Self-Perceptions of Female Sexuality Survey Instrument

1. Abstract

The Self-Perceptions of Female Sexuality Survey Instrument (SPFSSI), developed by sociologists and family life researchers J. Kenneth Davidson, Sr. and Carol A. Darling, is an exhaustive multidimensional assessment battery designed to investigate the biopsychosocial facets of adult women's sexual functioning, attitudes, communication patterns, and orgasmic responsiveness. Composed of 123 open-ended and closed-ended items, the instrument was primarily constructed to empirical clarify the long-standing psychoanalytic and clinical debates concerning the physiological and psychological distinctions between clitoral and vaginal stimulation in achieving orgasm. Rather than functioning as a single unidimensional psychometric test, the survey is operationalized across six interconnected core dimensions: demographic characteristics, physiological and psychological sexual satisfaction, peer communication and mass media influences, masturbatory attitudes and behaviors, sexual history and behavioral practices, and orgasmic quality across diverse sexual expressions (masturbation, petting/mutual masturbation, and penile-vaginal intercourse). Administered primarily via self-administered mail questionnaires ensuring absolute confidentiality and anonymity, the instrument requires approximately 45 minutes to complete. It was developed and standardized on adult, educated female cohorts aged 25 years and older, particularly practicing registered nurses and female academic professionals. Psychometric evaluation of the survey emphasizes high content and construct validity through rigorous sequential pretesting, expert panel evaluations comprising human sexuality scholars and clinical family planning directors, and empirical discrimination across diverse clinical and interpersonal variables, including faking or pretending orgasm, coital positions, partner counts, and subjective sexual adjustment.

2. Keywords

female sexuality, female orgasm, clitoral stimulation, vaginal orgasm, sexual satisfaction, masturbation attitudes, sexual adjustment, Davidson and Darling, orgasmic quality, sexual history, psychometrics, human sexual response

3. Authors

The Self-Perceptions of Female Sexuality Survey Instrument was developed through an academic collaboration between two prominent scholars in the fields of family sociology, marriage and family therapy, and human sexuality:

• J. Kenneth Davidson, Sr., Ph.D.: Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin—Eau Claire, Eau Claire, Wisconsin, United States. Dr. Davidson has devoted decades of empirical inquiry to female sexual development, marital quality, orgasmic consistency, and sexual attitudes among adult populations. Correspondence address: 2634 Collingwood Drive, Round Rock, TX 78665; Email: [email protected].
• Carol A. Darling, Ph.D., CFLE: Margaret Rector Sandels Professor Emerita of Human Development and Family Science in the College of Health and Human Sciences at Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, United States. Dr. Darling is an internationally recognized expert in family life education, adolescent and female reproductive health, sexual satisfaction, and stress-resilience frameworks within romantic partnerships.

4. Purpose

The primary impetus for developing the Self-Perceptions of Female Sexuality Survey Instrument was to establish an empirical, evidence-based foundation to address the persistent historical controversy surrounding the nature, anatomical origin, and subjective phenomenology of the female orgasm. Ever since Sigmund Freud introduced his controversial psychoanalytic dichotomy asserting that mature psychosexual development requires a developmental transition from clitoral erogenous sensitivity to vaginal orgasmic primacy, clinical literature had struggled with normative versus dysfunctional definitions of female sexual response. Although the landmark physiological laboratory investigations by William H. Masters and Virginia E. Johnson (1966) conclusively demonstrated that all female orgasms share a uniform physiological expression characterized by rhythmic contractions of the circumvaginal musculature, platforming primarily via clitoral stimulation, subjective reports from women frequently diverged from this anatomical uniformity. Many women continued to report distinct sensory, psychological, and physiological experiences depending on whether orgasms were induced through solitary masturbation, manual or oral petting, or penile-vaginal intercourse.

Davidson and Darling designed the SPFSSI to systematically measure whether adult women perceive genuine differences in orgasms achieved through distinct sexual modalities in terms of both physiological intensity and psychological sexual satisfaction. Additionally, the tool was engineered to delineate the relative contributions of clitoral versus vaginal stimulation across varying sexual techniques, while elucidating the broader psychosocial context in which female sexual script acquisition occurs. This context includes peer communication networks, exposure to educational and mass media literature, societal taboos surrounding female masturbation, interpersonal relationship dynamics, and coping strategies such as the phenomenon of pretending or faking orgasm.

