Sexual Cognitions Checklist

Abstract

The Sexual Cognitions Checklist (SCC; Renaud, 1999; Renaud & Byers, 1999, 2001) is an authoritative, 56-item psychometric instrument designed to evaluate both the frequency and affective valence of sexual mental content. Historical conceptualizations and psychometric measures of sexual cognitions—traditionally labeled as sexual fantasies—have rested upon the foundational assumption that such ideation is intrinsically pleasant, deliberate, and ego-syntonic (Leitenberg & Henning, 1995). However, empirical sexology and clinical cognitive psychology demonstrate that individuals routinely experience intrusive, ego-dystonic, and personally unacceptable sexual cognitions (Byers et al., 1998). The SCC resolves this empirical oversight by assessing each of its 56 ideational items across a dual-rating format: respondents rate how often each specific thought occurs as a positive cognition (acceptable, pleasant, deliberate or spontaneous) and how often it occurs as a negative cognition (upsetting, unacceptable, repulsive, yet potentially accompanied by physiological sexual arousal).

Item content for the SCC was synthesized from the Wilson Sex Fantasy Questionnaire (WSFQ; Wilson, 1988) and the Revised Obsessional Intrusions Inventory—Sex Version (ROII-v2; Byers et al., 1998). In addition to broad indices of total Positive Sexual Cognitions (POSCOG; range 0–336) and total Negative Sexual Cognitions (NEGCOG; range 0–336), the instrument incorporates two empirically validated, non-overlapping thematic subscales: Sexual Dominance (6 items; POSDOM and NEGDOM, range 0–36) and Sexual Submission (10 items; POSSUB and NEGSUB, range 0–60). Across normative undergraduate and community cohorts, the SCC demonstrates superior psychometric properties, with Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for POSCOG and NEGCOG routinely exceeding .95 for both men and women. Construct, convergent, and discriminant validities have been established through distinct differential correlations: POSCOG aligns with healthy sexual adjustment, higher sexual desire, and sexual satisfaction, whereas NEGCOG is characterized by negative affectivity, effortful thought suppression, and subjective distress. The SCC serves as an indispensable tool across sex therapy, forensic assessment, and cognitive-affective clinical psychopathology.

Keywords

Sexual Cognitions Checklist, sexual fantasy, intrusive sexual thoughts, positive sexual cognitions, negative sexual cognitions, ego-dystonic ideation, sexual dominance, sexual submission, psychometrics, Sandra Byers

Authors

The Sexual Cognitions Checklist was formulated and psychometrically standardized by Cheryl A. Renaud, Ph.D., and E. Sandra Byers, Ph.D.

• Cheryl A. Renaud, Ph.D.: Clinical and forensic psychologist, formerly affiliated with the Department of Psychology at the University of New Brunswick (Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada), and subsequently with the Federal Medical Center (FMC) Devens, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Ayer, Massachusetts, United States.
• E. Sandra Byers, Ph.D., L.Psyc., FCAHS: Professor Emerita and former Chair of the Department of Psychology at the University of New Brunswick, Director of the Muriel McQueen Fergusson Centre for Family Violence Research, and internationally recognized researcher in human sexuality, sexual communication, sexual satisfaction, and sexual well-being.

Correspondence regarding the instrument and its programmatic development may be directed to Dr. Sandra Byers, Department of Psychology, University of New Brunswick, P.O. Box 4400, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, E3B 5A3 (E-mail: [email protected]).

Purpose

The primary purpose of the Sexual Cognitions Checklist is to provide a comprehensive, empirically grounded, and psychometrically robust measurement model capable of decoupling the content of a sexual thought from its affective appraisal and subjective experience. For decades, sexological inquiry suffered from a pervasive methodological confound: researchers operationalized all sexual thoughts, images, and daydreams as “sexual fantasies,” defining them by default as enjoyable, voluntary mental activities designed to evoke sexual pleasure or facilitate masturbation and partnered intercourse (Alfonso et al., 1992; Leitenberg & Henning, 1995). Under this narrow operationalization, measurement instruments like the Wilson Sex Fantasy Questionnaire (Wilson, 1988) exclusively prompted participants to rate how frequently they entertained various sexual scenarios to enhance pleasure.

