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Kinsey On Sexuality

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EARLY RESEARCH ON SEXUALITY
Sexuality is a central aspect of being human, and an essential feature of life – impacting the general well-being and overall quality of life. It is also vital for understanding and defining the concept of sexual health. Although sex and sexuality have been the topics of interest of many artists, writers, painters and musicians throughout human history, scientific research on human sexuality did not begin until 19th century. The commencement of the modern era of sex research was marked by Alfred Kinsey, an American biologist, who published two statistics-packed volumes on human sexuality, Sexual Behaviour in the Human Male and Sexual Behaviour in the Human Female. These Kinsey Reports, as the books have been referred …show more content…

The interview database to this day remains the most comprehensive in its scope, due to Kinsey’s exceptionally skilful interview technique and careful scrutiny in categorising data (Bancroft et al. 1997). This ground-breaking research did not, however, bring about an era of systematic and careful research, and the onset of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the early 1980s has shown how poor and insufficient our knowledge about sexuality really was, not only in the developing world, but in the modern, developed world as well (Gagnon 1988). Suddenly it became crucial to collect reliable data on sexual behaviour to estimate the scale of the epidemic and the likely extent of the future spread of HIV. In order to assess the type of prevention activities required, plans for a national probability sample survey of sexual attitudes and lifestyles across Britain were made in 1986. Despite the then prime minister’s veto for funding – motivated by the argument that sexual behaviour is too private to be a subject of research – the project went ahead with funding from the Wellcome Trust, and Natsal-1 (National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles) was carried out (Mercer et al. …show more content…

The early 1990s saw the emergence of studies examining the relationship between job demands reported by one partner, usually a working man, and the satisfaction of their spouse, usually a stay-at-home woman. Poor psychological well-being and marital dissatisfaction were associated with partner’s high levels of work stressors (Jones 1993 a; Jones et al. 1993 b; Jones & Fletcher 1996). A person’s overall levels of happiness can be affected by their satisfaction with their marriage or intimate relationship, and this in turn is often heavily influenced by levels of sexual satisfaction. The notion that marital and sexual satisfaction are related was confirmed in a study investigating the relationship between stress and sexual relationships (Morokoff & Gillilland 1993), and sexual expression (high levels of sexual activity and a satisfied sexuality expressed by both partners) has been indicated one of three factors predicting relationship satisfaction (Sprecher et al.

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