Pioneers Of The Field Of Sexology- Alfred Kinsey

0:00Okay, so one of the first pioneers we are going to talk about in the realm of sexology

0:08and sex research is none other than Alfred Kinsey.

0:14Now if Kinsey sounds familiar to you at all, it is probably because the Kinsey Institute

0:20in Indiana was founded under this and under his name and it continues to further the study

0:31of sex, sexuality, sexual expression, and you can find more information on the current

0:39research they are doing at the Kinsey Institute.org.

0:44It is linked in your PowerPoint so you have access to that to see what awesome work they're

0:49doing and the fun thing about the Kinsey Institute is sometimes they do complete more

0:55passive kind of surveys where you can actually participate in an anonymous study if you want

1:02to know more about that particular topic.

1:05So Alfred Kinsey was one of the pioneers in clinical sexology because he studied the taboo.

1:17Now what do we mean by that?

1:19Alfred Kinsey studied particularly male sexual expression and he did that predominantly or

1:27for the research he is most well known for in surveys that were completed by men with

1:35the belief system that if you provided anonymous surveys you would get more honest feedback

1:42or honest answers to compile data.

1:46There have been skeptics or critics of his work that are saying that this wasn't the

1:52most diversified survey, this was not offered to generalizable populations of people, and

2:00of course when you are doing research you have to narrow the gap enough that oftentimes

2:07it will exclude other populations or other certain demographic information.

2:12So with those kind of ideas of critiques in mind let's move on to a little bit more

2:20about what he found out and where you can find some of his information.

2:25So if you want to know specifically what he all of the research he found and what his

2:30writings are you can do that through the Kinsey report.

2:34There is also a book that is called the Kinsey Institute new report on sex that was all of

2:41his information and then some added later on but those are relatively lengthy reads

2:48but if you want to know more extensive information about all of the taboo things that he studied

2:53and the new report on sex then you can go ahead and pick those up.

2:59The most important takeaway or one of the most important takeaways was the expression

3:06of sex and sexuality particularly as it related to biological males.

3:11So one of the things that we that came out of those studies or that research was something

3:18called the Kinsey scale.

3:21Now the Kinsey scale was essentially the belief system or something that he a term that he

3:29coined that was the wider range of sexual expression.

3:34So essentially he said that sexuality is not 100% binary.

3:42So it's not 100% heterosexual or 100% homosexual but that it happens on a spectrum.

3:50So we want to elaborate a little bit on that today because it's going to help us to be

3:55able to understand but the Kinsey scale went from 0 to 6 and 0 was exclusively heterosexual

4:066 was exclusively homosexual.

4:10As you got closer toward the middle the number 3 was essentially what we would refer to today

4:18as bisexual where you are attracted to both your own gender identification as well as

4:24the gender identification of the opposite sex.

4:28That wasn't necessarily something that at the time was widely discussed.

4:33You have to keep in mind that Kinsey was born in the early early late 1800s and so it's

4:51not something that was widely discussed and was that was part of the taboo.

4:58If we're talking the ones or the number 5 on the scale essentially it was exclusively

5:08heterosexual or exclusively homosexual but with some options I guess you could say.

5:19So essentially what he said was that there may be some interactions in the number one

5:27or number five range with the same gender or the opposing gender but that it didn't

5:33necessarily mean anything about that person's sexuality.

5:36So if you think about yourself or your friends maybe they have had an interaction in college

5:42as a young adult maybe even more recently if they're older with the same gender if they

5:48identify as heterosexual or with the opposing gender if they identify as homosexual and

5:55essentially what that means is nothing about their sexuality.

6:02Occasionally people will have an expression that doesn't fit that binary that's just a

6:05little bit outside of the lines that we color for folks and it doesn't mean anything.

6:11So how does this present in sexuality in terms of a sex therapy session or that kind

6:18of thing?

6:19Well people really worry if they have interactions or thoughts or something is arousing to them

6:25they're associating with this binary hetero or homosexual and it really causes a lot of

6:32anxiety for some people and what we would say is even Kinsey in the early to mid 1900s

6:42was saying yeah it's not really that big of a deal.

6:46The number three number or I'm sorry the number two number four.

6:52So this would be predominantly homosexual or predominantly heterosexual with a significant

7:03attraction to the opposing view.

7:05So a two would be predominantly heterosexual I'm sorry predominantly heterosexual with

7:12significant homosexual tendencies or attractions and then the same thing in the reverse.

7:19So predominantly homosexual with significant heterosexual tendencies and essentially this

7:27is just saying that there is an attraction you know but that we don't necessarily engage

7:32as frequently with that particular orientation as what we do with the one we identify.

7:40It can be a little bit confusing so you can look up the Kinsey scale you can access that

7:46online but essentially what he was saying was that it is fluid.

7:51There is more than just the binary those are the kind of end caps or the poles of sexual

7:57expression and that there is a lot of room for flexibility in between.

8:02Now his research showed that.

8:04So the sexual orientation occurring on this spectrum also contributed to some of the ostracization

8:16that happened with Kinsey in the field.

8:19So a lot of these things didn't become popularized or did not become part of what we routinely

8:26talk about today unfortunately until after his death because it was so taboo at the time

8:32that people didn't want to acknowledge his research.

8:36And so a lot of the research being done today and a lot of the literature you can find actually

8:40supports this sexual orientation spectrum and non-binary expression.

8:48So one of the other contributions that we talk about with Kinsey is that he started

8:53to normalize the taboo.

8:55Now taboo then compared to taboo now has also changed so you have to keep that in mind.

9:01But it still supported this idea that people have a wider range or breadth of sexual expression

9:11and a broader sexual menu than what is typically talked about.

9:15Taboo means that anything outside of what is considered socially normal falls into this

9:23category.

9:24So what did he actually find?

9:28Now you may agree or disagree, statistics may have changed, but remember this was the

9:32first study of its kind done at all.

9:36So the self-reported data that he collected actually said that 50% or more of males had

9:46premarital sex and females as well.

9:49So the data showed that this concept at the time of premarital sex and the belief systems

9:57within purity culture that that was not happening.

10:01And essentially it was like a we're just not talking about it situation.

10:05Over 50% of the population in his study actually had engaged in that activity pretty regularly.

10:11The other topic that a lot of people didn't talk about that could be fueled somewhat by

10:16religion is masturbation.

10:19So essentially he found a lot of people do that and that continues to be something that

10:25we find particularly in the realm that we're going to talk about of middle-aged.

10:33Now some of the things that people may still kind of like, you know, have be surprised

10:39about was where it would be that up to 50% of the participants that he studied, remember

10:45he extracted male data almost exclusively, had reported extra marital affairs.

10:54And 70% had actually engaged in a paid sexual experience.

11:01And that is something that people still may clutch their pearls about because it's not

11:06something even still that's talked about and it's still something that's widely misunderstood

11:11in terms of infidelity, in terms of sexual work.

11:18And so we want to make sure that we are giving credit where credit is due to Alfred Kinsey

11:25for his work and his research into the taboo.

11:30Now taboo has expanded drastically since then and we will talk about that a little bit more

11:35in the vocabulary section when we review paraphilias, kinks, BDSM, what sexual assault actually

11:45means.

11:46So stick around for that part if you are willing to learn a little bit more and hopefully

11:52expand some of your sexual menu.

11:56Next we are going to talk a little bit more about Masters and Johnson who actually implemented

12:02a lot of what we know today in the sex therapy community and in clinical sexology because

12:07they had the addition of observational and scientifically recorded data to support sex

12:13research.