Sex Research: Methods and Problems

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Sex Research Methods and Problems

• Lucy Capuano Brewer, MA
• Psy 25 Chapter 2

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The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment(1932 1972)

• For forty years between 1932 and 1972, the U.S.
  Public Health Service (PHS) conducted an
  experiment on 399 black men in the late stages of
  syphilis.
• These men, for the most part illiterate
  sharecroppers from one of the poorest counties in
  Alabama, were never told what disease they were
  suffering from or of its seriousness.
• Informed that they were being treated for bad
  blood, their doctors had no intention of curing
  them of syphilis at all.
• The data for the experiment was to be collected
  from autopsies of the men, and they were thus
  deliberately left to degenerate under the ravages
  of tertiary syphiliswhich can include tumors,
  heart disease, paralysis, blindness, insanity,
  and death.
• As I see it, one of the doctors involved
  explained, we have no further interest in these
  patients until they die.
• None of the research doctors apologized, nor were
  they ever prosecuted for wrongdoing.
• The study never found any significant findings.

In 1972, Peter Buxtun, a former Health Service
employee, leaked the story to an Associated Press
reporter.
Taliaferro Clark, Head of the U.S. Public Health
Service at the outset of the experiment
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The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment

• The United States government did something that
  was wrongdeeply, profoundly, morally wrong. It
  was an outrage to our commitment to integrity and
  equality for all our citizens. . . . clearly
  racist.
• President Clinton's apology for the Tuskegee
  Syphilis Experiment to the eight remaining
  survivors, May 16, 1997

Shaw, 94, is one of the Tuskegee syphilis study
subjects
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Ethical Guidelines for Human Sex Research

• No pressure or coercion for participation
• Informed consent and right to refuse to
  participate
• Confidentiality and anonymity
• Risk to benefit principle
• Question of deception
• Institutional ethics review

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What are the main goals in Sexology?

• DESCRIBE
• EXPLAIN / UNDERSTAND (WHY?)
• PREDICT
• CONTROL / INFLUENCE
• SEXUAL BEHAVIOR

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Research Methods

• 
  Freud Kinsey
  Masters Johnson
• Case studies
• Freud (sexuality in children)
• Surveys
• The Kinsey Reports ? Interviews patterns of
  sexual behavior
• 1948, male sexuality 5,300 white males (biased)
• 1953, female sexuality - 5,940 white females
  (biased)
• The National Health Social Life Survey
  University of Chicago
• Sexual attitudes and practices of American adults
• 3,432 subjects (18 59 years old)
• Face to face interviews
• Direct observation studies
• Masters and Johnson used direct observation to
  study the physiological sexual responses of women
  (382) and men (312)
• Human Sexual Response Stages
• Experimental Method
• Only research method designed to establish cause
  and effect

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The Laumann Study (University of Chicago)
(1990s)

• (The first comprehensive survey since Kinsey)
• Among the key findings
• 17 of men, and 3 of women have had sex with at
  least 21 partners.
• Americans 1/3 have sex twice a week or more 1/3
  a few times a month and 1/3 a few times a year
  or not at all.
• Monogamous 83 have one or zero sexual partners
  a year. Over a lifetime, a typical man has six
  partners a woman two.
• Married couples have the most sex. Nearly 40 of
  married people say they have sex twice a week,
  compared with 25 for singles.
• Favorite sex acts 96 ranked vaginal sex first
  watching a partner undress ranked second, and a
  distant third, oral sex.
• Adultery ? exception 75 of married men 85 of
  married women have never been unfaithful.
• 54 of men think of sex every day or several
  times a day 67 of women think about sex only a
  few times a week or a few times a month.
• 22 of women say they have been forced to do
  sexual things they did not want to, usually by
  someone they loved 3 of men admit to ever
  forcing themselves on women.
• Only 2.7 of men and 1.3 of women report that
  they had homosexual sex in the past year.
• Kids do have sex earlier now half of all African
  American males have had intercourse by age 15
  half of all Caucasians have by age 17.
• Adults who have had more than 21 partners are in
  their forties, as opposed to younger people.
• 76 of people who have had more than 5 partners
  in the past year, now engage in safe sex because
  of fear of AIDS.
• Both men and women prefer being the recipients of
  oral sex.
• 72 of women who have had an abortion, have only
  had one.

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Technologies in Sex Research

• Electronic devices for measuring sexual arousal
• Penile Strain Gauge measures slightest change in
  penis size
• Vaginal Photoplethysmograph measures increased
  vaginal blood volume
• Sex Research in Cyberspace
• Internet provides access to a varied subject
  pool, from numerous geographical areas