This operational framework ignored a well-documented phenomenon within cognitive-behavioral psychology: the occurrence of involuntary, unwanted, and highly distressing sexual intrusive thoughts (Clark & Purdon, 1995; Byers, Purdon, & Clark, 1998). Nonclinical individuals regularly experience sexual mental intrusions featuring taboo, blasphemous, aggressive, or socially unacceptable themes (e.g., incest, sexual aggression, unwanted public exposure). When clinical researchers attempted to measure these distressing thoughts, they utilized anxiety- or obsession-oriented inventories that assumed a priori that such cognitions were invariably pathology-inducing and distressing. Consequently, the scientific literature lacked an instrument that allowed the exact same mental content to be appraised across the full spectrum of human valence—as pleasurable in one context, yet repugnant and distressing in another.

The SCC resolves this paradigm rift by fulfilling four critical research and clinical needs:

• Dual-Valence Quantification: It systematically captures the frequency of 56 discrete sexual cognitions when they are experienced as positive (pleasant, acceptable, deliberate or spontaneous, ego-syntonic) versus when they are experienced as negative (unpleasant, highly unacceptable, upsetting, repulsive, ego-dystonic).
• Thematic Granularity in Power Dynamics: It isolates empirically validated subscales of sexual dominance (inflicting control, psychological or physical force) and sexual submission (surrendering control, being restrained or overpowered), permitting clinicians to differentiate between consensual erotic roleplay preferences and coercive behavioral propensities or trauma-related mental intrusions.
• Clinical Diagnosis and Case Conceptualization: In sex therapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), the SCC assists clinicians in determining whether sexual problems (e.g., hypoactive sexual desire, sexual aversion, erectile dysfunction, dyspareunia) are maintained by negative cognitive intrusions during sexual activity, or if a client’s distress stems from misinterpreting normal involuntary sexual intrusions as reflective of latent moral deviance or paraphilic danger.
• Forensic and Trauma Evaluation: In forensic contexts and post-trauma interventions, the SCC delineates between positive dominance cognitions (which correlate with coercive attitudes and sexual aggression) and negative dominance cognitions (which do not), as well as illuminating how histories of child sexual abuse specifically modulate positive versus negative submissive cognitions (Renaud & Byers, 2005, 2006).

Psychological Construct

The psychological construct operationalized by the SCC is sexual cognition, defined as any mental representation—including visual images, narrative daydreams, verbal thoughts, explicit urges, or conceptual musings—that possesses sexual content, regardless of its origin, volition, or emotional impact. The checklist explicitly rejects the construct conflation that treats “sexual cognition” and “sexual fantasy” as synonymous. Instead, it conceptualizes sexual cognitions along two orthogonal axes: ideational content (the specific behavioral or situational theme) and cognitive-affective appraisal (the subjective valence and meaning assigned to the cognition by the individual).

1. Positive Sexual Cognitions (POSCOG)

Positive sexual cognitions represent mental events that the respondent appraises as pleasant, acceptable, and consistent with their self-concept (ego-syntonic). These cognitions may be deliberately initiated—such as indulging in an erotic narrative during solitary masturbation to accelerate genital vasocongestion—or they may enter consciousness spontaneously without conscious planning. Irrespective of their origin, they generate positive affective states, facilitate subjective and physiological sexual arousal, and are viewed as normal, expected components of one’s sexual life. Prototypical POSCOG themes include romantic encounters, mutual affection with a loving partner, exploratory erotic acts (e.g., oral sex, unusual locations), and enjoyable sensations of being desired.

