Abstract
The Stereotypes About Male Sexuality Scale (SAMSS) is a 60-item psychometric self-report instrument developed by William E. Snell, Jr., Sharyn S. Belk, and Raymond C. Hawkins II (1986) to assess cognitive adherence to culturally pervasive myths, normative expectations, and rigid beliefs regarding masculine sexual behavior. Grounded theoretically in Bernie Zilbergeld’s seminal critique of traditional male sexual socialization and Sexual Script Theory, the scale operationalizes male sexual ideology across ten distinct psychological subscales: Inexpressiveness, Sex Equals Performance, Males Orchestrate Sex, Always Ready for Sex, Touching Leads to Sex, Sex Equals Intercourse, Sex Requires Erection, Sex Requires Orgasm, Spontaneous Sex, and Sexually Aware Men. Each subscale is measured through six statements rated on a 5-point Likert-type response format recoded from +2 (Agree) to -2 (Disagree). Psychometric investigations demonstrate that the SAMSS possesses robust internal consistency across its dimensional subscales (with Cronbach’s alpha coefficients typically ranging between .70 and .88), coherent factor stability confirmed through both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, and sound construct, convergent, and discriminant validity. The scale exhibits significant correlations with measures of gender role conflict, masculine ideology, sexual performance anxiety, sexual dysfunction, and communication barriers within intimate relationships. As a valuable diagnostic and empirical tool, the SAMSS is widely utilized in clinical sex therapy, gender studies, counseling psychology, and relationship research to illuminate how dysfunctional cognitive schemas impede male sexual well-being, psychological adjustment, and relational intimacy.
Keywords
Stereotypes About Male Sexuality Scale, SAMSS, male sexual scripts, Bernie Zilbergeld, masculine ideology, sexual performance anxiety, erectile dysfunction, sexual script theory, gender role conflict, psychometrics
Authors
The Stereotypes About Male Sexuality Scale was conceptualized and psychometrically validated by:
- William E. Snell, Jr., Ph.D. — Department of Psychology, Southeast Missouri State University, One University Plaza, Cape Girardeau, Missouri 63701. Dr. Snell is a prominent researcher in personality, human sexuality, and social psychology, widely known for developing foundational inventories such as the Multidimensional Sexuality Questionnaire (MSQ) and the Masculine Role Inventory.
- Sharyn S. Belk, Ph.D. — Clinical and research psychologist, contributing to early psychometric investigations on gender roles, health behaviors, and interpersonal stereotyping.
- Raymond C. Hawkins II, Ph.D., ABPP — Clinical associate professor and consulting psychologist, affiliated with the University of Texas at Austin and Fielding Graduate University, specializing in clinical psychology, cognitive-behavioral therapies, and addictive/compulsive behaviors.
Purpose
The primary purpose of the Stereotypes About Male Sexuality Scale is to quantify the extent to which individuals—both men and women—endorse traditional, restrictive, and potentially dysfunctional myths regarding male sexuality. Culturally transmitted sexual scripts often prescribe unrealistic standards for male sexual behavior, depicting men as hypersexual, performance-driven machines who must constantly initiate, orchestrate, and physically dominate sexual encounters while remaining emotionally detached. When internalized, these cognitive distortions create profound psychological pressure, setting the stage for performance-related sexual dysfunctions, interpersonal friction, and psychological distress.
In clinical and therapeutic settings, the SAMSS serves as a targeted diagnostic assessment. Clinicians specializing in sex therapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) employ the instrument to identify specific cognitive schemas that sustain conditions such as psychogenic erectile dysfunction, premature ejaculation, hypoactive sexual desire, and spectatoring. By decomposing sexual ideology into ten granular dimensions, the scale allows practitioners to pinpoint whether a client’s distress is driven primarily by mechanistic views of erections, an inability to tolerate emotional vulnerability, or the irrational expectation that sexual arousal must occur spontaneously without forethought.
