Trueblood Sexual Attitudes Questionnaire

1. Abstract

The Trueblood Sexual Attitudes Questionnaire (TSAQ) is an 80-item psychometric self-report instrument engineered to measure multidimensional attitudes toward sexual behavior, systematically bifurcated into attitudes regarding one’s own sexual engagement (Self scale, 40 items) and attitudes concerning the acceptability of sexual practices performed by other people (Other scale, 40 items). Originally conceived by Kelly Trueblood, Roseann Hannon, and David S. Hall (1998) as a 90-item instrument and subsequently refined and psychometrically validated into an 80-item questionnaire by Hannon, Hall, Gonzalez, and Cacciapaglia (1999), the TSAQ addresses five fundamental domains of human sexual expression: Autoeroticism (masturbation, sexual fantasies, and erotica consumption), Heterosexuality (premarital coitus, fidelity, and interpersonal emotional dynamics), Homosexuality (same-sex attraction, romantic partnering, and sexual acts), Sexual Variations (kink, dominance and submission, consensual pain infliction, group sex, and transvestism), and Commercial Sex (prostitution, commodified sex acts, and sexually explicit media performance). Rated along an expansive 9-point Likert-type spectrum ranging from 1 (Completely Disagree) to 9 (Completely Agree), scores indicate levels of sexual permissiveness, progressivism, or liberality versus traditionalism and conservatism. Psychometric validation among collegiate and cross-cultural cohorts demonstrates exceptional internal consistency, yielding an overall Cronbach’s alpha of .97, with alphas of .93 for the Self dimension and .96 for the Other dimension, accompanied by a 3-week test-retest reliability coefficient of r = .94 (p < .001). The scale consistently captures a robust discrepancy where individuals report significantly more conservative attitudes toward their own conduct compared to equivalent behaviors performed by others. The TSAQ serves as a critical evaluative instrument in sexological research, clinical human sexuality curricula assessment, and cross-cultural sociological investigations.

2. Keywords

Trueblood Sexual Attitudes Questionnaire, TSAQ, sexual attitudes, psychometrics, autoeroticism, heteronormativity, homosexuality attitudes, sexual variations, commercial sex, sexological assessment, self versus other discrepancy

3. Authors

The Trueblood Sexual Attitudes Questionnaire was developed and iteratively revised by a team of psychological and sexological researchers based at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California:

• Kelly Trueblood, M.A. — Department of Psychology, University of the Pacific; co-developer of the original 90-item conceptual instrument (1998).
• Roseann Hannon, Ph.D. — Professor of Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA; principal investigator in sexual behavior assessment, cognitive psychometrics, and curriculum evaluation.
• David S. Hall, Ph.D. — Research Associate and Sexologist, University of the Pacific and San Francisco State University; founding researcher in human sexuality measurement and web-based sexological data collection (Correspondence: 2111 Lido Circle, Stockton, CA 95207; Email: [email protected]).
• Vianey Gonzalez, B.A. — Department of Psychology, University of the Pacific; co-investigator in the 1999 psychometric revision and scale refinement.
• Holly Cacciapaglia, Ph.D. — Department of Psychology, University of the Pacific; clinical psychometrics and reliability analysis contributor.

4. Purpose

The primary clinical, educational, and psychometric objective of the Trueblood Sexual Attitudes Questionnaire (TSAQ) is to deliver a granular, comprehensive, and theoretically grounded assessment of sexual attitudes across diverse domains of contemporary human intimacy. Prior to the inception of the TSAQ, psychometric inventories measuring sexual attitudes—such as the Sociosexual Orientation Inventory or earlier single-construct erotophobia-erotophilia scales—frequently suffered from significant structural limitations: they conflated personal behavioral willingness with social moral tolerance, relied on restricted binary or truncated response categories, or aggregated heterogenous sexual domains into an undifferentiated unidimensional construct.

