Women's experience of heterosexual intercourse—scale construction, factor structure, and relations to orgasmic disorder

Abstract

The current studies attempt to develop a self‐report scale tapping women's experience of heterosexual intercourse. In Study 1, 129 Israeli women freely expressed the feelings, thoughts, and motives involved in the experience of heterosexual intercourse. A content analysis revealed three experiential patterns: relationship‐centered, aversive, and pleasure‐centered. In Study 2, a self‐report scale, constructed on the basis of the above content analysis, was administered to 564 Israeli women. Factor analyses revealed the internal structure of the experiential patterns of heterosexual intercourse and showed that these patterns represented well‐differentiated experiences. In Study 3, the scale developed in Study 2 was administered to 36 clinical anorgasmic women, 26 subclinical anorgasmic women, and 36 sexually functional women. Results revealed a distinctive experiential profile of female anorgasmia along the three patterns of heterosexual experience.