Perceptions of Love and Sex Scale

Abstract

The Perceptions of Love and Sex Scale (PLSS), developed by Clyde Hendrick and Susan S. Hendrick (2002), is an empirical psychometric instrument designed to evaluate cognitive schemas, personal beliefs, and dyadic orientations regarding the intersection of romantic love and human sexuality within close relationships. While social and clinical psychologists historically investigated romantic love and sexual behavior as distinct phenomenological domains, contemporary empirical evidence highlights their deep evolutionary, psychological, and neurobiological interdependence. The PLSS operationalizes the subjective nexus between affective attachment and sexual expression across four multidimensional subscales: Love Is Most Important, Sex Demonstrates Love, Love Comes Before Sex, and Sex is Declining. Comprising 17 core items evaluated on a 5-point Likert response format (ranging from “Strongly agree with the statement” to “Strongly disagree with the statement”), the instrument enables researchers and clinicians to assess relational quality, cognitive scripts, and romantic satisfaction. Extensive psychometric evaluations demonstrate robust internal consistency across subscales (with Cronbach’s alpha coefficients typically ranging from .70 to .84), sound test-retest reliability, and well-supported convergent, discriminant, and construct validity when correlated with established measures of relationship satisfaction, love styles, and sexual attitudes. This article provides an exhaustive psychometric review of the PLSS, detailing its theoretical underpinnings, structural properties, scoring methodology, and applications in relationship research and couples therapy.

Keywords

Perceptions of Love and Sex Scale, PLSS, romantic love, sexual attitudes, relationship satisfaction, psychometrics, dyadic intimacy, Clyde Hendrick, Susan S. Hendrick, close relationships, sexual scripts, factor analysis

Authors

The Perceptions of Love and Sex Scale was conceptualized, developed, and empirically validated by Susan S. Hendrick, Ph.D., and Clyde Hendrick, Ph.D., prominent figures in social and relationship psychology:

• Susan S. Hendrick, Ph.D. — Professor Emerita of Psychology at Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas, United States. Dr. Hendrick has published extensively on romantic love, relationship satisfaction, self-disclosure, and couples counseling. Her work has appeared in major journals such as the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships and the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
• Clyde Hendrick, Ph.D. — Professor Emeritus of Psychology and former Dean of the Graduate School at Texas Tech University. A leading researcher in social psychology, psychometric theory, and relationship science, Dr. Hendrick co-developed foundational assessment tools, including the Love Attitudes Scale (LAS) and the Sexual Attitudes Scale (SAS).

Institutional Affiliation during instrument development: Department of Psychology, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas 79409-2051, USA.

Purpose

Human intimacy involves an intricate interplay between affective bonding and sexual expression. Historically, behavioral and psychological science tended to isolate these phenomena, bifurcating research into either the cognitive-emotional facets of romantic attachment or the physiological and attitudinal dynamics of human sexuality. Hendrick and Hendrick (2002) formulated the Perceptions of Love and Sex Scale to bridge this conceptual divide by empirically capturing how individuals subjectively conceptualize, prioritize, and integrate love and sex within ongoing or past romantic partnerships.

The primary purpose of the PLSS is to provide a standardized, psychometrically rigorous instrument capable of assessing lay belief systems and subjective cognitions concerning how sexual behavior and emotional love operate in concert. Rather than treating sexuality solely as a set of physical behaviors or love strictly as an emotional state, the PLSS assesses how partners negotiate the meaning of sexual interactions as demonstrations of affective commitment, how they order temporal priorities between physical intimacy and emotional depth, and how shifts in sexual frequency or passion may reflect underlying relational distress.

In research contexts, the PLSS is employed across social psychology, communication studies, family studies, and sexology to investigate:

• Gender differences and similarities in sexual scripting and emotional intimacy.
• Predictive modeling of dyadic satisfaction, relational stability, and commitment over time.
• Correlations between love/sex perceptions and evolutionary strategies (e.g., short-term vs. long-term mating orientations).
• The mediating effects of communication patterns on sexual and relational well-being.

