Alfred Kinsey
Kara Duenas
January 27, 2013
2nd period
A.P. Psychology
Mrs. Gatewood
Alfred Kinsey was born in New Jersey on June 23, 1894 to Alfred Kinsey and Sarah Charles. As a young boy he suffered many illnesses such as rheumatic fever and typhoid. In high school, he began his interest in biology and botanical studies with the influence of his teacher. He started his career in biology as a zoologist and entomologist but later found interest in sexology. His parents were very religious therefore not agreeing with his choice of career. Due to this he considered his father’s wishes by studying engineering but decided that he was better off with biology. In 1919 Kinsey graduated from Harvard with a Doctor of Science degree and joined Indiana University. He became a full professor in 1924 but was not satisfied with the offer he was given so he took a change in career paths and began to study sex and marriage. His reason for studying sex and marriage was that he was intrigued by the lack of details and inaccuracies of research he read. With his knowledge in biology, he decided to take a biological approach in studying sex and marriage.
As his first case studies and research, he started by asking his students (freshman and sophomores) detailed questionnaires but that did work out because he found that some of the answers were too inappropriate. He decided to start one on one interviews. “Kinsey received research support from the National Research Council and the Rockefeller Foundation, which allowed him to hire research assistants, expand the geographic scope of his work, and found the Institute of Sex Research at Indiana University in 1947”. This sparked his career in sexology. He decided to drop his marriage course and solely focus on his sex research.
In 1948 he published his first book on sex called “Sexual Behavior in the Human Male”, this book, based on over 5000 sexual histories, provided a series of revelations about masturbation, adulterous sexual activity,
January 27, 2013
2nd period
A.P. Psychology
Mrs. Gatewood
Alfred Kinsey was born in New Jersey on June 23, 1894 to Alfred Kinsey and Sarah Charles. As a young boy he suffered many illnesses such as rheumatic fever and typhoid. In high school, he began his interest in biology and botanical studies with the influence of his teacher. He started his career in biology as a zoologist and entomologist but later found interest in sexology. His parents were very religious therefore not agreeing with his choice of career. Due to this he considered his father’s wishes by studying engineering but decided that he was better off with biology. In 1919 Kinsey graduated from Harvard with a Doctor of Science degree and joined Indiana University. He became a full professor in 1924 but was not satisfied with the offer he was given so he took a change in career paths and began to study sex and marriage. His reason for studying sex and marriage was that he was intrigued by the lack of details and inaccuracies of research he read. With his knowledge in biology, he decided to take a biological approach in studying sex and marriage.
As his first case studies and research, he started by asking his students (freshman and sophomores) detailed questionnaires but that did work out because he found that some of the answers were too inappropriate. He decided to start one on one interviews. “Kinsey received research support from the National Research Council and the Rockefeller Foundation, which allowed him to hire research assistants, expand the geographic scope of his work, and found the Institute of Sex Research at Indiana University in 1947”. This sparked his career in sexology. He decided to drop his marriage course and solely focus on his sex research.
In 1948 he published his first book on sex called “Sexual Behavior in the Human Male”, this book, based on over 5000 sexual histories, provided a series of revelations about masturbation, adulterous sexual activity,