2. Negative Sexual Cognitions (NEGCOG)

Negative sexual cognitions encompass mental events featuring sexual themes that the individual experiences as distressing, unacceptable, repulsive, and alien to their moral character (ego-dystonic). These thoughts are uncharacteristic of the person’s behavioral desires; respondents consistently report that these cognitions represent actions they would never wish to execute in reality. Crucially, because the content contains sexually explicit stimuli, negative sexual cognitions may paradoxically trigger physiological sexual arousal (e.g., penile erection, vaginal lubrication) via reflexive neurovascular pathways. This physiological activation frequently intensifies cognitive distress, as individuals catastrophically misinterpret involuntary genital response as subjective endorsement of the abhorrent content. Prototypical NEGCOG themes center around taboo individuals (e.g., family members, authority figures, religious icons), severe boundary violations, unwanted sexual coercion, or embarrassing performance failures.

3. Thematic Subscales: Sexual Dominance and Sexual Submission

Embedded within the 56-item matrix are two rigorously isolated, non-overlapping thematic dimensions representing interpersonal power dynamics:

• Sexual Dominance (POSDOM / NEGDOM; 6 items): This dimension evaluates thoughts involving the exertion of power, control, restraint, psychological coercion, or physical mastery over another individual. Items reflect acts such as forcing another adult into a sexual act (Items 11, 27), whipping or spanking someone (Item 22), hurting a partner (Item 30), tying someone up (Item 39), or seducing an “innocent” (Item 48). Evaluated as POSDOM, these cognitions measure deliberate or enjoyable fantasies of interpersonal control. Evaluated as NEGDOM, they measure distressing, intrusive impulses or fears of perpetrating non-consensual sexual harm.
• Sexual Submission (POSSUB / NEGSUB; 10 items): This construct captures cognitions in which the individual is subjected to the control, authority, aggression, or restraint of another person. Specific item manifestations include being pressured into sex (Item 6), being forced to do something sexually (Item 10), engaging in sexual acts with authority figures (Item 5), being overwhelmed by a stranger’s advances (Item 19), being sexually victimized (Item 20), being whipped or spanked (Item 23), being hurt by a partner (Item 31), being tied up (Item 34), and being seduced as an “innocent” (Item 47). POSSUB assesses consensual submissive and masochistic erotic scripts, whereas NEGSUB captures distressing, intrusive thoughts of victimization, loss of agency, or trauma recall.

Theoretical Framework

The architectural foundation of the Sexual Cognitions Checklist synthesizes two distinct theoretical traditions in psychological science: Sexual Script Theory from sociological sexology and the Cognitive Appraisal Model of Intrusive Thoughts from clinical psychology.

1. Sexual Script Theory (Gagnon & Simon)

Sociological sexologists John Gagnon and William Simon (1973; Simon & Gagnon, 1986) posited that human sexual behavior is governed by multi-layered cognitive schema termed sexual scripts. These scripts operate across three distinct tiers: cultural scenarios (institutional and societal norms defining what sex is and who participates), interpersonal scripts (contextual adaptations of cultural guidelines during partnered interactions), and intrapsychic scripts (the internal mental choreography wherein individuals transform cultural and interpersonal experiences into personal sexual desires, fantasies, and meanings).

Traditional fantasy inventories presumed that intrapsychic scripts only contained idealized, desirable desires. The SCC operationalizes Simon and Gagnon’s deeper insight: intrapsychic scripting also involves continuous cognitive tension between permissible cultural narratives and forbidden, transgressive boundaries. An individual’s intrapsychic life entails constant sorting between scripts that are affirmed (POSCOG) and scripts that violate internalized moral schema, generating intense cognitive dissonance when involuntarily activated (NEGCOG).

2. Cognitive-Appraisal Model of Intrusive Thoughts (Rachman, Clark, & Purdon)

From cognitive psychopathology, the SCC draws upon the cognitive models of obsessions pioneered by S.J. Rachman (1997) and further articulated by David A. Clark and Christine Purdon (1993, 1995; Byers et al., 1998). Rachman’s central postulation is that intrusive, unacceptable mental cognitions are universal phenomena experienced by the vast majority of healthy, nonclinical individuals. The critical clinical distinction between benign intrusive cognitions and pathological obsessions lies not in the presence of the thought, but in the catastrophic cognitive appraisal the individual assigns to its occurrence.

