金赛报告

File:Kinsey-Male.jpg

The 1948 first edition of Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, the first of the two Kinsey reports.

金賽報告是由阿爾弗雷德·金賽（Alfred Kinsey）及華地·帕姆洛依（Wardell Pomeroy）等人所寫的關於人類性行為的兩本書，分別是男性性行為(1948)及女性性行為(1953)。金賽是一個在印第安那大學（Indiana University）的動物學家以及性學研究中心的創立者。

由於這個研究結果挑戰公眾對於人類性行為的傳統信念，以及它們討論以往被視為禁忌的話題。所以這個研究使公眾感到震驚，及即時引起爭論和轟動。

研究結果

性傾向

金賽報告中最廣泛被引用的是不同性傾向的普遍性－特別是支持10%人口是同性戀的說法。事實上，這報告的研究結果並非明確的。金賽避免以及不贊成使用同性戀以及異性戀等術語去形容個體，主張性傾向是傾向隨時間而改變的，以及性行為可以理解為物理性的接觸，以及純心理性的現象（慾望、性吸引力，幻想）。 金賽採用分為七個類別的系統來代表三個類別的系統（異性戀、雙性戀及同性戀）。金賽量表把性行為分為 0 至 6 七個等級。0 代表完全異性戀，而 6 代表完全同性戀。1 代表主要為異性戀，只偶有同性戀行為，2 代表主要為異性戀，但也有同性戀行為， 3 代表異性戀與同性戀傾向相同，如是者。一個附加的類別 X 代表未經歷性欲望。

這個報告亦指出，近 46% 男性在成年階段曾對兩性皆有性反應，而 37% 至少有一次同性性經驗。 11.6% 白人男性（20至35歲）被評級為 3（異性戀與同性戀傾向相同）在整個成人階段。 研究亦報告 10% 受訪美國男性「至少三年介乎 16 至 55 歲，或多或少是完全同性戀」（在評級 5 至 6 ）

7% 單性女性（介乎 20 至 35 歲）及 4% 曾婚的女性（介乎 20 至 35 歲）在這段生命被評級為 3（異性戀與同性戀傾向相同）。 2 至 6% 介乎 20 至 35 歲的女性，或多或少是完全同性戀。 1 至 3% 介乎 20 至 35 歲的未婚女性是完全同性戀。

婚後性行為

根據受訪女性報告，年輕的一群平均婚後性行為的頻率為每週 2.8 次；在 30 歲之前為 2.2 次；在 50 歲之前為 1.0 次。.

婚外性行為

金賽預測大約 50% 己婚男性在婚姻生活中有一些婚外的性經驗。. 在研究樣本中，26% 女性在40歲之前有婚外性行為。介乎六分之一至十分之一，年齡介乎 26 至 50 歲的女性層參與婚外性行為。.

性虐

12% 女性及 22% 男性指出對性虐（俗稱施虐與受虐）的故事有性反應。.

Biting

Responses to being bitten:

Erotic Responses	By Females	By Males
Definite and/or frequent	26%	26%
Some response	29%	24%
Never	45%	50%
Number of cases	2200	567

Methodology

Data was gathered primarily by means of interviews, which were encoded to maintain confidentiality. Other data sources included the diaries of convicted child molesters. The data was later computerized for processing. All of this material, including the original researchers' notes, remains available from the Kinsey Institute to qualified researchers who demonstrate a need to view such materials. The institute also allows researchers to submit SPSS programs to be run on the data.

Subject matter of the report led itself to sensationalism. Based on his data and findings, others claimed that 10% of the population are homosexual, and that women enhance their prospects of satisfaction in marriage by masturbating previously. Neither claim was made by Kinsey.

Criticism

Objections on moral grounds

The books have been widely criticized by conservatives as promoting degeneracy. Sexual Behavior in the Human Male has been on two paleoconservative lists of the worst books of modern times. It was #3 on the Intercollegiate Studies Institute's 50 Worst Books of the Twentieth Century and #4 on Human Events' Ten Most Harmful Books of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries.

Objections to statistical approach

In addition to moral objections, academic criticisms pertain to sample selection and sample bias. In 1948, the same year as the original publication, a committee of the American Statistical Association, including notable statisticians such as John Tukey condemned the sampling procedure. Tukey was perhaps the most vocal critic, saying, "A random selection of three people would have been better than a group of 300 chosen by Mr. Kinsey." Criticism principally revolved around the over-representation of some groups in the sample: 25% were, or had been, prison inmates, and 5% were male prostitutes.

A related criticism, by some of the leading psychologists of the day, notably Abraham Maslow, was that he (Kinsey) did not consider the bias created by the data representing only those who were willing to participate in discussion of taboo topics. Most Americans were reluctant to discuss the intimate details of their sex lives even with their spouses or close friends; the Kinsey database was derived from the possibly atypical minority who would tell their secrets to total (if learned) strangers.

