Reiss Premarital Sexual Permissiveness Scale (Short Form)

Abstract

The Reiss Premarital Sexual Permissiveness Scale (PSPS) is a widely utilized instrument designed to measure the degree of premarital sexual permissiveness accepted by an individual. The original scale, developed by Ira L. Reiss in 1964, was comprehensive, featuring 12 questions that assessed acceptance of kissing, petting, and intercourse across various relationship contexts (no affection, strong affection, love, or engagement). Both the original and revised versions are structured as cumulative Guttman scales, which provide a precise, low-to-high continuum of permissiveness.

The newer short form, introduced in 1989, is a concise four-item version that focuses exclusively on measuring attitudes toward coital permissiveness. This revision was prompted by significant cultural changes wherein premarital intercourse shifted from being accepted by a minority to a majority of young people. The short form is highly reliable, having met all Guttman scaling requirements in studies conducted in the United States and Sweden, and continues to incorporate the theoretical foundation of the original scale, which was central to the development of Reiss’s Autonomy Theory.

Keywords

Premarital sexuality, Sexual attitudes, Coital permissiveness, Guttman scaling, Autonomy Theory, Sexual behavior, Social psychology, Permissiveness scale, Ira L. Reiss, Psychological measurement

Authors

Ira L. Reiss

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Purpose

The primary purpose of the Reiss Premarital Sexual Permissiveness Scale (PSPS) is to quantitatively assess the level of premarital sexual permissiveness an individual endorses. By utilizing the cumulative properties of Guttman scales, the instrument ensures that a respondent can be accurately placed on a hierarchical continuum of attitudes.

The short form specifically aims to measure acceptance of sexual intercourse as conditioned by the degree of emotional intimacy present in the relationship. While the term premarital is used, Reiss clarified that the scale focuses on measuring attitudes toward sexual behavior among young unmarried people, without presuming marriage as an inevitable outcome. The scale is recommended for current research due to its brevity, established validity, and comparability to the historical results generated by the original scale.

Construct

The scale measures the psychological construct of Premarital Sexual Permissiveness. This construct is defined by an individual’s readiness to accept sexual intercourse (coitus) based on the emotional context of the relationship. The four items in the short form are hierarchically structured, moving from acceptance of coitus within a loving relationship to acceptance even in a relationship lacking strong affection.

The design of the scale is rooted in the principles that led to the development of the Autonomy Theory, which explains shifts in premarital sexuality by examining the interplay between societal norms and individual autonomy. The focus on coital permissiveness in the short form reflects the cultural evolution observed by Reiss, where attitudes toward intercourse became the defining measure of permissiveness among young adults.

Validity

Construct validity for the PSPS has been consistently demonstrated across diverse populations and studies. This validity was established by confirming expected empirical differences in permissiveness attitudes across key demographic variables. For example, studies found significant and anticipated differences when comparing the scores of parents versus college students, Whites versus Blacks, and males versus females (Schwartz & Reiss, 1995; Reiss, 1967).

Furthermore, the short form exhibited strong external validity in cross-national comparisons. A study comparing Swedish and American college students found results precisely aligned with cultural expectations, showing that Swedish students were markedly more accepting of the lowest affection category (Question 4) than their U.S. counterparts. This predictive power confirms that the scale accurately captures variations in the latent construct of premarital sexual attitudes.

Reliability

The reliability of both the original and the short form of the PSPS is fundamentally established by their success in consistently meeting the rigorous criteria of Guttman scaling. This methodological approach inherently ensures high internal consistency and reproducibility of the scale’s structure.

Specific indicators of reliability include the consistent achievement of high scores on the coefficient of reproducibility and the coefficient of scalability in various settings, including the U.S. and other industrialized countries (Schwartz & Reiss, 1995; Reiss & Miller, 1979). Meeting these criteria confirms that the scale items form a reliable and unidimensional hierarchy, meaning that the pattern of acceptance is highly predictable based on the respondent’s highest level of accepted permissiveness.

Factor Analysis

Traditional factor analysis is generally superseded by the requirements of Guttman scaling for the PSPS. Guttman scaling is a deterministic scaling method that tests for the inherent unidimensionality and cumulative nature of the items. For the PSPS, the successful application of Guttman scaling criteria serves as the methodological confirmation of its underlying structure.

The fact that the scale consistently meets criteria such as the coefficient of reproducibility indicates that the four items effectively measure a single dimension (coital permissiveness) and that they are ordered hierarchically. Acceptance of any given item implies acceptance of all less permissive items, functioning as a single, highly structured factor.

Instrument

Test Type: Attitude Scale / Guttman Scale (Cumulative)

Format: Self-report questionnaire consisting of four items. Each item uses a 6-point response mode: three degrees of agreement (Strongly, Moderately, Slightly) and three degrees of disagreement (Strongly, Moderately, Slightly).

Language Available: English (Validated in U.S. and Swedish contexts).

Population Group: Primarily used with young unmarried individuals, including college students and adolescents.

Age Group: Typically utilized for college-age individuals and other young adults involved in dating relationships.

Population Details: The scale has been extensively tested across various national and demographic samples, contributing to the understanding of sexual attitudes among unmarried populations globally.

Test Methodology: Respondents circle one of the six response choices for each question. Scoring can be accomplished by dichotomizing the answers (Agree/Disagree), assigning a score of 0 to 4 points for total permissiveness, or by utilizing the full six categories for finer analytical resolution. The scale is extremely quick to administer, typically requiring only a couple of minutes.

Keywords

Sexual attitudes measurement, Premarital intercourse, Cumulative scaling, Social norms, Sexual behavior research, Autonomy Theory, Psychological measurement, Ira L. Reiss

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Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not provided in source content.

Affiliation Email addresses: [email protected]

Correspondence Address: Ira L. Reiss, 5932 Medicine Lake Road, Minneapolis, MN 55422

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Permissions: Ira L. Reiss has granted explicit permission for the use of this scale in any research project, requesting only that researchers inform him of their results.

Fee: No fee specified for research use.

Test Year (Short Form): The revised four-item scale was composed in 1989 (Reiss, 1989) and subsequently validated in 1995 (Schwartz & Reiss, 1995).

Reference’s

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Items of the Reiss Premarital Sexual Permissiveness Scale (Short Form)

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

The following four questions concern your personal attitude regarding premarital sexual intercourse. First decide whether you agree or disagree with the view expressed; then indicate the level of your agreement or disagreement by circling the answer that best expresses your view. The six choices below follow each question.

1. I believe that premarital sexual intercourse is acceptable if one is in a love relationship.

2. I believe that premarital sexual intercourse is acceptable if one is in a relationship involving strong affection.

3. I believe that premarital sexual intercourse is acceptable if one is in a relationship involving moderate affection.

4. I believe that premarital sexual intercourse is acceptable even if one is in a relationship without much affection.

Note. The wording presented above asks what is acceptable for “one” and that term includes both the respondent and others. If you wished to know only what the respondent believes is acceptable for her- or himself, then you could change the wording of each question to a more personalized form. For example change Question 1 to read: “. . . acceptable if I am in a love relationship.” It would be interesting to compare the two different wordings of this scale to see what differences, if any, would be found. My own testing of this with students found very little difference.