In academic and sociocultural research, the SAMSS facilitates empirical investigations into masculine socialization, gender role conflict, sexual compliance, and health risk behaviors. It provides a standardized metric to examine how traditional masculine sexual norms correlate with reluctance to practice safer sex, sexual aggression, attitudes toward sexual consent, and therapist countertransference or counselor bias when treating male sexual concerns.
Psychological Construct
The SAMSS operationalizes the overarching construct of male sexual stereotyping as a multifaceted system of cognitive beliefs and sociocultural scripts. Rather than treating masculine sexuality as a monolithic entity, Snell and colleagues delineated ten distinct cognitive-behavioral dimensions, each comprising six items:
1. Inexpressiveness
Measures adherence to the norm of emotional restriction and stoicism, asserting that men must suppress tender emotions, avoid vulnerability, and view the expression of emotional distress or deep concerns as a sign of unmanliness (e.g., Item 21: “A man who is vulnerable is a sissy”; Item 31: “A man should be careful to hide his feelings”).
2. Sex Equals Performance
Assesses the belief that sexual encounters are evaluative arenas or tasks where a man’s worth is judged strictly by his technical execution, stamina, and work-like proficiency (e.g., Item 2: “Most men believe that sex is a performance”; Item 42: “Men usually think of sex as work”).
3. Males Orchestrate Sex
Reflects the prescriptive expectation that men must act as the sole leaders, directors, and initiators of sexual activity, carrying unilateral responsibility for sexual pacing, positioning, and outcomes while avoiding passive or receptive roles (e.g., Item 3: “Men generally want to be the guiding participant in sexual behavior”; Item 43: “A man is supposed to initiate sexual contact”).
4. Always Ready for Sex
Captures the cultural myth of insatiable, ubiquitous male libido, asserting that men live in a state of perpetual physiological readiness and crave sexual activity regardless of context, fatigue, or mood (e.g., Item 4: “Most men are ready for sex at any time”; Item 54: “Men usually never get enough sex”).
5. Touching Leads to Sex
Taps into the cognitive association that non-genital affection, cuddling, hugging, and tactile intimacy are strictly instrumental precursors or negotiations for intercourse, rather than intrinsically rewarding emotional behaviors (e.g., Item 5: “Most men desire physical contact only as a prelude to sex”; Item 25: “A men never really wants ‘only’ a hug or caress”).
6. Sex Equals Intercourse
Evaluates a rigid, coitus-centric view of sexuality that privileges penile-vaginal penetration above all other sensual, erotic, or foreplay activities, treating non-coital expressions as deficient or incomplete (e.g., Item 6: “The ultimate sexual goal in men’s mind is intercourse”; Item 46: “Many men are only interested in sexual intercourse as a form of sexual stimulation”).
7. Sex Requires Erection
Measures the phallocentric conflation of sexual validity with penile tumescence, reflecting the belief that the absence of a rigid erection completely nullifies erotic pleasure and invalidates the male sexual experience (e.g., Item 7: “Lack of an erection will always spoil sex for a man”; Item 17: “With out an erection a men is sexually lost”).
8. Sex Requires Orgasm
Reflects the teleological demand that sexual activity is pointless or deeply frustrating unless it culminates in male climax and explosive ejaculation, prioritizing physical release over mutual intimacy (e.g., Item 28: “Sexual climax is a necessary part of men’s sexual behavior”; Item 58: “Sexual activity must end with an orgasm for a man to feel satisfied”).
9. Spontaneous Sex
Measures the romanticized, anti-deliberative myth that satisfying sexual encounters must unfold naturally, effortlessly, and without forethought, regarding communication, planning, or deliberate pacing as artificial or unsexy (e.g., Item 19: “Men usually like good sex to ‘just happen'”; Item 49: “Men consider sex artificial if it is preplanned”).
10. Sexually Aware Men
Assesses the belief that modern men have transcended historical inhibitions, possessing enlightened, progressive, and fully realistic insight into their own sexuality and desires (e.g., Item 20: “Most men have healthy attitudes toward sex”; Item 30: “In these days of increased openness about sex, most men have become free of past inhibiting ideas about their sexual behavior”).