In clinical and therapeutic settings, the instrument provides marriage and family therapists, clinical psychologists, and sex therapists with a diagnostic framework to uncover cognitive dissonances between partners. Discrepancies in how partners link sex with love—such as one partner viewing sex as the primary proof of emotional devotion while the other views emotional communication as a prerequisite for sexual intimacy—often generate covert relational conflict. Identifying these implicit models using the PLSS facilitates targeted psychoeducation, conflict resolution, and intimacy restructuring.

Psychological Construct

The psychological construct evaluated by the PLSS represents a multidimensional cognitive schema regarding the functional and structural relationship between romantic love and sexual behavior. Grounded in cognitive schema theory and relational cognition, these perceptions reflect an individual’s internalized scripts concerning whether sex validates love, whether love must precede sex, the primacy of emotional versus physical aspects of the partnership, and the perceived decline of sexuality within deteriorating bonds. The scale operationalizes this overarching construct into four distinct dimensions:

1. Love Is Most Important

This subscale assesses the belief that emotional intimacy, friendship, communication, and mutual respect constitute the foundational core of a romantic relationship, with sexual behavior serving as an auxiliary or secondary component. Individuals scoring high on this dimension maintain that love transcends physical affection and that relationships can thrive despite fluctuations or declines in sexual activity. For example, items capture the sentiment that “sex is secondary to the friendship aspects of our relationship” and that “communication is more important than physical affection.” This dimension reflects a pragmatic, companionate approach to intimacy where dyadic stability is decoupled from sexual performance.

2. Sex Demonstrates Love

This dimension captures the cognitive appraisal of sexual intercourse and physical intimacy as the definitive affirmation, tangible proof, and manifestation of romantic love. Rather than viewing sex simply as physical gratification or recreation, high scorers on this subscale perceive sexual intimacy as the primary communicative vehicle through which true love is evidenced and sustained. Representative perceptions include beliefs such as “Sex shows our love for each other” and “When we have sex, it proves that we love each other.” For individuals adhering to this schema, sexual withholding or low sexual frequency is often interpreted not merely as physical disinterest, but as an existential threat to the emotional love shared between partners.

3. Love Comes Before Sex

This subscale evaluates the temporal, normative, and emotional sequencing of romantic commitment relative to physical intimacy. It measures the conviction that profound affective bonding and explicit relational commitment must be firmly established prior to engaging in or fully enjoying sexual activity. Exemplified by statements such as “My partner and I wouldn’t have had sex if we didn’t love each other” and “For my partner and me, love came first, followed by sex,” this dimension reflects a traditional or socio-sexually restricted orientation. Individuals who score low (or who strongly endorse reverse-scored items emphasizing sex preceding love) adhere to a more permissive, uncommitted trajectory wherein physical chemistry initiates the relational trajectory.

4. Sex is Declining

The final dimension evaluates the perceived erosion, atrophy, or loss of sexual vitality within the relationship, frequently functioning as a barometer for relational estrangement, fading passion, or chronic conflict. This subscale measures appraisals of diminishing sexual frequency and decreasing romantic excitement, reflected in items like “My partner and I are drifting apart, and the sex is declining” and “We love each other and are comfortable together, but the excitement of being ‘in love’ has decreased.” Elevated scores on this subscale typically indicate dyadic distress, emotional detachment, or the natural transition from passionate love to low-arousal companionate stability.

Theoretical Framework

The development of the Perceptions of Love and Sex Scale integrates multiple theoretical frameworks within personality, social, and evolutionary psychology, providing a cohesive foundation for understanding dyadic functioning.

Evolutionary Psychology and Mating Strategies

From an evolutionary psychology perspective (e.g., Buss, 1994; Buss & Schmitt, 1993), mating mechanisms evolved to address distinct adaptive challenges. Romantic love serves as a commitment device designed to motivate biparental investment and long-term pair-bonding, whereas sexual desire functions primarily to promote reproduction and genetic transmission. In ancestral environments, the fitness consequences of decoupling sex from emotional investment differed systematically by sex due to asymmetries in minimum parental investment (Trivers, 1972). The PLSS captures individual differences in mating psychology, reflecting whether individuals implement long-term pair-bonding heuristics (e.g., Love Comes Before Sex, Love Is Most Important) or short-term mating strategies where physical intimacy operates independently of emotional attachment.

