When an interviewer-administered questionnaire (IAQ) is used in sex research, the human element involved in a face-to-face encounter can influence the respondent to under­report certain sensitive behaviors and to overreport more normative or socially acceptable behaviors (Dolezal et al., 2011; Potdar & Koenig, 2005). A written or self-administered questionnaire (SAQ) provides an alternative survey method […]

Experimental research and direct-observation studies of human sexual responses often use measures of sexual arousal. In the early years of sex research, investigators had to rely largely on subjective reports of these responses. However, advances in technology over the last few decades have produced several devices for electronically measuring arousal (see I Figure 2.1). The […]

Sex researchers have benefited from the development of three distinct technolo­gies for collecting data. The first technology we will discuss—electronic devices for measuring sexual arousal—has been around for several decades. The other CHAPTER 2 technologies—computerized assessment of sexual behavior and sex research in cyber­space—are both relatively new.

A fourth method, experimental research, is being used with increasing frequency to investigate human sexual behavior. Studies using this method, typically conducted in a laboratory environment, have a major advantage over other methods because they provide a controlled environment in which all possible influences on subjects’ responses, other than the factors that are being investigated, […]

A third method for studying human sexual behavior is direct observation. In this method, researchers observe and record responses of participating subjects. Although observational research is quite common in the social sciences, such as anthropology, sociology, and psychology, little research of this nature occurs in sexology because of the highly personal and private nature of […]

How might the survey method be used to clarify the three assertions with which we began this chapter? The first assertion, concerning violent media and men’s likelihood to develop abusive attitudes and behaviors toward women, has been the subject of a number of surveys. One of the most notable studies involved 222 male nonoffender college […]

In 2010 one of the largest nationally representative investigations of sexual health and behaviors to date was released by Indiana University’s Center for Sex­ual Health Promotion. This study, titled the National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior (NSSHB), was conducted by Michael Reece, Debby Herbenick, J. Dennis Fortenberry, Brian Dodge, Stephanie Sanders, and Vanessa Schick […]

The outbreak of the devastating AIDS epidemic in the 1980s occurred at a time when the U. S. public health community was ill informed about the contemporary sexual practices of the citizenry. To fill this informational void with data that could be used to pre­dict and prevent the spread of AIDS, in 1987 an agency […]

The studies of Alfred Kinsey are perhaps the best known and most widely cited exam­ple of survey research. With his associates Kinsey published two large volumes in the decade following World War II: One, on male sexuality, was published in 1948; the follow-up report on female sexuality was published in 1953. These volumes contain the […]

Regardless of the survey strategy used, sex researchers find that it is difficult to secure a representative sample. This occurs because many people do not want to participate in sex studies. For instance, assuming that you used proper sampling procedures to choose your sample of older married couples in the example discussed earlier, what propor­tion […]