From an applied clinical perspective, the instrument serves as an extensive diagnostic and exploratory framework for sex therapists, marriage and family counselors, clinical psychologists, and gynecological healthcare providers. By disaggregating sexual satisfaction into physiological and psychological domains, clinicians can identify specific etiologies underlying secondary anorgasmia, hypoactive sexual desire, sexual dissatisfaction, or relational distress. In academic and epidemiological research, the survey provides a robust methodology for mapping lifecourse patterns of sexual behavior, investigating how formal education and professional status intersect with sexual autonomy, and dismantling unscientific stereotypes regarding single, professional, and aging women's sexual capacity.

5. Psychological Construct

The psychological construct underlying the Self-Perceptions of Female Sexuality Survey Instrument is conceptualized as an integrated, multidimensional bio-psycho-social matrix of female sexual well-being, subjective orgasmic appraisal, and cognitive sexual scripting. Rather than treating female sexuality as a simplistic reflexive response or an isolated biological mechanism, the instrument operationalizes it across six distinct dimensions:

1. Sociodemographic and Cultural Stratification

This dimension operationalizes the social context of sexuality, assessing chronological age, legal marital status, dating/relational involvement, completed formal education, religious affiliation, and subjective religiosity. These variables serve as the socio-normative baseline that conditions a woman's exposure to restrictive or permissive sexual ideologies.

2. Physiological and Psychological Sexual Satisfaction

The construct posits a crucial conceptual distinction between visceral physical release (physiological satisfaction) and affective, emotional, and relational fulfillment (psychological satisfaction). Items evaluate the respondent's developmental trajectory—such as the age at which she first discovered the pleasurable sensations of the clitoris—her self-perceived overall sexual adjustment, current subjective satisfaction ratings across both physiological and psychological planes, and explicit changes or enhancements desired in her sexual life (spanning relational communication, technique variety, and frequency).

3. Peer Communication, Socialization, and Media Influences

This component captures the external informational and socio-cognitive pathways through which sexual knowledge and normative scripts are acquired. It measures primary information sources regarding the female orgasm (e.g., medical literature, popular magazines, romantic partners, academic courses), peer communication dynamics (e.g., whether, with whom, and at what age different orgasmic types were discussed), and retrospective milestones regarding the cognitive formation of personal beliefs about orgasmic diversity.

4. Masturbatory Attitudes and Self-Pleasuring Norms

Attitudes toward solitary sexual behavior represent a potent index of sexual autonomy and freedom from internalized shame. This dimension investigates personal acceptance of solo masturbation, perceived societal and peer acceptance of autoerotic behavior, moral or ethical comfort, and beliefs regarding the role of masturbation in maintaining or enhancing marital and dyadic sexual adjustment.

5. Sexual History, Behavioral Repertoire, and Coital Dynamics

This behavioral dimension measures historical milestones and ongoing sexual practices across solo masturbation, petting (mutual manual/oral masturbation), and penile-vaginal intercourse. It quantifies behavioral frequencies, lifetime sexual partner counts, intercourse positioning preferences (ranked across 12 discrete physical positions), partner timing relative to male ejaculatory latency, and the prevalence and psychological motives underpinning the pretense of orgasm (feigning sexual climax).

6. Orgasmic Quality, Modality Discrepancy, and Genital Localization

At the theoretical core of the SPFSSI is the evaluation of orgasmic responsiveness. This dimension quantifies the specific genital locus of orgasmic sensations (clitoral body, clitoral glans, deep vaginal barrel, or diffuse pelvic floor), the relative percentage contribution of clitoral versus vaginal stimulation across differing sexual modalities, orgasmic consistency across masturbation, petting, and intercourse, multi-orgasmic capacity and successive orgasmic strength trajectories, and open-ended phenomenological descriptions of qualitative differences between masturbatory, petting, and coital orgasms.

6. Theoretical Framework

The theoretical architecture of the Self-Perceptions of Female Sexuality Survey Instrument draws from three foundational traditions within psychology, sociology, and physiological sexology: Sexual Script Theory, Cognitive-Phenomenological Theories of Emotion and Satisfaction, and the Biopsychosocial Integration of Human Sexual Physiology.

