Date of Award

Summer 1976

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Psychology

Program/Concentration

Psychology

Committee Director

Louis H. Janda

Committee Member

Barry Gillen

Committee Member

Peter Mikulka

Call Number for Print

Special Collections LD4331.P65O54

Abstract

Sixty males and 60 females, divided at the median of their scores on the sex guilt subscale of the Mosher Forced Choice Guilt Inventory, made all possible comparisons between 15 stimulus cues. The cues were descriptions of individuals written to reflect characteristics felt to be important to the concept of sex guilt. Ratings of dissimilarity were analyzed by INDSCAL, and an unfolding method, both of which are multidimensional scaling techniques. Results indicated that high sex guilt individuals perceived a greater degree of dissimilarity between the stimulus "individuals" than did low sex guilt subjects. Furthermore, although the dimensions along which high and low sex guilt subjects made their judgments were similar, it was found that high sex guilt males used significantly less of the first (sociability) dimension than did any of the other three groups. It was also found that high sex guilt females rated the "individuals" quite differently than any of the other three groups. This was interpreted as an expression of a more traditional female role. Finally, high sex guilt subjects rated themselves as more similar to a trait sex guilty description than to cues dealing with trait sex anxiety, or general guilt. It was concluded that (1) the differences that were found between high sex guilt and low sex guilt subjects in their perceptual judgments was due to the differential importance placed on the characteristics of each of the "individuals" by the two groups; and (2) Masher's model of preservation of self-esteem best explained the behavior of high sex guilt individuals.

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