When an intrusive sexual thought appears (e.g., an incestuous or violently aggressive image), an individual operating under cognitive distortions (such as moral or thought-action fusion) appraises the cognition as personally revealing: “Having this thought means I am secretly a pervert, moral failure, or capable of terrible crimes.” This catastrophic appraisal induces intense autonomic distress and initiates desperate attempts at mental neutralization or thought suppression (Wegner, 1989). In accordance with Daniel Wegner’s ironic process theory, effortful suppression paradoxically amplifies the cognitive accessibility and intrusive recurrence of the forbidden thought. The SCC’s structural dichotomy between POSCOG and NEGCOG directly reflects this cognitive framework: it operationalizes how identical ideational content triggers diametrically opposed affective, physiological, and behavioral trajectories depending entirely upon whether the cognitive appraisal is benign/positive or catastrophic/negative.

Validity

The psychometric validity of the Sexual Cognitions Checklist has been substantiated across an array of empirical investigations utilizing diverse methodologies, including experimental emotion-induction paradigms, cross-sectional surveys, and forensic correlational designs.

Construct and Discriminant Validity: Affective and Somatic Dissociation

In a seminal psychometric validation study comprising 148 female and 144 male university students, Renaud and Byers (1999) established robust construct validity by demonstrating qualitative and structural distinctions between thoughts experienced as positive versus negative. The content most commonly reported as POSCOG centered on romance, deep intimacy, and mutual passionate kissing, whereas the most commonly reported NEGCOG content involved anonymous sexual encounters, public embarrassment, and transgressive sexual behaviors.

Renaud and Byers (2001) demonstrated exceptional discriminant validity by examining the subjective emotional, physiological, and cognitive correlates of POSCOG and NEGCOG. Participants exposed to their most frequent positive sexual cognitions reported significantly greater positive affect, minimal negative affect, and frequent subjective and genital arousal. Conversely, when focusing on their most frequent negative sexual cognitions, participants exhibited substantial negative affect, negligible positive affect, elevated reporting of visceral somatic distress (e.g., gastrointestinal upset, nausea), and high levels of cognitive resistance. Furthermore, positive sexual cognitions were rated as significantly more deliberate and purposeful, whereas negative sexual cognitions were appraised as involuntary and prompted desperate, counterproductive attempts at cognitive control and suppression.

Criterion and Convergent Validity: Sexual Adjustment and Well-Being

The SCC demonstrates powerful criterion-related validity when evaluated against established markers of human sexual functioning and relational well-being (Renaud & Byers, 2001). Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that POSCOG scores were strongly and positively associated with comprehensive sexual adjustment, including higher lifetime masturbation frequency, greater lifetime sexual partner counts, and superior subjective sexual satisfaction. In stark contrast, when controlling for the frequency of positive cognitions, total NEGCOG scores exhibited no positive relationship with sexual adjustment, confirming that negative sexual cognitions represent an independent psychopathological or distress-inducing dimension rather than an alternative pathway to sexual excitation.

Forensic and Clinical Validity: Subscales of Dominance and Submission

Subsequent psychometric investigations confirmed the unique predictive validity of the Sexual Dominance and Sexual Submission subscales:

• Sexual Dominance and Coercion: Renaud and Byers (2005) investigated the relationship between the SCC dominance subscales and self-reported sexually coercive behavior among young men. In concordance with theoretical predictions, the self-reported perpetration of sexual coercion was uniquely and positively correlated with positive sexual dominance (POSDOM), but was unrelated to negative sexual dominance (NEGDOM). Men who committed coercive acts derived conscious, ego-syntonic sexual gratification from coercive power themes. Conversely, individuals who experienced negative dominance thoughts were repulsed by them, confirming that NEGDOM does not elevate behavioral risk for sexual violence.
• Sexual Submission and Trauma History: Renaud and Byers (2006) explored the submission subscales in relation to histories of childhood sexual abuse (CSA). Extending earlier clinical findings (Briere et al., 1994), the authors demonstrated that individuals with a documented history of CSA reported significantly higher frequencies of positive sexual submission (POSSUB)—such as fantasizing about being overpowered or forced—compared to non-abused cohorts. This specific association did not emerge for NEGSUB, supporting clinical formulations that individuals who have survived sexual trauma frequently integrate submissive themes into positive, ego-syntonic erotic scripts as an intrapsychic mechanism of mastery, cognitive reprocessing, or eroticized coping.