The TSAQ was directly operationalized to rectify these theoretical and empirical shortcomings. Its specific purposes encompass:

• Evaluation of Educational and Curricular Interventions: A driving motivation behind the development of the TSAQ was to measure longitudinal shifts in student beliefs following university-level human sexuality courses. Academic interventions in human sexuality rarely seek to dictate personal sexual practice; rather, they aim to cultivate intellectual objectivity, reduce unreasoned prejudice, and dismantle stigmatizing cognitive frameworks. The TSAQ enables educators to monitor differential shifts, evaluating whether didactic instruction expands tolerance toward others while leaving personal boundaries intact.
• Disentangling Egocentric Standards from Societal Permissiveness: Grounded in the conceptual framework established by Story (1979), the TSAQ separates personal behavioral acceptability (Self) from generalized moral acceptance (Other). This duality provides empirical insight into cognitive dissonance, moral compartmentalization, and sociosexual value systems.
• Cross-Cultural and Demographic Benchmarking: The TSAQ is structured to examine systematic variations across gender identity, ethnicity, acculturation status, religious orthodoxy, age demographics, and institutional affiliations (e.g., Greek-letter organizations versus non-affiliated student cohorts). Cross-cultural studies (e.g., Duyan & Duyan, 2005) leverage the instrument to examine how sociopolitical and spiritual environments moderate sexual progressivism.
• Clinical and Counseling Diagnostic Utility: In sex therapy and marital counseling contexts, the instrument illuminates intra-individual discrepancies (e.g., severe guilt regarding autoerotic behaviors contrasted with high theoretical liberalism) or inter-partner value conflicts that may fuel sexual dysfunction, hypoactive sexual desire, or interpersonal distress.

5. Psychological Construct

The Trueblood Sexual Attitudes Questionnaire measures the overarching psychological construct of sexual attitude liberality versus conservatism, structured hierarchically through a dual-perspective framework (Self vs. Other) across five distinct behavioral and sociological domains. Each domain is represented by eight parallel items in both the Self subscale and the Other subscale, yielding a balanced 80-item factorial architecture.

Autoeroticism (Masturbation and Erotica)

The Autoeroticism subscale quantifies attitudes toward solitary sexual expression, intrapsychic erotic contemplation, and personal engagement with sexually explicit media. It captures the psychological acceptance of masturbation as a valid release mechanism both during singlehood and within committed marital unions. Moreover, it assesses the cognitive endorsement of sexual daydreaming, solitary fantasy during coupled intercourse, and the use of literature, magazines, and audiovisual erotica for individual arousal. A conservative score in this construct reflects erotophobic guilt, moral condemnation of self-stimulation, or beliefs that masturbation signals relational failure; a liberal score indicates an affirmative appraisal of solitary sexual agency.

Heterosexuality

The Heterosexuality subscale measures conventional interpersonal heterosexual norms, relationship-bound sexual practices, and emotional prerequisites for coitus. Items examine the psychological endorsement of premarital sexual intercourse, sexual exploration during initial social encounters (uncommitted sex), oral-genital stimulation, and anal intercourse between male-female partners. Additionally, this construct contains key reverse-scored items tapping into relational exclusivity, compulsory reproductive intent (viewing sex solely as a procreative mechanism rather than a source of hedonic pleasure), and the requisite of romantic love as an absolute prerequisite for sexual intimacy.

Homosexuality

The Homosexuality subscale evaluates affective and cognitive orientations toward same-sex physical, emotional, and social behaviors. It measures attitudes toward same-sex attraction, mutual tactile stimulation, oral-genital contact, coital equivalents, bisexuality, and receptivity to romantic or physical advances from same-sex individuals. On the Self dimension, it assesses the subject’s internal comfort with personal same-sex attraction and behavioral willingness; on the Other dimension, it gauges broader sociopolitical homophobia, heterosexism, and tolerance of lesbian, gay, and bisexual expression.

Sexual Variations (Alternative Practices and Kink)

The Sexual Variations subscale examines moral and behavioral attitudes toward non-traditional, paraphilic-adjacent, and non-normative consensual sexual practices. These behaviors include consensual sadomasochism (BDSM; inflicting or receiving consensual pain for erotic gratification), erotic power dynamics (dominance and submission), transvestic arousal (cross-dressing for sexual excitement), consensual group sexual engagement (triads or polyamorous group encounters), consensual voyeurism (observing others engage in intercourse), and the production of private home erotica (videotaping coupled sexual acts). Higher scores signify high sensation-seeking and normative tolerance for alternative sexual scripts, whereas lower scores reflect rigid adherence to conventional heteronormative paradigms.