The Colors of Love and Typological Models

The PLSS builds conceptually upon John Alan Lee’s (1973) love styles typology, later psychometrically operationalized by Hendrick and Hendrick (1986) through the Love Attitudes Scale (LAS). The LAS demonstrated that romantic orientations vary systematically across six distinct styles: Eros (passionate love), Ludus (game-playing love), Storge (friendship-based love), Pragma (practical love), Mania (possessive, dependent love), and Agape (altruistic love). The subscales of the PLSS map cleanly onto these styles:

• Love Is Most Important aligns closely with Storge and Pragma, prioritizing dyadic stability, shared values, and friendship over erotic intensity.
• Sex Demonstrates Love exhibits conceptual convergence with Eros, where physical passion and profound romantic idealization are seamlessly fused.
• Love Comes Before Sex reflects conservative and anti-ludic frameworks wherein casual, uncommitted sexual exploration is rejected in favor of structured commitment.

Sexual Scripting Theory

Sociological and social psychological models of sexual behavior, notably the Sexual Scripting Theory developed by Simon and Gagnon (1986), argue that human sexuality is guided by cultural scenarios, interpersonal scripts, and intrapsychic schemas. Rather than responding solely to biological impulses, individuals internalize scripts that specify who participates, what behaviors are permissible, in what sequence events must occur, and what emotional meanings are ascribed to those behaviors. The PLSS measures intrapsychic scripts regarding whether sexual acts are coded as physical pleasure, relational validation, or moral transgressions when separated from emotional devotion.

Sternberg’s Triangular Theory of Love

Robert J. Sternberg’s (1986) Triangular Theory of Love conceptualizes love through three interactive components: Intimacy (feelings of closeness and connectedness), Passion (the drives that lead to romance, physical attraction, and sexual consummation), and Commitment (the decision to maintain the relationship over time). The PLSS operationalizes how individuals cognitively integrate or separate the passion and intimacy-commitment components. Sex Demonstrates Love represents a tight structural synthesis of passion and intimacy, whereas Sex is Declining captures the specific decay of the passion component while commitment and companionate love may remain intact.

Validity

Empirical evaluations conducted by Hendrick and Hendrick (2002), along with subsequent validation investigations in relational psychology, provide extensive evidence supporting the construct, convergent, discriminant, and criterion-related validity of the PLSS.

Construct and Factorial Validity

Construct validity was initially established through comprehensive exploratory factor analyses across diverse samples of university students and community-dwelling adults in romantic partnerships. Factor structures consistently identified the four proposed latent dimensions, accounting for substantial portions of total variance. Confirmatory factor analytic investigations have replicated the four-factor oblique model, demonstrating that the constructs are related yet distinct dimensions of relational cognition.

Convergent Validity

The convergent validity of the PLSS is substantiated by predictable, statistically significant correlations with validated instruments assessing romantic love, sexual attitudes, relationship satisfaction, and attachment styles:

• Love Attitudes: The Sex Demonstrates Love subscale correlates positively and moderately-to-strongly with Eros (passionate love; r ≈ .45 to .55, p < .001) on the Love Attitudes Scale, confirming that individuals with passionate orientations view sexual expression as a primary vehicle for love. Conversely, Love Is Most Important correlates positively with Storge (friendship love; r ≈ .35 to .42, p < .001) and negatively with Ludus (game-playing love; r ≈ -.30 to -.40, p < .001).
• Sexual Attitudes: The Love Comes Before Sex subscale displays strong positive correlations with the Committal subscale of the Sexual Attitudes Scale (Hendrick & Hendrick, 1987) and significant negative correlations with the Permissiveness subscale (r ≈ -.50, p < .001), corroborating its sensitivity to socio-sexual restriction.
• Relationship Satisfaction: Both Love Is Most Important and Sex Demonstrates Love relate positively to overall relationship satisfaction as measured by the Relationship Assessment Scale (RAS; Hendrick, 1988), whereas the Sex is Declining subscale consistently exhibits strong negative correlations with relationship satisfaction (r ≈ -.48 to -.58, p < .001) and dyadic commitment.

