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Why is “sampling” important in sex research? What is meant by “population,” “sample,” “random sampling,” “probability sampling,” “problem of refusal or nonresponse,” and “volunteer bias?” What are the phases typically used in obtaining a research sample? How do volunteers for sex research tend to differ from individuals who refuse to participate in sex research? What is meant by “convenience samples,” and why are they a problem in sex research? |
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What are the major inaccuracies that may occur in self-reports of sexual behavior? What techniques are used to minimize distortions in self-reports? What methods have been developed to assess how reliable people are in reporting sexual behavior? Under what circumstances are people able to give their best estimates of sexual behavior and when are estimates less likely to be reliable? |
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What are the three methods used for collecting data in large-scale sex surveys? What are the advantages and problems with each of these methods? What is meant by “CASI,” and what advantages does it have over traditional methods for obtaining information in sex surveys? What do the data suggest about which methods work best to obtain accurate information in sex surveys? What are the advantages and disadvantages of direct observation research? What extraneous factors might influence the outcomes of sex research? |
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Why are ethical problems particularly difficult in sex research? What are the two basic principles used by most scientific organizations to ensure that research is conducted in an ethical manner? Why is anonymity important in sex research? How is a “cost-benefit approach” applied to decisions about whether to conduct sex research? |
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How have political pressures affected research on human sexuality? (See Focus 3.1 and Focus 3.2, as well as the NHSLS.) |
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What sampling techniques and data-gathering techniques were used in the “Kinsey Reports” (1948, 1953), the National Health and Social Life Survey (1992, 1994), the ACSF Investigators’ study in France (1992), and the British survey conducted by Johnson (1992)? What precautions were taken to protect the participants? What were the strengths and limitations of each study? How did the findings of the French and British surveys compare with those from the U.S. NHSLS? |
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What issues arise when doing sex research with ethnic minorities in the United States? How did Ford and Norris address these issues in their sex survey of African-American and Latino youth? What patterns of both ethnic-group differences and ethnic-group similarities did they report? |
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What are the major problems with existing large-scale sex surveys conducted through magazines? |
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What is meant by snowballing and the sexual diary method employed by British sociologist Tony Coxon (1996) in his study of gay men’s sexual behavior in the AIDS era? What difficult issues did these methods attempt to address? How were subjects recruited for Bell, Weinberg, and Hammersmith’s investigation of factors that determine people’s sexual orientation? What were the strengths and limitations of that study? What is meant by path analysis? What is the major problem in doing studies of special populations defined by their sexual behavior? |
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What is the purpose and what are the procedural steps for using content analysis? How is reliability measured with this method? |
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What are the advantages and limitations of doing laboratory studies using direct observations of sexual behavior? What were some of the pioneering aspects of the research conducted by Masters and Johnson on the physiology of sexual response? What steps did they take to obtain participants and to protect the welfare of those participants? Why were they not concerned about the issue of sampling, and what kinds of conclusions are they unable to make from their research? |
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hat kinds of scientists use the participant-observer technique, and how does this method work? How did Humphreys conduct his research on impersonal sex between men in public places, and how did Moser study sadomasochistic interactions in semi-public settings? What are some of the ethical considerations in doing this kind of research? |
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What are the advantages and disadvantages of experimental sex research? What are the basic requirements of experimental design? |
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What is meant by average, mean, median, variability, incidence, cumulative incidence, frequency, and correlation? Why is average not the same as normality? How are correlations expressed and for what purposes are they used? |
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