Cowart-Pollack Scale of Sexual Experience

Abstract

The Cowart–Pollack Scale of Sexual Experience is a psychological instrument designed to assess the level and developmental progression of sexual experience for individuals or groups in research, therapeutic, or educational settings. It is structured as two distinct checklists focusing exclusively on heterosexual activities: a 31-item scale for men and a 30-item scale for women.

The items included cover a comprehensive range of behaviors, such as manipulation of genitals, various oral contacts, different coital positions, masturbation, anal intercourse, and exposure to erotic materials. The scale was developed and refined using the Cornell technique of Guttman scaling, which orders the behaviors from most frequent to least frequent, establishing a predictable, cumulative sequence of sexual involvement for the normative sample.

Keywords

Guttman scaling, sexual behavior, heterosexual activities, college students, sexuality assessment, coefficient of reproducibility, sexual experience checklist, Cornell technique.

Authors

Debra Cowart-Steckler (University of Mary Washington), Robert H. Pollack (University of Georgia).

Purpose

The primary purpose of the Cowart–Pollack Scale is to provide a standardized, empirically derived measure of the range and progression of heterosexual activities experienced by an individual. It serves as a descriptive and comparative tool across various professional environments, allowing researchers and clinicians to ascertain an individual’s level of sexual involvement relative to established norms.

The scale is particularly useful in research for comparing the sexual development of different cohorts, in clinical therapy to comprehensively understand a client’s history of sexual experience, and in educational contexts for analyzing typical sexual behavior patterns within a specific, usually college-aged, demographic.

Construct

The scale measures the psychological construct of the developmental sequence of heterosexual experience. This construct is operationalized through the application of the Guttman scaling technique, which assumes that sexual behaviors progress in a predictable, cumulative hierarchy.

The core principle of this approach is that an individual who reports having engaged in a less frequent behavior must have previously experienced all the more common behaviors listed lower on the scale. By ordering these activities based on the reported frequency among the normative sample, the scale allows for the assessment of an individual’s point along this established developmental continuum of sexual involvement.

Validity

Although the source material emphasizes reliability, the scale’s successful construction using the Guttman scaling method inherently supports its construct validity. The high coefficients of reproducibility achieved upon administration confirm that the items form a consistent, unidimensional, and cumulative hierarchy, validating the underlying assumption that the scale measures a single developmental progression of sexual behavior.

Further support for the stability and validity of the measure comes from the comparison of results across the 1979 and 1983 distributions. While the overall frequency of engagement in sexual experience increased between these years for the college sample, the actual ordering (sequence) of the behaviors remained stable, confirming that the scale captures a reliable developmental pattern within this age group.

Reliability

The reliability of the Cowart–Pollack Scale is assessed using the coefficient of reproducibility (CR), a standard metric for Guttman scales. A CR of at least 0.85 is considered necessary to confirm the reliability of the behavioral ordering.

The scale was distributed twice to large groups of college students, yielding highly reliable results:

• In the 1979 administration, the CR was 0.85 for the male scale and 0.88 for the female scale.
• In the 1983 administration, the CR was 0.88 for the male scale and 0.87 for the female scale.

These consistent results demonstrate high internal consistency and stability in the measurement of the sequence of heterosexual activities, confirming the scale’s reliability in identifying a stable developmental progression.

Factor Analysis

The Cowart–Pollack Scale employs the Guttman scaling technique, which operates under the assumption that the measured construct is strictly unidimensional and cumulative, meaning all items fall along a single continuum. Consequently, the scale’s structure is inherently validated by the high coefficient of reproducibility, which confirms the cumulative nature of the items.

Traditional multivariate statistical techniques, such as factor analysis, which aim to identify underlying latent factors or clusters of intercorrelated items, are generally not applicable or necessary for scales developed strictly according to the Guttman model.

Instrument

Test Type: Psychological self-report checklist employing the Guttman scaling method.

Format: Two distinct checklists: 31 items for men and 30 items for women. Items are presented randomly to respondents, who indicate whether they have or have not experienced each behavior by circling “yes” or “no.”

Language Available: English (Original standardization).

Population Group: Heterosexual individuals.

Age Group: Late adolescence to young adulthood (Ages 18 to 21).

Population Details: Standardized on large samples of college-aged students (e.g., N=197 men and N=212 women in the 1983 update). The scale’s applicability is standardized specifically to this age cohort.

Test Methodology: The scale requires approximately 10 minutes for completion. No numerical score is computed. Assessment is based on comparing the respondent’s highest reported experience against the normative cumulative sequence. This comparison provides an indication of the respondent’s level of sexual experience relative to the established norms.

Keywords

Sexual development, college population, sex research, Guttman scale, sexuality measurement, heterosexual behavior, sexual chronology.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: N/A (Information not provided in source material)

Affiliation Email addresses: [email protected] (Debra Cowart-Steckler)

Correspondence Address: Debra Cowart-Steckler, Department of Psychology, University of Mary Washington, Fredericksburg, VA 22401.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The initial development and standardization of the scale were first published in 1979 (Cowart & Pollack, 1979), with an important update on the normative data published in 1984. Specific information regarding current licensing, permissions, or associated fees for commercial or large-scale use is not detailed in the original documentation.

Reference’s

1. Bentler, P. M. (1968a). Heterosexual behavior assessment-I. Males. Behavior Research and Therapy, 6, 21–25.
2. Bentler, P. M. (1968b). Heterosexual behavior assessment-II. Females. Behavior Research and Therapy, 6, 27–29.
3. Cowart, D. A., & Pollack, R. H. (1979). A Guttman scale of sexual experience. Journal of Sex Education & Therapy, 1, 3–6.
4. Cowart-Steckler, D. (1984). A Guttman scale of sexual experience: An update. Journal of Sex Education & Therapy, 10, 49–52.
5. Edwards, A. L. (1957). Techniques of attitude scale construction. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
6. Guttman, L. (1947). The Cornell technique of scale and intensity analysis. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 7, 247–280.
7. Zuckerman, M. (1973). Scales for sexual experience for males and females. Journal of Consulting & Clinical Psychology, 11, 27–29.

Items of the Cowart–Pollack Scale of Sexual Experience

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