurement of guilt. In C.E. Izard (Ed.)‚ Emotions in personality and psychopathology. New York: Plenum.
• Mosher‚ D.L.‚ & O’Grady‚ K.E. (1979). Sex guilt‚ trait anxiety‚ and females’ subjective sexual arousal to erotica. Motivation & Emotion‚ 3‚ 235-249.
• Mosher‚ D.L. (2011). Revised Mosher Guilt Inventory. In T.D. Fisher‚ C.M. Davis‚ W.L. Yarber‚ & S.L. Davis (Eds.)‚ Handbook of sexuality-related measures (3^rd ed.)(pp.321-324). New York: Routledge.
• Jones‚ Ann E. (2014). Moderating effect of religious orientation on the relationship between sexual self-discrepancies and guilt and Anxiety. Indiana State University. Master of Arts thesis.
• Asadzadeh Totonchi‚ Delaram. (2015). “Comparing Implicit and Explicit Measures of Sex Guilt in Predicting Sexual Behavior. Old Dominion University. Master of Arts thesis‚ Psychology Theses & Dissertations. Paper 16.

Items of the Brief Mosher Sex Guilt Scale

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

• 1. Masturbation helps one feel eased and relaxed.*
• 2. Sex relations before any significant commitments are good‚ in my opinion.*
• 3. Unusual sex practices don’t interest me.
• 4. When I have sexual dreams I try to forget them.
• 5. ‘‘Dirty’’ jokes in mixed company are in bad taste.
• 6. When I have sexual desires I enjoy them like all healthy human beings.*
• 7. Unusual sex practices are dangerous to one’s health and mental condition.
• 8. Sex relations before any significant commitments help people adjust.*
• 9. Sex relations before any significant commitments should not be recommended.
• 10. Unusual sex practices are all right if both partners agree.*

* Indicates reverse scoring

Additional items sometimes associated with the full scale or used in related research:

• When I have sexual desires I try to repress them.
• When I have sexual desires they are quite strong.

Response Formats used:

• 1=Strongly disagree‚ 2=Disagree‚ 3= Somewhat disagree‚ 4=Neither agree nor disagree‚ 5=Somewhat agree‚ 6= Agree‚ 7=Strongly agree
• 0 (not at all true) to 6 (extremely true for me)