In a response to these criticisms, Paul Gebhard, Kinsey's successor as director of the Kinsey Institute for Sex Research, spent years "cleaning" the Kinsey data of its purported contaminants, removing, for example, all material derived from prison populations in the basic sample. In 1979, Gebhard (with Alan B. Johnson) published The Kinsey Data: Marginal Tabulations of the 1938-1963 Interviews Conducted by the Institute for Sex Research. Their conclusion, to Gebhard's surprise he claimed, was that none of Kinsey's original estimates were significantly affected by this bias: that is, prison population, male prostitutes, and those who willingly participated in discussion of previously taboo sexual topics had the same statistical tendency. The problem of getting unbiased population samples in socially taboo subjects were discussed by Professor Martin Duberman, who wrote

Instead of Kinsey's 37% (men who had at least one homosexual experience), Gebhard and Johnson came up with 36.4%; the 10% figure (men who were "more or less exclusively homosexual for at least three years between the ages of 16 and 55"), with prison inmates excluded, came to 9.9% for white, college-educated males and 12.7% for those with less education. And as for the call for a "random sample," a team of independent statisticians studying Kinsey's procedures had concluded as far back as 1953 that the unique problems inherent in sex research precluded the possibility of obtaining a true random sample, and that Kinsey's interviewing technique had been "extraordinarily skillful". They characterized Kinsey's work overall as "a monumental endeavor."

Organized opposition

Some conservative groups including RSVPAmerica, headed by Dr. Judith A. Reisman, and the Family Research Council have stated that they aim to discredit the Kinsey Reports. These groups often accuse Kinsey's work of promoting unhealthy sexual practices or morals.

RSVPAmerica advertises publications such as Kinsey: Crimes & Consequences and Kinsey, Sex and Fraud: The Indoctrination of a People, both by Reisman, and the video "The Children of Table 34", funded by the Family Research Council. The campaign website states that the video "presents the story of Dr. Reisman's discovery of Dr. Alfred Kinsey's systematic sexual abuse of 317 male children."

In its 1998 response to the core allegations made by Reisman, Kinsey Institute director John Bancroft stated that the data on children in tables 31–34 of Kinsey's Sexual Behavior of the Human Male came largely from the journal of one adult pedophile, who had illegal sexual interaction with these children. The man's journal started in 1917, long before the Kinsey Reports. Bancroft further stated that Kinsey explicitly pointed out the illegality of the man's actions, but that he granted his source anonymity. In addition, Bancroft reiterated the Kinsey Institute's claim that Kinsey never had any sexual interaction with children, nor did he employ others to do so, and that he interviewed children in the presence of their parents.

Other attacks have centered on the sex life and motives of Kinsey himself (see Alfred C. Kinsey), or have claimed that the Kinsey Reports are themselves responsible for a "decay in society."

Conjecture of child abuse

In the Kinsey Reports are data concerning pre-adolescent orgasms. Particularly controversial are tables 30 through 34 of the male volume. For example, table 34 is, "Examples of multiple orgasm in pre-adolescent males. Some instances of higher frequencies." A typical entry indicates that a certain 7 year-old had seven orgasms in a three hour time period. Kinsey's critics state that data such as these could have only been obtained by direct observation of or participation in child abuse. In particular they point to the information given in table 32, "Speed of pre-adolescent orgasm; Duration of stimulation before climax; Observations timed with second hand or stop watch," and say that the only way such precise data could have been collected was through cooperation with child molesters.

The Kinsey Institute states unequivocally on its website, "[Kinsey] did not carry out experiments on children; he did not hire, collaborate, or persuade people to carry out experiments on children." It goes on to say, "Kinsey clearly stated in his male volume the sources of information about children's sexual responses. The bulk of this information was obtained from adults recalling their own childhoods. Some was from parents who had observed their children, some from teachers who had observed children interacting or behaving sexually, and Kinsey stated that there were nine men who he had interviewed who had sexual experiences with children who had told him about how the children had responded and reacted. We believe that one of those men was the source of the data listed in the book."

Context and significance

The Kinsey Reports are associated with a change in public perception of sexuality. Despite the fact that Kinsey did not explicitly claim that his sampling subjects are representative of overall population of U.S.; and in fact explicitly stated that he was fully aware of the fact that his sample was not representative, many uninformed, whether in support or criticism, did. In the 1960s, following the introduction of the first oral contraceptive, this change was to be expressed in the sexual revolution. Also in the 1960s, Masters and Johnson published their investigations into the physiology of sex, breaking taboos and misapprehensions similar to those Kinsey had broken more than a decade earlier in a closely related field.

To what extent the Reports produced or promoted this change and to what extent they merely expressed it and reflected the conditions that were producing it is a matter of much debate and speculation.

See also

• Alfred Kinsey
• Kinsey, the movie based on the life of Alfred Kinsey
• Kinsey scale
• Kinsey Institute
• Masters and Johnson
• Judith Reisman

References

• M. Duberman [1]
• A.C. Kinsey, W.B. Pomeroy, C.E. Martin, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, (Philadelphia, PA: W.B. Saunders, 1948). ISBN 0-253-33412-8.
• A.C. Kinsey, W.B. Pomeroy, C.E. Martin, P.H. Gebhard, Sexual Behavior in the Human Female, (Philadelphia, PA: W.B. Saunders, 1953). ISBN 0-253-33411-X.
• J.A. Reisman, E.W. Eichel, J.H. Court, J.G. Muir, Kinsey, Sex and Fraud, (Lafayette, LA: Lochinvar-Huntington House Publishers, 1990).
• Katz, Jonathan Ned (1995) The Invention of Heterosexuality. NY, NY: Dutton (Penguin Books). ISBN 0-525-93845-1
• The Kinsey Institute Data from Alfred Kinsey's Studies. Published online.

External links

• The Kinsey Institute Website