Discriminant Validity

Discriminant validity is supported by the factor-analytic divergence between the PLSS subscales and measures of generalized social desirability, neuroticism, and non-relational personality traits. While subscales share common dyadic variance, intercorrelations among the four factors remain low to moderate (typically |r| < .40), demonstrating that each subscale captures a unique facet of relationship cognition rather than a single monolithic response bias.

Criterion and Predictive Validity

The PLSS demonstrates predictive utility in longitudinal relationship research. Scores on the Sex is Declining subscale significantly predict relationship dissolution, decreased sexual satisfaction, and partner-reported dyadic distress over follow-up periods ranging from six months to two years. Furthermore, couples demonstrating high dyadic congruence across the Love Comes Before Sex and Love Is Most Important dimensions report lower rates of relational conflict and higher stability compared to incongruent dyads.

Reliability

The psychometric evaluation of the Perceptions of Love and Sex Scale indicates reliable measurement properties across diverse demographic cohorts, relationship durations, and adult age groups.

Internal Consistency

In the original validation studies by Hendrick and Hendrick (2002), internal consistency was examined across independent samples. Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the four subscales consistently met or exceeded standard psychometric benchmarks for behavioral research (α ≥ .70):

• Sex Demonstrates Love: Consistently yields high internal reliability, with alpha coefficients ranging between .81 and .84, reflecting strong item homogeneity and tight conceptual focus.
• Love Comes Before Sex: Demonstrates solid internal consistency, with alpha coefficients reported between .75 and .80 across male and female samples.
• Love Is Most Important: Exhibits acceptable to good internal reliability, with alpha coefficients typically ranging from .71 to .77. Given that this subscale incorporates both communication and friendship dimensions, this coefficient represents robust internal cohesion across multiple non-sexual relational domains.
• Sex is Declining: Yields internal consistency coefficients generally ranging from .68 to .74, which is acceptable given its brief item composition.

Test-Retest Reliability

Stability assessments over intervals of four to eight weeks in stable romantic relationships demonstrate moderate-to-high test-retest reliability coefficients (ranging from r = .70 to .82 across subscales). The subscales Love Comes Before Sex and Love Is Most Important demonstrate greater longitudinal stability, functioning as trait-like relationship belief schemas, whereas Sex is Declining exhibits greater temporal sensitivity to acute dyadic transitions and external life stressors.

Factor Analysis

The structural dimensionality of the PLSS was established through rigorous exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and subsequent confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) during its developmental phases.

Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA)

In the initial scale construction phase, Hendrick and Hendrick (2002) administered a broad item pool of statements reflecting cognitive linkages between love and sexuality to undergraduate and community samples. Principal Axis Factoring (PAF) and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) accompanied by both orthogonal (Varimax) and oblique (Promax) rotations were performed. The empirical criteria utilized to determine factor retention included Kaiser’s eigenvalue-greater-than-one rule, scree plot inspection, and parallel analysis. Across rotation techniques, a distinct four-factor solution consistently emerged, accounting for approximately 52% to 58% of the total variance across samples.

Factor loading patterns revealed strong, clean item-factor saturations:

• Items for Sex Demonstrates Love loaded predominantly on Factor 1, with primary factor loadings ranging from .68 to .83, and minimal cross-loadings (< .25) on remaining factors.
• Items defining Love Is Most Important loaded clearly onto Factor 2, with loadings ranging between .52 and .76.
• Items comprising Love Comes Before Sex loaded cleanly onto Factor 3, with loadings spanning .55 to .79 (including the negative loading of the reverse-scored item 11).
• Items capturing Sex is Declining grouped onto Factor 4, with loadings ranging from .54 to .78.

Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA)

Subsequent structural modeling has supported the four-factor correlated model over competing unidimensional or orthogonal alternatives. Fit indices for the correlated four-factor structure demonstrate acceptable-to-good fit to the empirical data:

• Comparative Fit Index (CFI) ≥ .92 to .95
• Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI) ≥ .90 to .93
• Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) ≤ .055 to .068 (with 90% confidence intervals within standard acceptable limits)
• Standardized Root Mean Square Residual (SRMR) ≤ .060

Measurement invariance analyses across gender have demonstrated metric and scalar invariance, confirming that the factor structure and item meanings are interpreted equivalently by men and women, thus enabling meaningful cross-gender comparisons.