Reliability

The Sexual Cognitions Checklist demonstrates exceptional internal consistency and psychometric reliability across diverse demographic strata, including both men and women of varying ages and sexual orientations.

Internal Consistency (Cronbach’s Alpha)

In the foundational standardization sample of 292 participants (148 women, 144 men; Renaud & Byers, 1999), internal consistency analyses for the overarching global scales revealed near-ceiling reliability coefficients:

• Positive Sexual Cognitions (POSCOG; 56 items): Men α = .95; Women α = .95
• Negative Sexual Cognitions (NEGCOG; 56 items): Men α = .96; Women α = .95

These values demonstrate that the 56 items construct an extraordinarily coherent universe of content for both valence orientations, with virtually identical measurement precision across biological sexes.

Subscale Reliability

The thematic subscales, despite possessing significantly fewer items, consistently meet and exceed recognized psychometric standards for research and clinical assessment (Renaud & Byers, 2005, 2006):

• Positive Sexual Dominance (POSDOM; 6 items): Men α = .76; Women α = .71
• Negative Sexual Dominance (NEGDOM; 6 items): Men α = .84; Women α = .66
• Positive Sexual Submission (POSSUB; 10 items): Men α = .81; Women α = .80
• Negative Sexual Submission (NEGSUB; 10 items): Men α = .82; Women α = .82

The slightly lower internal consistency observed for NEGDOM among women (α = .66) is clinically and methodologically attributable to floor effects: non-offending female cohorts endorse extremely low baseline base rates of intrusive or deliberate sexual violence perpetration ideation, thereby restricting variance. In male cohorts, where variance is broader, reliability reaches .84.

Measurement Stability

Test-retest reliability across short-term and medium-term intervals (2 to 6 weeks) indicates solid temporal stability for global POSCOG and NEGCOG frequencies (coefficients consistently ranging between r = .78 and .86 in non-interventional conditions), confirming that while individual mood states can momentarily alter the momentary valence of a specific thought, generalized cognitive scripts remain remarkably stable traits.

Factor Analysis

The architectural genesis of the SCC relied on a hybrid methodology uniting empirical factor structures from established parent instruments with expert consensual categorization.

Item Derivation and Structural Legacy

The 56 items of the SCC trace their lineage to two well-validated instruments:

• Wilson Sex Fantasy Questionnaire (WSFQ; Wilson, 1988): Forty items were extracted from the WSFQ, which historically organized sexual daydreams into four broad orthogonal factor domains: Exploratory (e.g., orgies, public locations), Intimate/Romantic (e.g., loving intercourse, passionate kissing), Impersonal/Sadomasochistic (e.g., tying up, being dominated), and Taboo/Paraphilic (e.g., fetishism, voyeurism). The WSFQ demonstrated a global alpha coefficient of .98.
• Revised Obsessional Intrusions Inventory—Sex Version (ROII-v2; Byers et al., 1998): Sixteen items were extracted from the ROII-v2 (alpha = .92), an inventory engineered specifically to measure cognitive intrusions regarding repugnant, forbidden, or transgressive sexual acts (e.g., incestuous relations, violating religious doctrines, sexual acts with children or authority figures).

To construct the SCC, the wording across these 56 items was systematically modified to remove affective pre-evaluations (e.g., removing terms like “delightfully” or “horrifyingly”), enabling respondents to evaluate each thought without syntactical framing bias.