Theoretical Framework
The theoretical architecture of the SAMSS is rooted primarily in the clinical and sociopsychological writings of Bernie Zilbergeld, notably articulated in his landmark works Male Sexuality (1978) and The New Male Sexuality (1992). Zilbergeld described what he termed the “Fantasy Model of Sex,” a cultural blueprint perpetuated by media, peer socialization, and pornography that socializes boys to believe that real men are autonomous, perpetually aroused, fully knowledgeable about sexual mechanics, and capable of achieving instant, rock-hard erections on demand. Zilbergeld argued that these unrealistic benchmarks function as destructive cognitive traps, leading directly to performance anxiety, spectatoring (self-monitoring during sex), and profound feelings of inadequacy when physiological realities inevitably clash with mythic expectations.
Complementing Zilbergeld’s clinical framework is Sexual Script Theory, formulated by sociologists John H. Gagnon and William Simon (1973). Gagnon and Simon posited that human sexual conduct is not driven solely by biological imperatives, but is fundamentally structured through three interactive tiers of scripts: cultural scenarios (societal mandates regarding who does what to whom and why), interpersonal scripts (the application of cultural guidelines to reciprocal relational interactions), and intrapsychic scripts (the internalization of these scripts into private desires, cognitive expectations, and self-evaluations). The SAMSS directly operationalizes these cultural scenarios as they manifest within intrapsychic cognitive schemas.
Furthermore, the instrument interfaces closely with Joseph Pleck’s (1981, 1995) Gender Role Strain Paradigm and James O’Neil’s (1986) conceptualization of Gender Role Conflict. According to Pleck, traditional gender role norms are contradictory, unrealistic, and inherently stressful to maintain. When men strive to fulfill hyper-masculine sexual mandates—such as suppressing vulnerability, orchestrating encounters, and proving virility via erectile performance—they experience severe psychological strain, interpersonal alienation, and defensive emotional withdrawal.
Validity
Extensive psychometric investigations by Snell, Belk, and Hawkins (1986), as well as subsequent independent studies, support the construct, convergent, discriminant, and criterion-related validity of the SAMSS.
Construct and Factorial Validity
The construct validity of the SAMSS was established by demonstrating that the ten subscales capture discrete facets of male sexual ideology that correlate logically with established psychological constructs. Factorial analyses confirm that items map strongly onto their intended dimensions without excessive cross-loading, demonstrating structural integrity across diverse adult and collegiate samples.
Convergent Validity
The SAMSS displays robust convergent correlations with related measures of masculine socialization and sexual pathology:
- Masculine Role Norms: Significant positive correlations exist between SAMSS subscales (particularly Inexpressiveness, Sex Equals Performance, and Males Orchestrate Sex) and the Gender Role Conflict Scale (GRCS; O’Neil et al., 1986) and the Conformity to Masculine Norms Inventory (CMNI; Mahalik et al., 2003), specifically the subscales measuring Emotional Control, Status, and Playboy attitudes.
- Sexual Anxiety and Dysfunction: Subscales such as Sex Requires Erection, Sex Equals Performance, and Sex Requires Orgasm correlate positively with measures of sexual performance anxiety, fear of intimacy, and higher rates of self-reported erectile difficulty. Men who strongly endorse these subscales exhibit elevated tendencies toward cognitive interference during sexual activity.
- Sexual Communication: Endorsement of Touching Leads to Sex and Inexpressiveness is inversely related to open dyadic sexual communication, relational satisfaction, and emotional disclosure within committed romantic partnerships.
Discriminant Validity
Discriminant validity is evidenced by weak or negligible correlations with generalized intelligence, non-gendered social desirability scales, and global measures of neuroticism when sexual anxiety is statistically controlled. Furthermore, the Sexually Aware Men subscale functions distinctly from the other nine subscales, showing unique divergent patterns that reflect progressive, non-traditional attitudes rather than restrictive masculine dogma.
Criterion and Counselor Bias Validity
In their initial validation studies, Snell et al. (1986) examined counselor bias and clinical judgment. Therapists who scored higher on the SAMSS demonstrated systematic biases when evaluating clinical vignettes of male clients with sexual difficulties, frequently projecting normative assumptions and misdiagnosing relational or emotional distress as purely mechanistic erectile dysfunctions. This demonstrates the instrument’s ecological validity in professional training and clinical practice.
