Sexual Behavior in the Human Female

The report entitled Sexual Behavior in the Human Female is the result of research conducted by a number of scientists. This report was the second, after the volume on male sexual behavior, in a projected series. Like the first book the present volume is often referred to by the phrase the "Kinsey Report," after the originator of the project, and its lead researcher, Dr. Alfred Kinsey, a biologist from Indiana University. On being asked by the University to teach a course in sex education Kinsey was shocked to discover the near complete lack of reliable information on the subject. An entomologist by training, Kinsey found that the few available studies of the subject of sexual behavior "lacked the statistical validity [he] deemed essential" and so he began to conduct his own interviews (Brecher 112). Kinsey began his research with the decision that because so much of people's sex lives was normally hidden it would not be until information could be accumulated and statistically analyzed that scientists would have even a preliminary picture of the subject--the same basic method that had guided his previous study of gall wasps. Though a few researchers, such as Havelock Ellis, had previously used statistics in a limited way, Kinsey was interested in developing a pool of data that took in a wide variety of individuals from various classes, locations, and age groups. Kinsey's studies were the outcome of years of accumulation of data and the first systematic analysis of vari

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occurred in the past. Therefore they were inevitably forced to resort to case histories as the means of gathering data. As is noted, however, the mores and laws of the country are frequently "so remote from the actual behavior of the average citizen" that people take a risk of social or legal sanctions in exposing their histories (Institute 7). To ensure full compliance the researchers held that "by guaranteeing the confidence of the record, and by abstaining from judgments or attempts to redirect the behavior of any of the subjects" they could assemble the needed pool of information (Institute 7). The report supplies all the relevant demographic information on the subjects and discusses the problems of statistical analysis. The data's reliability and validity were, at the time the report was published, still insufficiently established. It was extremely difficult to establish reliability since this could only be accomplished via retakes in which consistency was studied between initial and later administrations of the survey. At the time of publication only 319 subjects (124 F and 195 M) had been requestioned and, while the results seemed to point to a fairly high degree of consistency, they were necessarily inconclusive.

Category: Psychology - S