Favored Methods

Central to the sexological model is an insistence on proper methods. How did they become established? Such questions are not unique to sex research, of course, and the recent work in the social studies of science (e. g., Knorr-Cetina & Mulkay, 1983), including psychology (Morawski, 1989), directs our attention to the role of the culture of science in setting traditions and norms (Dear, 1995). Questionnaire, survey, and experi­mental studies, for example, which make up the bulk of psychological sex research, can be seen as traditions that developed as psychologists differ­entiated themselves from philosophers around the turn of the century in Europe, England, and the United States. The new social studies of science show that social factors are an intrinsic part of the development of sci­entific knowledge (Gillespie, 1989), although scientific knowledge cannot be reduced solely to the political locations and beliefs of its generators. We can further contextualize the development of research traditions that have contributed to and are part of the sexological model of sexuality.