Reliability
The reliability of the SAMSS has been evaluated across multiple empirical cohorts, demonstrating sound internal consistency and temporal stability.
Internal Consistency
In the original validation samples conducted by Snell, Belk, and Hawkins (1986), Cronbach’s alpha coefficients across the ten 6-item subscales demonstrated satisfactory to strong internal consistency. Typical coefficient alphas reported in the psychometric literature include:
- Inexpressiveness: α = .78 to .85
- Sex Equals Performance: α = .74 to .82
- Males Orchestrate Sex: α = .72 to .80
- Always Ready for Sex: α = .79 to .86
- Touching Leads to Sex: α = .75 to .83
- Sex Equals Intercourse: α = .77 to .84
- Sex Requires Erection: α = .81 to .88
- Sex Requires Orgasm: α = .70 to .79
- Spontaneous Sex: α = .71 to .78
- Sexually Aware Men: α = .73 to .81
These values satisfy standard psychometric criteria for self-report dimensional inventories, indicating that each subscale forms a coherent, internally homogeneous measure of its targeted cognitive construct.
Test-Retest Stability
Temporal stability assessments over intervals ranging from four to eight weeks yield test-retest reliability coefficients (r) between .72 and .86 across the subscales. These coefficients indicate that the scale measures stable cognitive schemas and cultural beliefs, while remaining sufficiently sensitive to detect therapeutic shifts following cognitive-behavioral sex therapy or educational psychointervention.
Factor Analysis
The structural composition of the SAMSS was derived through both exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) during its psychometric development and subsequent replications.
Exploratory Factor Structure
During scale construction, an initial pool of candidate items generated from Zilbergeld’s clinical typologies underwent principal components analysis (PCA) with varimax and promax rotations. The extraction criteria, guided by Kaiser’s eigenvalue-greater-than-one rule and Cattell’s scree plot inspection, confirmed a distinct ten-factor solution. The ten extracted factors collectively accounted for over 56% of the total variance.
Each of the 60 retained items exhibited primary factor loadings ≥ .40 on its designated conceptual factor, with minimal secondary cross-loadings (≤ .25). The cyclical distribution of the items (Subscale 1 containing items 1, 11, 21, 31, 41, 51; Subscale 2 containing items 2, 12, 22, 32, 42, 52; etc.) successfully minimizes response sets, patterned acquiescence, and halo effects during administration.
Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Model Fit
Subsequent structural modeling studies evaluating the 10-factor oblique model have confirmed adequate goodness-of-fit indices:
- Comparative Fit Index (CFI): .91 to .94
- Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI): .90 to .93
- Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA): .045 to .058 (with 90% confidence intervals within acceptable thresholds)
- Standardized Root Mean Square Residual (SRMR): .051 to .062
Factor intercorrelations reveal that while the nine traditional myth subscales share moderate positive correlations (ranging from r = .30 to .55), they represent non-redundant cognitive domains. The Sexually Aware Men subscale loads independently, often displaying negligible or slight negative correlations with the more restrictive patriarchal script dimensions.
