revised Sociosexual Orientation Inventory (SOI-R)

The revised Sociosexual Orientation Inventory (SOI-R)

The personality construct of ‘sociosexual orientation’ or short ‘sociosexuality’ describes interindividual differences in the tendency to engage in sexual relationships without deeper emotional commitment. Since Simpson and Gangestad (1991) introduced the Sociosexual Orientation Inventory (SOI) as an economic measurement instrument, this construct is popular in personality and social psychology, as well as in sexuality research and evolutionary psychology. We (Penke & Asendorpf, 2008) developed a revised version of the SOI, which did not only correct several psychometric problems of the original that have often been criticized, but which also alows for the separate assessment of three facets of sociosexuality: behavior, attitude, and desire. Studies have shown that this differenciation of the construct is highly advisable, since the three facets often show very distinct relationships with other variables.
On this site you can find the official English items of the SOI-R. Please feel free to use them in your research! In addition, you can find a short manual (incl. item keys) and norms for the SOI-R.

A note on scoring the SOI-R: Sociosexuality is a dimensional construct and thus measured continuously with the SOI-R. There is no natural cut-off for a categorization of individuals as “restricted” vs. “unrestricted”. I strongly recommend that you analyze SOI-R data dimensionally.

The SOI-R is now available in 25 different languages (click here).

Please respond honestly to the following questions:

 

With how many different partners have you had sex within the past 12 months?

□	□	□	□	□
0	1	2 to 3	4 to 7	8 or more

With how many different partners have you had sexual intercourse on one and only one occasion?

□	□	□	□	□
0	1	2 to 3	4 to 7	8 or more

With how many different partners have you had sexual intercourse without having an interest in a long-term committed relationship with this person?

□	□	□	□	□
0	1	2 to 3	4 to 7	8 or more

Sex without love is OK.

1 □	2 □	3 □	4 □	5 □
Strongly disagree				Strongly agree

I can imagine myself being comfortable and enjoying “casual” sex with different partners.

1 □	2 □	3 □	4 □	5 □
Strongly disagree				Strongly agree

I do not want to have sex with a person until I am sure that we will have a long-term, serious relationship.

1 □	2 □	3 □	4 □	5 □
Strongly disagree				Strongly agree

How often do you have fantasies about having sex with someone you are not in a committed romantic relationship with?

1 □	2 □	3 □	4 □	5 □
Never	Very seldom	About once a month	About once a week	Nearly every day

How often do you experience sexual arousal when you are in contact with someone you are not in a committed romantic relationship with?

1 □	2 □	3 □	4 □	5 □
Never	Very seldom	About once a month	About once a week	Nearly every day

In everyday life, how often do you have spontaneous fantasies about having sex with someone you have just met?

1 □	2 □	3 □	4 □	5 □
Never	Very seldom	About once a month	About once a week	Nearly every day

 

The most important reference for the SOI-R is: