Sexual Excitation Index Test
How the Scales are Structured
Who Usually Takes This Test?
See How You Compare
Below is a preview of how scores are typically distributed across each scale.
Example Questions From the Test
- All of the time
- Most of the time
- Sometimes
- Rarely
- Never
- All of the time
- Most of the time
- Sometimes
- Rarely
- Never
- All of the time
- Most of the time
- Sometimes
- Rarely
- Never
Sexual Excitation Index Test - Description and methodology of the test
People who want to understand their sexual response can use this questionnaire to organize reflection on experiences that may be difficult to describe. The Sexual Excitation Index Test offers a structured result that can help respondents identify topics for personal reflection or an open conversation with a partner or clinician. A sexual arousal questionnaire can provide a starting point for that discussion.
What This Assessment Explores
Different sexual experiences provide contexts for considering individual differences in sexual arousal. The items address onset, touch and foreplay, sexual thoughts and activities, loss of arousal, orgasm, boredom, and relationship satisfaction. As a sexual excitability test, it summarizes one overall arousal tendency rather than separate result dimensions.
These item contexts show how the single result considers arousal:
- The Sexual Excitation Index (0–100) reflects individual differences in sexual arousal: Low excitability 0–39, Moderate excitability 40–69, and High excitability 70–100. Lower scores indicate increasing problems with sexual arousal and may prompt discussion of increasing arousal to a desired level.
- Items about onset show how readily stimulation becomes excitement.
- Questions about maintenance indicate whether initial excitement continues during sexual activity.
- Situational items describe how touch, fantasy, and activities relate to arousal.
- References to orgasm, pleasure, boredom, and relationship satisfaction place arousal in sexual-experience contexts.
Methodology and Scientific Basis
Each statement uses an ordered five-point response format, from All of the time to Never. Items describe both strong arousal and difficulty becoming aroused, slow onset, low initial arousal, or loss of arousal. The exact points assigned to each option are not specified, so the pattern should be interpreted through the displayed overall result rather than reverse-engineered from individual answers.
The Hurlbert Index of Sexual Excitability (Hurlbert et al., 1993) examines related patterns of sexual excitement and satisfaction. This online questionnaire is conceptually consistent with that work, but is not documented as a direct adaptation. Standardized norms are not established or provided for this online version. Masters and Johnson's sexual-response framework gives context to items about onset, persistence, and orgasm.
Interpretation is descriptive: higher result bands indicate greater sexual excitability, while lower results point to more difficulty with arousal. Stress, relationship context, health, medication, expectations, and self-awareness can affect responses, and self-report may be shaped by embarrassment or wishful responding. Used as a sexual arousal assessment, the result is one perspective for reflection and discussion, not a diagnosis.
- Hurlbert, D. F., Apt, C., & Rabehl, S. M. (1993). Key variables to understanding female sexual satisfaction: An examination of women in nondistressed marriages. Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy, 19(2), 154–165. 10.1080/00926239308404899
- Hurlbert, D. F. (2011). Hurlbert Index of Sexual Excitability. In T. D. Fisher, C. M. Davis, W. L. Yarber, & S. L. Davis (Eds.), Handbook of Sexuality-Related Measures (3rd ed., p. 242). Routledge.
- Masters, W. H., & Johnson, V. E. (1966). Human Sexual Response. Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Company.
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