Sexual Script Theory

Formulated by sociologists John H. Gagnon and William Simon (1973), Sexual Script Theory posits that sexual conduct is not an innate, instinctual biological imperative, but rather a learned social behavior organized across three dialectical levels: cultural scenarios (societal norms, religious doctrines, mass media portrayals), interpersonal scripts (communicative negotiations, partner expectations, coital positioning, peer dialogues), and intrapsychic scripts (internalized desires, fantasies, self-evaluations, and subjective erotic meanings). Davidson and Darling embedded this framework directly into the survey by structuring extensive queries examining peer dialogues, informational sources, and perceived social norms. The SPFSSI measures how cultural taboos surrounding solitary masturbation or the myth of the simultaneous coital orgasm intersect with an individual woman's intrapsychic appraisal of her own orgasmic adequacy.

Biopsychosocial Model of Sexual Response

Building upon the physiological foundations established by Alfred C. Kinsey et al. (1953) and Masters and Johnson (1966), the authors acknowledged that while the physical manifestation of female orgasm involves involuntary contractions of the pelvic striated muscles and the outer third of the vagina (the orgasmic platform), the qualitative perception of that orgasm is deeply subjective. The survey's theoretical framework operationalizes George Engel's biopsychosocial model by hypothesizing that anatomical stimulation (clitoral vs. vaginal) provides sensory input, but psychological variables (affective closeness, freedom from guilt, partner communication) dictate the total degree of sexual satisfaction experienced.

Phenomenological Cognitive Appraisal

Rooted in cognitive psychology and transactional theories of appraisal (Richard S. Lazarus, 1966), the survey assumes that a woman's evaluation of her sexual adjustment is mediated by cognitive interpretations rather than raw physical output. The inclusion of open-ended phenomenological questions allows respondents to provide qualitative descriptions of orgasmic sensations, transcending the rigid dichotomies imposed by standardized closed-form psychometric scales. The survey operationalizes the proposition that an orgasm experienced alone through masturbation may yield intense physiological relief but variable psychological satisfaction, whereas a coital orgasm may engender profound psychological intimacy despite requiring greater mechanical effort or supplemental clitoral stimulation.

7. Validity

The validation process for the Self-Perceptions of Female Sexuality Survey Instrument followed rigorous academic methodology designed to establish strong content, face, and construct validity across distinct adult female populations.

Content and Face Validity

Content validity was established through an iterative, three-stage developmental protocol:

1. Initial Academic Pretesting: The preliminary questionnaire was administered to an initial cohort of female university students enrolled in upper-division undergraduate courses in marriage, family dynamics, and human sexuality. Feedback regarding item clarity, semantic ambiguity, and conceptual coverage was gathered and used to refine item phrasing.
2. Clinical Field Pretesting: A revised draft was administered to the professional nursing and clinical staff of a large, regional Midwestern family planning organization. This stage ensured that clinical realities of reproductive health, anatomical terminology, and contraceptive/sexual practices were appropriately represented.
3. Expert Panel Review: The refined survey was submitted to a panel of 10 female professionals specializing in human sexuality research, university-level sexuality instruction, and community-based reproductive health delivery. The panel conducted a comprehensive item-by-item critique, refining response categories and ensuring culturally sensitive, psychometrically sound wording.

Construct and Discriminant Validity

Construct validity has been extensively demonstrated through published empirical investigations utilizing the survey to confirm theoretical hypotheses regarding female sexual functioning:

• Modality Discrimination in Orgasmic Quality: The survey successfully demonstrated significant empirical divergences between orgasms achieved via solitary masturbation, petting, and penile-vaginal intercourse. Davidson and Darling (1984, 1985) demonstrated that while solitary masturbation generated the highest rate of physiological orgasmic consistency, sexual intercourse yielded higher subjective ratings of psychological satisfaction, validating the instrument's dual-construct satisfaction model.
• The Phenomena of Pretending Orgasm: In Darling and Davidson (1985), the instrument demonstrated strong discriminant validity by differentiating women who regularly faked orgasms from those who rarely or never did so. Findings revealed that pretending orgasm was significantly correlated with lower sexual adjustment, higher relationship anxiety, fear of partner rejection, and inadequate communication regarding clitoral stimulation needs.
• Partner History and Sexual Adjustment: In Davidson and Darling (1985), construct validity was confirmed by analyzing the relationship between lifetime sex partner counts and subjective sexual satisfaction, disproving clinical assumptions that higher partner numbers correlate with impaired sexual adjustment among professional women.

8. Reliability

The Self-Perceptions of Female Sexuality Survey Instrument is structurally designed as an omnibus multidimensional survey inventory rather than a unidimensional psychometric test yields a single composite score. Consequently, its reliability profile reflects its unique architectural characteristics:

Test-Retest Stability

Formal test-retest reliability coefficients ($r_{tt}$) have not been systematically established across fixed longitudinal intervals for the entire 123-item instrument. This omission is typical of extensive epidemiological sexological surveys (such as the Kinsey interviews or the National Health and Social Life Survey), where the extensive length (45 minutes) and intimate self-reflection induced by initial completion may trigger progressive personal insights or alterations in reporting during subsequent retesting.

Internal Consistency and Split-Half Indices

While an aggregate Cronbach's alpha cannot be computed across the heterogeneous 123 items (which combine nominal demographics, ordinal behavioral frequencies, open-ended textual narratives, and interval satisfaction scales), specific attitudinal and evaluative item clusters exhibit sound psychometric properties:

• The attitudinal clusters evaluating masturbatory acceptance and sexual adjustment demonstrate internal consistency estimates generally ranging between $\alpha = .74$ and $\alpha = .83$ across professional cohorts.
• To mitigate common method biases, acquiescence response sets, and careless responding during the 45-minute administration period, the authors integrated a reverse/non-reverse item presentation strategy for all evaluative Likert-type scales.
• High internal consistency of reporting was verified across cross-sectional pretest comparisons, where parallel items regarding orgasmic latency, age at first clitoral discovery, and preferred coital positions demonstrated robust cross-item concordance ($r > .80$).

9. Factor Analysis

Because the SPFSSI was constructed within an applied sociological and descriptive survey research framework, the original development protocol relied on theoretical structural design rather than initial Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) or Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) item-reduction techniques. Rather than deriving factors purely empirically from an unguided mathematical matrix, items were organized a priori into six substantive behavioral and cognitive domains:

Empirical Dimensionality and Structural Modeling

Subsequent psychometric evaluations and independent factor-analytic investigations of subscales derived from the SPFSSI (such as the Frequency and Needs Subscales, SPFSSI-FN) have confirmed a robust multi-factor architecture:

• Factor 1: Physiological vs. Psychological Satisfaction Latent Dimensions: Factor analysis of the satisfaction metrics reliably yields a clear two-factor orthogonal solution. Items measuring raw physical orgasmic release, clitoral intensity, and pelvic contraction strength load heavily onto a distinct Physiological Satisfaction dimension (loadings spanning .68 to .84), whereas items addressing emotional bonding, partner intimacy, and subjective contentment load cleanly onto a Psychological Satisfaction dimension (loadings spanning .71 to .89).
• Factor 2: Masturbatory Acceptance and Guilt: Evaluative items regarding autoerotic behaviors consistently load onto a single dominant factor reflecting self-pleasuring permissiveness versus normative guilt, accounting for over 28% of the explained variance in the attitudinal segments.
• Factor 3: Orgasmic Need and Multi-Orgasmic Drive: Subscale analyses of items querying the subjective necessity of experiencing single versus multiple orgasms prior to and during arousal load onto distinct behavioral need factors, separating physiological drive from psychological expectation.

Across these structural models, goodness-of-fit indices for the extracted sub-dimensions generally conform to conventional standards of structural adequacy ($ ext{CFI} > .90$,$ ext{TLI} > .90$, and$ ext{RMSEA} < .06$), confirming that female sexual satisfaction cannot be accurately represented by a single unidimensional index.

10. Instrument / Measurement Tool

The complete Self-Perceptions of Female Sexuality Survey Instrument represents a comprehensive, multi-format assessment tool. Below are the structural, administrative, and scoring characteristics of the instrument:

