Alfred Kinsey

By Madi, Janelle & April

Profile

Born on June 23rd 1894 in Hoboken, New Jersey

Died on August 25th 1956

Founded the Institute for Sex research at Indiana University

Kinsey received a scholarship from Harvard University, and began his post graduate work at the Bussey Institution

In 1920, he accepted a teaching position on the department of zoology at Indiana University.

Kinsey opened up a course on marriage

It was very popular, reaching 400 students per semester

Profile: Continued

For his course, Kinsey needed more samples in order for his research to be more meaningful so he travelled out of town to interview additional subjects

His time back at the campus began to decrease the more he went out of town

Herman Wells, Indiana University’s president demanded Kinsey make a choice between his marriage course or sex research

Kinsey resigned from his course

The Kinsey Reports

He is considered the first major figure in American sexology

Kinsey first studied the mating practices of gall wasps which then lead to his wonder about the sexual practices of humans

He developed the Kinsey Scale, rating from 0 to 6

0= very heterosexual, 6= very homosexual

His Kinsey Reports started with the publications of his two bestselling books

Sexual Behaviour in the Human Male (1948)

Sexual Behaviour in the Human Female (1953)

His studies created a mass of controversy!!

Controversies

Besides interviews, Kinsey would observe and even participate in sexual acts in order for him to gain more knowledge

Kinsey filmed some of the sexual acts up in his attic. The films were kept a secret so that the media wouldn’t find out about them

He’d interviewed nine men who had all had sexual experiences with children

Kinsey did not include African Americans in his research

His most controversial work was written in his book, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, where he wrote about pre-adolescent orgasms between the ages of five months and fourteen years. Later on, reports leaked that a paedophile had helped Kinsey with those studies. It was found that the paedophile would masturbate the children and record the time it took them to orgasm

Kinsey reported that even from the age of five months, children could enjoy sexual activity- this created even more controversy

But it was 40 years later that Kinsey’s research was actually questioned

Sexual Behavior in the Human Male

Contributions to Psychology

Developed the Kinsey Scale

Wrote the Kinsey Reports

Changed the way scientists and people viewed sexuality

The Kinsey Scale

Exclusively heterosexual behavior

Incidental homosexual behavior

More than incidental homosexual behavior

Equal amount of heterosexual and homosexual behavior

More than incidental heterosexual behavior

Incidental heterosexual behavior

Exclusively homosexual behavior

Bibliography

http://www.faqs.org/health/bios/10/Alfred-Kinsey.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Kinsey