Understanding Human Sexuality:
Lesson Two/Chapter Two

Lesson 2, Lecture 2 and Chapter 2 discuss the major methods that have been used in sex research, as well as the problems and merits associated with each method. This knowledge is necessary for understanding and evaluating sex research. Critical thinking tenets state: "Examine the evidence." So if someone says to you, "I read in the paper that (_________________ whatever), you now will respond, "Really, how did the researchers identify that information?" You can say that because you have studied this chapter. Sex research is a relatively new field especially of "normal" sexual activity and came about thanks to Alfred Kinsey. Yet, in spite of the vast amount of knowledge sexologists have learned, many questions about human sexual behavior remain unanswered.

So, how is research (scientifically) performed, what are the kinds of research most often used in human sexuality?

Kinds of research: Descriptive research (not experimental) is used mostly in human sexuality research for reasons noted below. Let's look at some of the ways we do perform research: case studies, surveys (questionnaires, including internet and face to face interviews, and especially (in the case of Masters & Johnson) direct observation.

An example of sexology in research might be the following: a science writer hears of a 35 year old male who lost his penis at circumcision. He interviews all family members, reads medical records, and most probably would write a book about this. And, what research method would he use? I hope you said: the case study.

Sometimes our research simply identifies a relationship or correlation such as (for example) rapists often report high exposure to sexually violent pornography, we can conclude that there might be an association between the exposure to violent pornography and rape. We might use this in the future regarding legislation or legal uses.

We do have limits to correlations, think of this situation: after helping two of her psychotherapy clients deal with the impact of viewing excessive amounts of pornography on their intimate relationships, a particular sex researcher began to grossly overestimate the negative effects of viewing sexually explicit materials. She should be reminded of the limits of all research methods and in this instance: case studies.

So each descriptive research methods has advantages and disadvantages (or limits). An advantage of the survey method of research is it is relatively inexpensive and data can be obtained from large groups of people. In fact, most of our scientific information about human sexuality has been obtained through surveys.

Other advantages of surveys is that one can also use different methods such as telephone interviews, the Internet, and door-to-door interviews, not just pen and paper questionnaires.

Of course, Masters & Johnson used chiefly the direct observation because of the main advantage of the which is that it essentially eliminates the possibility of data falsification by research subjects.

The question of samples is especially important in large groups: assume you are interested in studying the sexual behaviors of the people who live in cities with populations of more than 1 million. You select 10,000 people from each of 15 cities to take part in a survey. Your sample should be representative of all of the citizens.

Sometimes, when large groups are not available you could use written or oral surveys, in a relatively small survey sample group, can be used to draw conclusions about a larger group, called the target group.

Regardless whether one uses questionnaires and/or interviews, both involve asking a set of questions, may involve multiple-choice, true or false, or discussion questions. They do allow subjects to respond alone, in their own homes, or with a researcher.

As noted above, the first part of the process of sampling is choosing a population to study. Interestingly, the validity of many studies done in the area of human sexuality is directly related to nonrandom sampling, volunteer bias, high rates of refusal to participate and nonresponse. The biggest problem in sampling is volunteer bias in that some subjects differ on significant sexual behaviors and influences the result of who will participate in sexual research. Volunteer bias can be demonstrated in that consistently researchers find that volunteers are more permissive in their sexual attitudes. This is a dilemma for valid research in that ethically sex researchers can only study those people who have agreed to participate in the study. Many sex surveys (such as the haphazard Janus report) may use a convenience sample such as walk-ins at a local doctor's office and therefore do not give a good, accurate picture of what is happening in the general population.

Discuss the major sex surveys of the twentieth century, including

a. The Kinsey Report;

b. The NHSLS;

c. Masters and Johnson's report

a. The Kinsey Report: Kinsey's face-to-face interviewing techniques were highly regarded because of the training of his interviewers and the fact that 50% of the interviews were conducted by Kinsey, himself. Problems of self-report, of course, always remain. His research participants include a disproportionate number of better educated persons. Regardless, Kinsey and his associates interviewed a total of 5300 males and 5940 females between 1938 and 1949. It is impossible to say how accurate the Kinsey statistics are ... the single most doubtful figure is the high incidence of homosexuality, further the survey is approximately 50 years old.

b. The NHSLS was headed by Edward Laumann, and included less than 3% of Americans. The most controversial aspect of the NHSLs sex survey was that some people thought the proportion reporting homosexual behavior was too low, most of the interviews were conducted in the presence of a third person, the findings could not be generalized (informally they are) to the U.s. population and questionnaires rather than personal interviews were used. This study has given us the greatest amount of information regarding ethnicity and sexual behavior

c. Masters and Johnson's report differs from surveys of sexual behavior because the directly observed sexual behavior in their laboratory and they assumed they were studying a normative physiological process common to all humans (who didn't object to being observed during sexual behavior). They did pay participants large sums of money. It is interesting that Masters and Johnson did study some of the same females who participated in the Kinsey studies. Regardless, if you want information on how men and women respond physiologically during sexual arousal and orgasm, your best source of information would be this research project.

Discussion Question

Respond to two other students (explain your responses). Be sure that you post three times separately to receive full credit for your responses.

Chapter 2 Quiz

This lesson does contain a graded quiz. Please complete it.