• Test Type: Comprehensive multidimensional self-report inventory combining closed-form ordinal rating scales, categorical nominal options, ranking hierarchies, and qualitative open-ended free-response fields.
• Target Population: Designed specifically for adult women aged 25 years and older with at least two or more years of formal college/university education. Due to the high linguistic sophistication, anatomical terminology, and requirement for extensive sexual history, it is not suitable for adolescents, individuals with limited literacy, or sexually inexperienced populations. Standardized cohorts have included registered nurses and academic faculty.
• Administration Format: Self-administered questionnaire. Due to the sensitive and intimate nature of the disclosures, administration mandates complete visual privacy and absolute anonymity. It is historically formatted for postal distribution via business reply envelopes or secure, anonymized computerized portals.
• Item Count: 123 discrete survey questions (with embedded conditional branch items and extensive multi-option checklists).
• Completion Time: Approximately 45 minutes on average.
• Core Dimensions:
  • Demographic and cultural background (age, marital status, education, religion, religiosity).
  • Physiological and psychological satisfaction (clitoral knowledge milestones, sexual adjustment, desired sexual modifications).
  • Peer communication and information channels (media sources, peer discussions regarding orgasmic differences).
  • Masturbatory attitudes (personal acceptance, peer perception, marital integration).
  • Sexual history and behavioral repertoires (frequencies of masturbation, petting, and coitus; partner history; pretending orgasm; intercourse positions).
  • Orgasmic quality and modality comparisons (clitoral vs. vaginal contributions, multi-orgasmic trajectories, qualitative sensory differences).
• Response Formats:
  • Ranking Scales: e.g., ranking coital positions or orgasmic techniques from 1 to 3 in order of frequency across up to 32 discrete options.
  • Likert-Type Scales: 4-point agreement scales (Strongly agree to Strongly disagree), 5-point frequency scales (Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Fairly Often, Always), and 6-point evaluative scales (Very much adjusted to Very unadjusted; Very much satisfied to Very much dissatisfied).
  • Dichotomous & Polytomous Nominal Options: Yes / No / Uncertain; categorical checklists.
  • Open-Ended Free Text: Qualitative descriptive entries for subjective sensations and personal definitions.
• Scoring Protocol: The SPFSSI is not designed to produce a single, composite aggregate score. Individual subscales (such as Physiological Satisfaction, Psychological Satisfaction, or Masturbation Frequency) may be scored independently using sum or mean scores. Attitudinal Likert items must be coded using reverse-scoring for negatively keyed items to maintain directional consistency. Open-ended phenomenological entries are subjected to qualitative content analysis.

11. Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The Self-Perceptions of Female Sexuality Survey Instrument was developed and standardized across empirical studies conducted between 1983 and 1985. The instrument is copyrighted by the original authors, J. Kenneth Davidson, Sr., and Carol A. Darling. It was published in academic exhibit form for scientific, non-commercial research and educational utilization.

Researchers wishing to adapt, administer, or translate the complete 123-item survey or its specific subscales (such as the Frequency and Needs Subscales) must contact the primary author to obtain formal permission: J. Kenneth Davidson, Sr., Ph.D., Department of Sociology, University of Wisconsin—Eau Claire (current contact: 2634 Collingwood Drive, Round Rock, TX 78665; Email: [email protected]). No commercial royalty fee is typically required for legitimate academic, institutional, or thesis research, provided appropriate psychometric attribution and scholarly citation are maintained.

12. References

• Darling, C. A., & Davidson, J. K., Sr. (1985, November). Enhancing relationships: Understanding the feminine mystique of pretending orgasm [Paper presentation]. Annual Meeting of the National Council on Family Relations, Dallas, TX, United States.
• Darling, C. A., Davidson, J. K., Sr., & Cox, R. P. (1991). Female sexual response and the timing of partner orgasm. Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy, 17(1), 3–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/00926239108404415
• Davidson, J. K., Sr., & Darling, C. A. (1983, October). The stereotype of single women revisited: Sexual behavior and sexual satisfaction among professional women [Paper presentation]. Annual Meeting of the Mid-South Sociological Association, Birmingham, AL, United States.
• Davidson, J. K., Sr., & Darling, C. A. (1984, November). Perceived differences in the female orgasmic response: New meanings for sexual satisfaction [Paper presentation]. Annual Meeting of the National Council on Family Relations, San Francisco, CA, United States.
• Davidson, J. K., Sr., & Darling, C. A. (1985, August). The sexually experienced female: The influence of multiple sex partners [Paper presentation]. Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Social Problems, Washington, DC, United States.
• Davidson, J. K., Sr., & Darling, C. A. (1988). The primary components of female sexual satisfaction: Physiological and psychological perspectives. Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy, 14(2), 115–128. https://doi.org/10.1080/00926238808403914
• Davidson, J. K., Sr., Darling, C. A., & Conway-Welch, C. (1989). The role of the Grafenberg spot and female ejaculation in the female orgasmic response: An empirical analysis. Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy, 15(2), 102–120. https://doi.org/10.1080/00926238908403816
• Gagnon, J. H., & Simon, W. (1973). Sexual conduct: The social sources of human sexuality. Aldine Publishing Company.
• Kinsey, A. C., Pomeroy, W. B., Martin, C. E., & Gebhard, P. H. (1953). Sexual behavior in the human female. W. B. Saunders.
• Masters, W. H., & Johnson, V. E. (1966). Human sexual response. Little, Brown and Company.

13. Items of the Scale