Alfred C. Kinsey revolutionized the study of human sexuality. Kinsey's research aimed to diminish the mystique of sexual behavior. In the 1940s, Kinsey and a team of researchers interviewed thousands of men and women about their sexual lives. Among Kinsey’s major discoveries: All males and many females masturbated, premarital intercourse was the rule rather than the exception and at some point in their lives—in adolescence or as a young adult—nearly one-third of all men had had a homosexual experience. Despite legal challenges and national criticism, Kinsey pushed on with his research and published key works on human sexuality, including THE KINSEY REPORT, SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE, and SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN FEMALE.

Please watch the following video clip and answer the corresponding follow-up questions.

Alfred Kinsey Research

1			Specifically, how did Kinsey’s approaches to gathering information about human sexual behavior differ from the methods of Krafft-Ebing, Freud, and Ellis?
2			If a researcher such as Kinsey were to ask you specific questions about your past and present sexual behaviors, do you think you would be able to answer openly and honestly? What did Kinsey do to try to maximize the reliability of the data?
3			How could Kinsey’s research methodology have been improved, knowing what we know today and using the techniques presently applied in social research?