Instrument / Measurement Tool

• Test Type: Self-report psychological scale / dyadic perception inventory.
• Format: Paper-and-pencil or computerized self-administered questionnaire.
• Administration Time: Approximately 5 to 10 minutes.
• Target Population: Adults and emerging adults (ages 18+) currently in a romantic relationship, previously in a relationship, or reporting hypothetical relationship orientations.
• Number of Items: 17 items (standard psychometric version).
• Subscale Composition:
  • Love Is Most Important: 6 items (Items 8, 9, 10, 14, 15, 17)
  • Sex Demonstrates Love: 4 items (Items 3, 4, 5, 7)
  • Love Comes Before Sex: 4 items (Items 2, 6, 11 [R], 16)
  • Sex is Declining: 3 items (Items 1, 12, 13)
• Response Scale: 5-point Likert scale formatted with letter identifiers:
  • A = Strongly agree with the statement (Scored as 5)
  • B = Moderately agree with the statement (Scored as 4)
  • C = Neutral – neither agree nor disagree (Scored as 3)
  • D = Moderately disagree with the statement (Scored as 2)
  • E = Strongly disagree with the statement (Scored as 1)
• Scoring Procedures:
  • Reverse-score Item 11 prior to scale computation: A=1, B=2, C=3, D=4, E=5. (Alternatively, if numerical entry 1 to 5 is used, transform via 6 – X).
  • All other items are positively scored (A=5, B=4, C=3, D=2, E=1).
  • Subscale scores are typically computed by summing or averaging the corresponding item ratings within each dimension. Calculating mean item scores (sum divided by the number of items on the subscale) retains the original 1 to 5 metric, facilitating direct cross-subscale comparison.
  • No single composite “total score” is computed, as the PLSS is an orthogonal/oblique multidimensional instrument representing four theoretically distinct constructs.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The Perceptions of Love and Sex Scale was officially published in 2002 by Susan S. Hendrick and Clyde Hendrick in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships. The instrument was developed within an academic research context and is widely accessible for non-commercial educational, clinical, and scholarly research purposes without payment of royalty fees. The copyright resides with the original authors and the publisher, SAGE Publications. Researchers and practitioners utilizing the instrument in scholarly work are expected to cite the original 2002 validation article. Commercial applications, widespread reproduction within published test compilations, or integration into fee-based digital clinical diagnostic software platforms require formal copyright clearance and permission from SAGE Publications and the authors.

References

• Buss, D. M. (1994). The evolution of desire: Strategies of human mating. Basic Books.
• Buss, D. M., & Schmitt, D. P. (1993). Sexual strategies theory: An evolutionary perspective on human mating. Psychological Review, 100(2), 204–232. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.100.2.204
• Hendrick, C., & Hendrick, S. S. (1986). A theory and method of love. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50(2), 392–402. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.50.2.392
• Hendrick, C., & Hendrick, S. S. (1987). Multidimensional sexuality scale. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 4(3), 263–288. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407587043003
• Hendrick, S. S. (1988). A generic measure of relationship satisfaction. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 50(1), 93–98. https://doi.org/10.2307/352430
• Hendrick, S. S., & Hendrick, C. (2002). Linking romantic love with sex: Development of the Perceptions of Love and Sex Scale. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 19(3), 361–378. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407502193004
• Lee, J. A. (1973). The colors of love: An exploration of the ways of loving. New Press.
• Simon, W., & Gagnon, J. H. (1986). Sexual scripts: Permanence and change. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 15(2), 97–120. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01542219
• Sternberg, R. J. (1986). A triangular theory of love. Psychological Review, 93(2), 119–135. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.93.2.119
• Trivers, R. L. (1972). Parental investment and sexual selection. In B. Campbell (Ed.), Sexual selection and the descent of man, 1871-1971 (pp. 136–179). Aldine.

13. Items of the Scale (Questionnaire)