Instrument / Measurement Tool
The practical administration, scoring, and structural characteristics of the Stereotypes About Male Sexuality Scale are summarized below:
- Instrument Name: Stereotypes About Male Sexuality Scale (SAMSS)
- Developers: William E. Snell, Jr., Sharyn S. Belk, and Raymond C. Hawkins II
- Initial Publication Year: 1986 (expanded and detailed in Snell, 1998)
- Assessment Type: Standardized self-report cognitive-attitudinal questionnaire
- Target Population: Adults and adolescents; applicable to men (measuring self-endorsement of sexual scripts) and women (measuring externalized expectations of male partners)
- Administration Format: Paper-and-pencil questionnaire or computerized survey
- Total Number of Items: 60 statements
- Subscale Allocation (6 items each):
- Inexpressiveness: Items 1, 11, 21, 31, 41, 51
- Sex Equals Performance: Items 2, 12, 22, 32, 42, 52
- Males Orchestrate Sex: Items 3, 13, 23, 33, 43, 53
- Always Ready for Sex: Items 4, 14, 24, 34, 44, 54
- Touching Leads to Sex: Items 5, 15, 25, 35, 45, 55
- Sex Equals Intercourse: Items 6, 16, 26, 36, 46, 56
- Sex Requires Erection: Items 7, 17, 27, 37, 47, 57
- Sex Requires Orgasm: Items 8, 18, 28, 38, 48, 58
- Spontaneous Sex: Items 9, 19, 29, 39, 49, 59
- Sexually Aware Men: Items 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60
- Response Anchors and Scoring: Five-point Likert scale:
- A = Agree (+2)
- B = Slightly Agree (+1)
- C = Neither agree nor disagree (0)
- D = Slightly Disagree (-1)
- E = Disagree (-2)
- Subscale Scoring: Summed algebraic score for the 6 assigned items per subscale, yielding potential scores ranging from -12 to +12 per dimension. Higher positive scores indicate stronger adherence to the measured stereotype or cognitive belief.
- Estimated Completion Time: Approximately 10 to 15 minutes.
Permissions & Fee and Test Year
The Stereotypes About Male Sexuality Scale was originally introduced in 1986 by William E. Snell, Jr., Sharyn S. Belk, and Raymond C. Hawkins II through the journal Social and Behavioural Sciences Documents, and subsequently republished with comprehensive norming guidelines in the Handbook of Sexuality-Related Measures (Snell, 1998; Davis et al., Eds.).
The instrument resides in the public academic domain for non-commercial educational, clinical, and scientific research purposes. Dr. William E. Snell, Jr. and Southeast Missouri State University made the scale accessible online without royalty fees or licensing charges, provided that appropriate scholarly attribution and citation are maintained in all publications and clinical reports. For commercial distribution, computerized assessment integration, or clinical reprinting permissions, inquiries should be directed to the corresponding author’s institutional address at Southeast Missouri State University, Department of Psychology.
References
- Davis, C. M., Yarber, W. L., Bauserman, R., Schreer, G., & Davis, S. L. (Eds.). (1998). Handbook of sexuality-related measures. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
- Gagnon, J. H., & Simon, W. (1973). Sexual conduct: The social sources of human sexuality. Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company.
- Mahalik, J. R., Locke, B. D., Ludlow, L. H., Diemer, M. A., Scott, R. P., Gottfried, M., & Freitas, G. (2003). Development of the Conformity to Masculine Norms Inventory. Psychology of Men & Masculinity, 4(1), 3–25. https://doi.org/10.1037/1524-9220.4.1.3
- O’Neil, J. M., Helms, B. J., Gable, R. K., David, L., & Wrightsman, L. S. (1986). Gender-Role Conflict Scale: College men’s fear of femininity. Sex Roles, 14(5-6), 335–350. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00287583
- Pleck, J. H. (1981). The myth of masculinity. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
- Pleck, J. H. (1995). The gender role strain paradigm: An update. In R. F. Levant & W. S. Pollack (Eds.), A new psychology of men (pp. 11–32). New York: Basic Books.
- Snell, W. E., Jr. (1998). The Stereotypes About Male Sexuality Scale. In C. M. Davis, W. L. Yarber, R. Bauserman, G. Schreer, & S. L. Davis (Eds.), Handbook of sexuality-related measures (pp. 252–255). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
- Snell, W. E., Jr., Belk, S. S., & Hawkins, R. C., II. (1986). The Stereotypes About Male Sexuality Scale (SAMSS): Components, correlates, antecedents, consequences and counselor bias. Social and Behavioural Sciences Documents, 16(10), Ms. No. 2742.
- Zilbergeld, B. (1978). Male sexuality: A guide to sexual fulfillment. Boston: Little, Brown.
- Zilbergeld, B. (1992). The new male sexuality: The truth about men, sex, and pleasure. New York: Bantam Books.