Commercial Sex

The Commercial Sex subscale quantifies attitudes regarding the commodification, public dissemination, and financial transaction of sexual acts and media. The construct investigates cognitive appraisals of commercial sex work (prostitution), participation in pornography production or exotic adult entertainment for monetary compensation, the complete abolition of government media censorship, and engagement with unsolicited erotic communications (e.g., erotic telephone calls). This subscale distinguishes between strict moral opposition to commodified sexuality and utilitarian, civil-libertarian endorsements of bodily autonomy and sex-work decriminalization.

6. Theoretical Framework

The TSAQ is rooted in a synthesis of social psychology attitude theory, sexual script theory (Simon & Gagnon, 1986), and cognitive attribution paradigms. Historically, the conceptual foundation of assessing sexological attitudes through split-referent metrics originates from Michael D. Story’s (1979) longitudinal research into university human sexuality instruction.

Story’s Dual-Referent Model

Story posited that human sexuality is governed by two fundamentally distinct perceptual reference points: intra-personal standards (what an individual permits within their own physical and moral boundaries) and inter-personal tolerance (what an individual sanctions or excuses in external agents). When evaluating moralized phenomena, humans frequently exhibit an asymmetry governed by actor-observer divergence and ego-protective defense mechanisms. An individual may hold deeply progressive, non-judgmental civil-libertarian values regarding the sexual pluralism of society, yet maintain a conservative, risk-averse, or traditionally bounded personal sexual lifestyle. Measuring these two perspectives via separate subscales prevents the conflation of cognitive tolerance with personal behavioral enactment.

Sexual Script Theory

According to John Gagnon and William Simon’s Sexual Script Theory, human sexual conduct is guided by normative scripts operating across three distinct operational strata: cultural scenarios (societal guidelines, institutional edicts, and mass-media narratives), interpersonal scripts (contextual adaptations negotiated between communicative partners), and intrapsychic scripts (erotic fantasies, private wishes, and individualized desires). The TSAQ directly mirrors this tripartite architecture. The Other scale primarily maps an individual’s interpretation and cognitive flexibility regarding cultural scenarios, whereas the Self scale interrogates the intersection of interpersonal readiness and intrapsychic permissibility.

Attribution Theory and Social Distance

The psychological bifurcation of Self versus Other also integrates concepts from Fritz Heider and Harold Kelley‘s attribution frameworks and social distance theory. Behaviors carrying perceived stigma (e.g., commercial sex, unconventional kinks, or same-sex behaviors among predominantly heterosexual cohorts) evoke differing levels of cognitive threat depending on proximity. By evaluating the respondent’s willingness to endorse practices across different social proximities, the TSAQ reveals the latent boundaries of personal identity defense versus generalized socio-ethical tolerance.

7. Validity

The psychometric validity of the Trueblood Sexual Attitudes Questionnaire has been evaluated across content, construct, convergent, discriminant, and known-groups criteria.

Content Validity

Content validity was established during the construction of the initial 90-item instrument (Trueblood, Hannon, & Hall, 1998). The investigators conducted an exhaustive content analysis of major university-level human sexuality textbooks, academic curricula, and the standard educational guidelines disseminated by the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality (SSSS). Items were systematically constructed to represent the five core domains of modern sexual conduct. Ancillary socio-political subjects that diverge from primary sexual behavior per se—such as political debates surrounding abortion, legal mechanics of divorce, or obstetric medical interventions—were excluded to maximize construct specificity.

Construct and Known-Groups Validity

Construct validity is substantiated through hypothesized demographic and cross-cultural differences:

• Self versus Other Discrepancy: In the validation study by Hannon et al. (1999) involving 194 undergraduate participants, mean scores on the Other scale (M = 5.21, SD = 1.92) were significantly higher (more liberal) than scores on the Self scale (M = 3.47, SD = 1.33), t-test comparisons yielding p < .001. Across all five subscales, individuals demonstrated significantly greater permissiveness toward others’ behavior than toward their own, confirming the theoretical divergence hypothesized by Story (1979).
• Cross-Ethnic Differences: Significant known-groups variations emerged across racial and ethnic lines, F(2, 157) = 10.86, p < .001. Caucasian participants exhibited significantly more liberal attitudes on both the Self and Other dimensions compared to Asian American and Hispanic participants, whose mean scores did not differ significantly from one another—a finding congruent with broader sexological literature regarding acculturation and collectivist familial norms.
• Gender Divergence: In the collegiate validation cohort, overall aggregate gender differences across global Self and Other scores did not reach statistical significance, reflecting a convergence of generalized attitudes within co-educational contemporary academic environments, although specific subscale divergences emerged on specific domains such as casual uncommitted intercourse and commercial media.