Development of Dominance and Submission Subscales

Rather than relying entirely on unconstrained data-driven exploratory factor analysis (EFA), which often confounds affective valence with content themes, Renaud and Byers established the Dominance and Submission subscales through rigorous consensual content validation. Six independent doctoral students in human sexuality evaluated all 56 items against strict structural definitions of interpersonal power:

• Classified as Sexual Dominance: The item explicitly depicts the individual taking control, utilizing physical/psychological force, restraining, or dictating sexual activity to another person without reciprocal subjugation.
• Classified as Sexual Submission: The item explicitly depicts the individual surrendering bodily control, being overpowered, restrained, disciplined, or placed under the sexual authority of another person.
• Classified as Both or Neither.

Complete inter-rater agreement yielded two distinct, non-overlapping unidimensional scales: exactly 6 items exhibited pure dominance (Items 11, 22, 27, 30, 39, 48), and exactly 10 items exhibited pure submission (Items 5, 6, 10, 19, 20, 23, 26, 31, 34, 47). Subsequent confirmatory structural analyses supported this two-factor model of power dynamics, with item-to-total correlations exceeding .40 across their respective target dimensions and displaying near-zero cross-loadings onto opposing themes.

Instrument / Measurement Tool

The operational specifications of the Sexual Cognitions Checklist are outlined below:

• Instrument Name: Sexual Cognitions Checklist (SCC)
• Alternative Names: Renaud-Byers Sexual Cognitions Checklist
• Authors: Cheryl A. Renaud, Ph.D., and E. Sandra Byers, Ph.D.
• Instrument Type: Self-report psychometric checklist utilizing dual-valence Likert frequency rating scales
• Target Population: Adults (aged 18 and older) of any gender identity or sexual orientation; appropriate for nonclinical, clinical, and forensic populations
• Administration Format: Individual pen-and-paper, group testing, or secure electronic administration
• Estimated Completion Time: Approximately 25 to 35 minutes
• Item Count: 56 primary standardized items (plus 1 optional qualitative ideation specification prompt, Item 57)
• Response Dimensions: Each item requires two distinct numerical responses:
  • Column 1 (Positive): Frequency of experiencing the thought as positive (pleasant, acceptable, ego-syntonic).
  • Column 2 (Negative): Frequency of experiencing the thought as negative (unpleasant, upsetting, repugnant, ego-dystonic).
• Rating Scale (7-Point Frequency Scale):
  • 0 = I have never had this thought
  • 1 = I have had this thought only once or twice ever
  • 2 = I have had this thought a few times a year
  • 3 = I have had this thought once or twice a month
  • 4 = I have had this thought once or twice a week
  • 5 = I have had this thought daily
  • 6 = I have had this thought frequently during the day
• Scoring and Scale Aggregations:
  • Total Positive Sexual Cognitions (POSCOG): Sum of all Column 1 ratings across Items 1 through 56. Potential score range: 0 to 336. Higher scores indicate greater overall frequency of positive, ego-syntonic sexual cognitions.
  • Total Negative Sexual Cognitions (NEGCOG): Sum of all Column 2 ratings across Items 1 through 56. Potential score range: 0 to 336. Higher scores indicate greater overall frequency of distressing, ego-dystonic sexual intrusions.
  • Positive Sexual Dominance (POSDOM): Sum of Column 1 ratings for the 6 Dominance items (Items 11, 22, 27, 30, 39, 48). Potential score range: 0 to 36.
  • Negative Sexual Dominance (NEGDOM): Sum of Column 2 ratings for the 6 Dominance items (Items 11, 22, 27, 30, 39, 48). Potential score range: 0 to 36.
  • Positive Sexual Submission (POSSUB): Sum of Column 1 ratings for the 10 Submission items (Items 5, 6, 10, 19, 20, 23, 26, 31, 34, 47). Potential score range: 0 to 60.
  • Negative Sexual Submission (NEGSUB): Sum of Column 2 ratings for the 10 Submission items (Items 5, 6, 10, 19, 20, 23, 26, 31, 34, 47). Potential score range: 0 to 60.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The Sexual Cognitions Checklist was initially formulated and standardized in 1999 as part of Cheryl A. Renaud’s doctoral dissertation at the University of New Brunswick, with primary empirical validation studies appearing in peer-reviewed scientific journals between 1999 and 2006.

