Annie Gonzalez Justice Morath September 30, 2013 Psychology 1010 Kinsey When Alfred Kinsey started out

studying biology he focused on the gall wasps and their mating patterns as well as their diversity. After twenty years of studying this insect, Alfred had learned a lot and used his information that he gathered to write a text book that was used across America in schools, he was also a Professor at Indiana University. Alfred always knew that his study of gall wasps wouldnt go very far, and thats when a new interest sparked in his head. After his first troubled night on his honeymoon with his new wife, Alfred began to wonder what was normal and what wasnt normal about sex. Alfred grew up in a very strict protestant family and none of them shared much knowledge with Alfred. In fact, during that time period of the early 1900s nobody ever talked about sex at all. It was socially unacceptable to talk about the subject. Whenever anybody had concerns about sex and sexual behavior, they would go to the doctor and the doctor would give them a religiously vague answer. Kinsey was determined to research and find out all the facts good and bad about sex. Kinsey would learn first hand about sex with his wife Mak. They would experiment all types of sex together. Kinsey taught a marriage course at Indiana University and he saw this as an opportunity to further his knowledge by asking the students about their sex history through assignments. After giving out assignments, he didnt feel like his responses to his questions were being answered properly. So Alfred Kinsey decided to go out in the city and ask people at bars about their sex history. Kinsey only received very little feedback from these people, and very few people would share their history with Kinsey. This amount of information wasnt enough to count for America by any means. Kinsey realized that he must talk to people who wanted to talk to him, who were willing to share their intimate history

for science. Kinsey would travel around the United States and hold volunteer questionnaires for new couples, old couples, homosexuals, and anybody who has had any type of sexual history, mainly men. These questionnaires told Kinsey that the American population knew very, very little about sex. This was concerning to him, so Kinsey dedicated his studies to writing a series of books educating America about sex. This would take a lot of samples from a lot of different populations around America. Not only did Kinsey travel the United States looking for participants to answer his questions, but also Kinsey would use other forms of studying sex and sexual behavior. Kinsey would film participants and colleagues having sex to better understand the human anatomy and what sexually arouses certain people, if it can be generalized or if specific arousal treatments are specific to individuals. Kinsey gained a lot of personal knowledge because he would also include himself on these experiments: as would any other scientist in their field of study. Kinseys name grew rapidly in the newspaper. He became very famous very fast, as he was the first scientist to want to break the social barrier and really find out the true facts on sex. Sex and sexual behavior was still a socially awkward subject to just talk about. Many Americans did not like Alfred Kinsey and did not support his research. It was very hard for Kinsey to find sponsors to help fund his research because many people were not only uncomfortable with the personal subject but they also felt that his ways of researching was unethical, and had many weaknesses about the responses he received. For example, when he gave his students in his marriage course the homework assignment of answering all these personal sexual questions, it immediately becomes biased. People will lie, or leave out important details due to social barriers and trust issues. The students did not know if they could trust Kinsey with these personal responses, so it made them not give accurate answers. Not only was this method biased, but it was believed to be unethical as well. Giving his research as a homework assignment meant that the students had no choice but to complete it: not giving the people the option to refuse or the choice to not participate in the research. Any of Kinseys questionnaires could have been biased as well. The people being questioned might give a false answer out

of intimidation or fear that they were abnormal. It was important for Kinsey to make the participant feel comfortable and gain that certain level of trust with him in order to receive honest answers. I believe that in the beginning of Alfred Kinseys research on sex and sexual behavior it was completely unethical to make his students apart of his research with out their permission. As time went on though, I believe that Kinsey, with the help of his wife and colleagues, were able to experiment and research ethically and accurately decreasing bias responses as well as allowing people to speak and experiment freely, not with out their own free-will. I also believe that through Kinseys research we, as a nation, have gained more accurate and modernized knowledge on relationships, sex, sexual behavior, and sexual orientation. Alfred Kinseys determination on breaking social bonds regarding the issue of sex has bettered us in the way that people can now somewhat distinguish the difference between religious sex views and simply the science of sex. The research has also bettered our nation because it has given us more knowledge on the dangers of sex and the precautions people can take to prevent such dangers from happening. It has ultimately helped broaden our knowledge and modernized our philosophy on sex and sexual behavior, as well as sexual orientation.