Convergent and Criterion Validity

Subsequent independent studies have reinforced the TSAQ’s criterion-related validity. In an investigation of psychological attachment and risky behavior among young adults, Petroski, Spears, Dempsey, and Kapalka (2007) observed that TSAQ liberality scores correlated significantly with measures of insecure attachment styles, sensation seeking, and high-frequency sexual risk-taking. Internationally, Duyan and Duyan (2005) utilized translated adaptations of the TSAQ to evaluate Turkish social work students, demonstrating that the instrument differentiates educational training levels and successfully correlates with established measures of homophobia, gender-role traditionalism, and human rights advocacy.

8. Reliability

The Trueblood Sexual Attitudes Questionnaire demonstrates strong psychometric reliability, exhibiting robust internal consistency and temporal stability across repeated administrations.

Internal Consistency

In the primary empirical validation study conducted by Hannon, Hall, Gonzalez, and Cacciapaglia (1999) among 194 university students (143 females, 51 males; median age = 20), the full 80-item instrument achieved an overall Cronbach’s alpha of .97. The 40-item Self scale demonstrated a coefficient alpha of .93, while the 40-item Other scale achieved an alpha of .96.

Subscale reliability coefficients and normative means across the two referent dimensions are detailed in the following table:

As evident from empirical psychometric evaluation, eight of the ten subscale metrics exhibit strong internal consistency (α ≥ .76 to .98). The Heterosexuality subscales demonstrated lower reliability coefficients (.68 for Self and .56 for Other), an attenuation attributed to ceiling effects and multifaceted content within items encompassing romantic emotional prerequisites, monogamous commitments, and premarital coitus.

Test-Retest Stability

Temporal stability was established by re-administering the TSAQ across a 3-week interval to a subsample of 104 participants. The overall test-retest reliability coefficient was r = .94 (p < .01). Baseline testing scores (Self: M = 3.47, SD = 1.33; Other: M = 5.21, SD = 1.92) remained highly stable upon retesting (Self: M = 3.55, SD = 1.48; Other: M = 5.24, SD = 2.04), confirming that the instrument captures stable cognitive constructs while retaining sensitivity to targeted psychoeducational interventions.

9. Factor Analysis

The structural dimensionality of the TSAQ was initially conceptualized via rational-theoretical item selection derived from college human sexuality curricula and subsequently scrutinized through Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) modeling frameworks across its developmental phases.

Dimensional Factor Structure

During the transition from the original 90-item instrument (Trueblood et al., 1998) to the revised 80-item version (Hannon et al., 1999), principal components analysis with varimax orthogonal rotation supported a five-factor solution within each of the two master domains (Self and Other). The five latent dimensions correspond cleanly to the designated theoretical subscales:

• Factor 1: Homosexuality Attitudes. Accounted for the largest proportion of common variance, with factor loadings ranging from .71 to .92 across both Self and Other formulations. Items targeting attraction, oral-genital contact, intercourse, and social advances from members of the same sex loaded strongly onto this construct.
• Factor 2: Autoeroticism and Erotica. Loaded items related to solitary masturbation, daydreaming/fantasizing, and erotica/pornography consumption, exhibiting standardized loadings predominantly between .62 and .84.
• Factor 3: Sexual Variations (Kink/Alternative Behaviors). Clustered items capturing consensual BDSM (infliction of pain, dominance/submission), transvestism, voyeuristic appreciation, and consensual multipartner (group) sexual arrangements, yielding robust loadings between .55 and .81.
• Factor 4: Commercial Sex Work and Public Exhibition. Captured variance associated with financial prostitution, appearing in adult entertainment, selling personal sexual services, and unrestricted media access, with loadings between .58 and .79.
• Factor 5: Heterosexual Interpersonal Conventions. Composed of items addressing premarital intercourse, anal and oral heterosexual contact, relationship exclusivity, and procreative rationales. Factor loadings were more diffuse (.41 to .66), explaining the lower alpha coefficients observed for this subscale.

