PSYC 333 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Sexual Fetishism, Animal Sexual Behaviour, Human Sexual Activity
7 Sep 2020
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Chapter 3: Sex Research Methods
• Random samples: study participants who’ve been selected at random to accurately represent
population of interest in terms of gender, racial, socioeconomic, behavioural,
and other characteristics
o Individuals willing to participate in sexuality research differ in important ways from
those unwilling to participate
• Questionnaire: set of multiple-choice and/or short-answer questions designed to obtain specific
information, option for research method that is non-intimidating
• May be difficult to keep research free of bias
• Positivism: philosophy underlying scientific inquiry that requires knowledge be based on
reproducible experimental verification of natural phenomena rather than personal
experience
o Reliance on positivist thinking in sex research reflects desire to understand and measure
personal and social experience of sexuality
o One of earliest and longest-standing attempts to clearly define normal vs abnormal types
of sexual behaviour
• Opponents of positivist approach emphasize importance of personal experience within context of
sex, since this experience based on personal values, religious mores, cultural influences that give
sex its emotional meanings
• Heteronormativity: belief that humanity is divided into distinct and complementary genders
with natural roles in life
o Language historically used in sex research criticized because it reflects heteronormative
perspective
A Historical Overview of Sex Research Methods
• One of best-known sexual manuals the Kuma Sutra written in Sanskrit around 2nd C, consisting of
erotic instruction related to courtship, sexual intercourse, man’s interactions with his wife and
other women, tips on improving sexual vitality
• In Western nations, texts that discussed sexuality often censored, although texts encouraging
people to suppress their sexual desires were generally allowed to circulate
• Psychopathia Sexualis often credited as first text to approach sexuality from modern scientific
perspective yet this work heavily influenced by social values of the time, and pathologized
(identified conditions as abnormal or indicative of disease) a number of sexual expressions
including same-sex attraction, sexual fetishes, sadism (deriving pleasure/sexual gratification from
inflicting pain, humiliation, suffering on other people), masochism (deriving pleasure/sexual
gratification from experience of suffering physical pain or humiliation)
• Often referred to as “the father of sexology”, Iwan Bloch’s The Sexual Life of Our Time in Its
Relations to Modern Civilization took more objective look at sexuality
o Aimed to describe natural variations in sexual phenomena like masturbation and same-
sex attraction by describing their occurrence across cultures in healthy “normal” people
o Suggested all aspects of sexuality lie along continuum
• Early 20th C saw rise in publication of sexual manuals written by women, to educate women
about sexuality and to promote use of birth control
• Kinsey’s Interview-Based Approach
o Questions addressed wide variety of topics including marriage, sexual education, physical
history, nocturnal sex dreams, masturbation, heterosexual experiences, same-sex sexual
activity, sexual contact with animals
o Plan was to collect data from many subjects who spanned the continuum, of every
possible sexual interest and to develop a classification system based on these data
o Detailed categories and subgroupings he identified allowed him to compare sexual
behaviour between different groups based on sex, age, religious affiliation, marital status,
social class, education
o His work challenged Victorian ideas that women were uninterested in sex, normalized
same-sex attraction and bisexual fantasies/behaviour
o Most surprising was his success in obtaining detailed and intimate information about
interviewees’ experiences that didn’t conform to what was generally perceived to be
“normal” sexual behaviour
o Attributed sex to interviewing techniques which normalized wide variety of behaviours
by framing questions with assumption that every individual had engaged in entire
spectrum of sexual behaviours
o Some criticisms of his oversampling of white men and women, use of non-random
samples, possible inaccuracies in reported prevalence of various behaviours and
disorders, emphasis on person’s sexual behaviour rather than experiences
• Masters and Johnson’s Observational Approach
o First systematic, large-scale study of physiological sexual responses in humans
o Sought to understand human sexuality through direct observation of individuals’ sexual
responses -> Empirical approach innovative because it enables researchers to measure
sexual responses
o Observations during masturbation and sexual intercourse allowed them to speculate about
patterns of sexual excitement, plateau, orgasm, post-orgasmic resolution
o Although instrumental in characterizing sexual physiology and in developing first sex
therapy program, also criticized for oversampling white individuals, focusing on orgasm
as goal and outcome of “normal” sex, pathologizing same-sex sexual behaviour,
overemphasizing mechanical aspects of intercourse
Qualitative VS Quantitative Approaches to Research
• Qualitative research methods: explore variation in individual, interpersonal, group
understanding of phenomena by using flexible, open-ended
questions (subjective)
• Quantitative research methods: measure and organize naturally occurring variation often with
aim of identifying causal relationships (objective)
• Importance of considering both evident in Kinsey’s evaluation
o Initial interviews designed to qualitatively evaluate participants’ entire range of sexual
behaviours without making judgements
o Then used self-report information he had collected to create measurable categories of
behaviours that could be studied quantitatively with statistics
• Despite reliance on interviews in much of his work, accused of down-playing important
qualitative aspects of sexuality by preferring to focus on easily measurable behaviours
Sex Research Methods and Designs
• Research design: plan for how to collect and analyze data
• Descriptive research designs: allow researchers to summarize patterns of sexual phenomena
through observation and self-report
o Can be used in both qualitative and quantitative approaches
o Direct observation: observing and recording patterns in behaviour either in natural
setting or in lab
▪ Ecological validity: extent to which behaviours observed in research setting are
representative of what actually happens in real world