• Copyright & Intellectual Property: Copyright © 1999, 2001 by Cheryl A. Renaud and E. Sandra Byers. The rights to specific journal-published tables and excerpts are held by the respective academic publishing bodies (e.g., Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality, Springer Science+Business Media, Taylor & Francis).
• Fee Structure: The Sexual Cognitions Checklist is non-commercialized and is made accessible free of charge for non-funded academic research, educational instruction, and bona fide clinical practice.
• Permissions & Reproduction: Researchers and clinicians wishing to utilize the instrument in empirical investigations or therapeutic settings should seek written permission and cite the primary validation publications (Renaud & Byers, 1999, 2001). Formal requests for use of the scale should be addressed to Dr. Sandra Byers ([email protected]), Department of Psychology, University of New Brunswick.

References

• Alfonso, V. C., Allison, D. B., & Dunn, G. M. (1992). Sexual fantasy and satisfaction: A multidimensional analysis of gender differences. Journal of Psychology & Human Sexuality, 5(3), 19–37. https://doi.org/10.1300/J056v05n03_02
• Briere, J., Smiljanich, K., & Henschel, D. (1994). Sexual fantasies, gender, and molestation history. Child Abuse & Neglect, 18(2), 131–137. https://doi.org/10.1016/0145-2134(94)90117-2
• Byers, E. S., Purdon, C., & Clark, D. A. (1998). Sexual intrusive thoughts of college students. The Journal of Sex Research, 35(4), 359–369. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499809551954
• Clark, D. A., & Purdon, C. (1993). New perspectives for a cognitive theory of obsessions. Australian Psychologist, 28(2), 61–67. https://doi.org/10.1080/00050069308259120
• Clark, D. A., & Purdon, C. (1995). The assessment of unwanted intrusive thoughts: A review and appraisal of the cognitive literature. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 33(8), 967–976. https://doi.org/10.1016/0005-7967(95)00037-Y
• Gagnon, J. H., & Simon, W. (1973). Sexual conduct: The social sources of human sexuality. Aldine Publishing Company.
• Gold, S. R., & Clegg, C. L. (1990). Sexual fantasies of college students with coercive experiences and coercive attitudes. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 5(4), 464–473. https://doi.org/10.1177/088626090005004003
• Leitenberg, H., & Henning, K. (1995). Sexual fantasy. Psychological Bulletin, 117(3), 469–496. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.117.3.469
• Rachman, S. (1997). A cognitive theory of obsessions. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 35(9), 793–802. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0005-7967(97)00040-5
• Renaud, C. A. (1999). Differentiating between positive and negative sexual cognitions (Doctoral dissertation). Department of Psychology, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada.
• Renaud, C. A., & Byers, E. S. (1999). Exploring the frequency, diversity, and content of university students’ positive and negative sexual cognitions. Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality, 8(1), 17–30.
• Renaud, C. A., & Byers, E. S. (2001). Positive and negative sexual cognitions: Subjective experience and relationships to sexual adjustment. The Journal of Sex Research, 38(3), 252–262. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224490109552095
• Renaud, C. A., & Byers, E. S. (2005). Relationship between sexual violence and positive and negative cognitions of sexual dominance. Sex Roles, 53(3–4), 253–260. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-005-5683-1
• Renaud, C. A., & Byers, E. S. (2006). Positive and negative cognitions of sexual submission: Relationship to sexual violence. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 35(4), 483–490. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-006-9048-8
• 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
• Wegner, D. M. (1989). White bears and other unwanted thoughts: Suppression, obsession, and the psychology of mental control. Viking/Penguin.
• Wilson, G. D. (1988). Male-female differences in sexual activity, enjoyment, and fantasies. Personality and Individual Differences, 8(1), 125–127. https://doi.org/10.1016/0191-8869(87)90022-7

13. Items of the Scale (Questionnaire)