Structural Fit Considerations

Later psychometric evaluations utilizing structural equation modeling (SEM) indicate that a hierarchical, bifactor model—incorporating two broad second-order factors representing General Personal Permissiveness (Self) and General Societal Permissiveness (Other), with ten nested first-order factors—demonstrates acceptable fit indices (Comparative Fit Index [CFI] > .90, Tucker-Lewis Index [TLI] > .89, Root Mean Square Error of Approximation [RMSEA] ≤ .058). The factor analytic data support keeping the Self and Other items analytically distinct, confirming that individuals mentally organize personal sexual standards separately from societal sexual tolerance.

10. Instrument / Measurement Tool

The Trueblood Sexual Attitudes Questionnaire is presented below in its structural parameters, administrative requirements, and scoring methodology.

• Instrument Type: Self-administered psychometric assessment / attitudinal survey.
• Format: Available as a paper-and-pencil inventory or via secure online computer-assisted survey software.
• Total Number of Items: 80 items (divided equally into two distinct 40-item batteries: Part I for Self attitudes, Part II for Other attitudes).
• Subscales (10 total metrics):
  • Autoeroticism – Self (8 items)
  • Heterosexuality – Self (8 items)
  • Homosexuality – Self (8 items)
  • Sexual Variations – Self (8 items)
  • Commercial Sex – Self (8 items)
  • Autoeroticism – Other (8 items)
  • Heterosexuality – Other (8 items)
  • Homosexuality – Other (8 items)
  • Sexual Variations – Other (8 items)
  • Commercial Sex – Other (8 items)
• Administration Time: Approximately 15 to 20 minutes to complete the full 80 items.
• Response Format: 9-point Likert-type rating scale ranging from 1 (Completely Disagree) to 9 (Completely Agree).
• Scoring Protocol:
  • Items designated with reverse-scoring (R) must be numerically inverted prior to computation:
    
    Inverted Score = 10 - Original Response Value
  • Subscale scores are calculated as the arithmetic mean of the 8 items comprising that specific domain (ranging from 1.00 to 9.00).
  • Composite domain scores for Overall Self Scale (mean of all 40 Self items) and Overall Other Scale (mean of all 40 Other items) are generated.
  • Higher numerical mean values systematically indicate greater sexual liberality, permissiveness, and progressivism; lower values reflect conservative, traditional, or restrictive attitudes.

11. Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The Trueblood Sexual Attitudes Questionnaire was originally introduced in 1998 (Trueblood, Hannon, & Hall) and formally published in its definitive 80-item revised format in 1999 by Roseann Hannon, David Hall, Vianey Gonzalez, and Holly Cacciapaglia in the open-access Electronic Journal of Human Sexuality.

The instrument is archived within the public domain for non-profit academic, psychoeducational, and scientific research investigations and is indexed in the Gender and Sexuality Psychology (GASP) Measures Database of the American Psychological Association. No licensing fees or royalty payments are required for academic research, university instruction, or clinical counseling evaluations. Researchers and institutional practitioners wishing to use, digitally adapt, or translate the questionnaire are requested to maintain formal bibliographic attribution to the original authors (Hannon et al., 1999) and may direct institutional correspondence to Dr. David S. Hall (Stockton, CA; email: [email protected]).

12. References

The following references document the theoretical foundation, psychometric validation, and scientific deployment of the Trueblood Sexual Attitudes Questionnaire:

• Duyan, V., & Duyan, G. (2005). Turkish social work students’ attitudes toward sexuality. Sex Roles, 52(9–10), 697–706. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-005-3736-2
• Gagnon, J. H., & Simon, W. (1973). Sexual Conduct: The Social Sources of Human Sexuality. Aldine Publishing Company.
• Hannon, R., Hall, D. S., Gonzalez, V., & Cacciapaglia, H. (1999). Revision and reliability of a measure of sexual attitudes. Electronic Journal of Human Sexuality, 2. http://www.ejhs.org/volume2/hannon/attitudes.htm
• Petroski, J., Spears, J., Dempsey, A., & Kapalka, G. M. (2007). Relationship between attachment style and risky sexual behavior. In G. M. Kapalka (Ed.), Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the New Jersey Counseling Association (pp. 111–124). NJCA.
• 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
• Story, M. D. (1979). A longitudinal study of the effects of a university human sexuality course on attitudes toward human sexuality. The Journal of Sex Research, 15(3), 184–204. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224497909551041
• Trueblood, K., Hannon, R., & Hall, D. S. (1998, June). Development and validation of a measure of sexual attitudes. Paper presented at the meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality Western Region Annual Conference, Honolulu, HI.

13. Items of the Scale (Questionnaire)