a critique on the usage of mosher’s sexual guilt scale in psychology and psychiatry researches in islamic societies: cultural differences in the meaning of sexual guilt

due to the increasing use of questionnaires as simple and accessible tools to measure psychological constructs it is necessary to evaluate these tools in terms of cross-cultural adaptation. therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the cross-cultural adaptation of the mouser sexual guilt questionnaire. this research is a descriptive cross-sectional study. the statistical population of the study consisted of all sexual health psychologists who either they were seminary educated (educated at hawzah) or educated abroad. the study sample was selected in a purposeful manner. each group consisted of 20 experts who they expressed their views on the items of the mosher sex-guilt scale. data were analyzed using independent t-test for independent groups. the results showed that there is a significant difference between the seminaries educated specialists and educated abroad specialists. in other words, the thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors that indicate sexual guilt differ between the two groups of professionals. sexual guilt is a culture-bounded concept. behavior, thoughts, and beliefs that are considered as sexual guilt in one culture and their existence can harm one s sexual health may be considered acceptable in another culture.