Contributions of Alfred Kinsey to the Field of Psychology
Alfred Charles Kinsey was a sexologist in the 20th century whose contribution to human sexuality is being used to comprehend sexual behavior in humans. He was born on 23 June, 1984 in Hoboken, New Jersey (“Alfred Kinsey Biography”, 2015). Kinsey developed an interest in biology and pursued it at Bowdoin College, where he graduated in 1916 with a Bachelor in Science in Biology. Kinsey further continued with his studies when he joined the Bussey Institute at Harvard, where he graduated in 1919 with an ScD. He started teaching in 1920 at the Indian University, and his career shifted towards human sexuality in 1938. Kinsey developed the Kinsey Scale and Kinsey Reports, and in 1947, he founded the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction at Indiana University.
The collection of Kinsey’s studies are known as Kinsey Reports, where he argued that delaying sexual experience was harmful to human psychologically. Notable discoveries made by Kinsey’s research include discovering that sex before marriage was common despite plenty taboos discouraging it, the discovery that masturbation was common, and that infidelity was widespread. The Kinsey scale developed by Kinsey was used in codifying sexual orientation. A zero and a six in the scale indicated complete heterosexuality and homosexuality, respectively. A three indicated bisexuality, and the other numbers indicated a mixture of homosexual and heterosexual.
Kinsey’s contribution to psychology was widely popular, but their subject in human sexuality was subject to controversy and received much criticism. Kinsey’s class on reproduction and sexuality lacked human sexual behavior, and most of his studies relied on a small number of subjects. Kinsey’s work was also criticized for including prostitutes, homosexuals, and anyone willing to undergo the interview process (Clay, 2015).
References
Alfred Kinsey Biography. Goodtherapy.org. (2015). Retrieved 4 March 2020, from https://www.goodtherapy.org/famous-psychologists/alfred-kinsey.html.
Clay, R. (2015). Sex research at the Kinsey Institute. https://www.apa.org. Retrieved 4 March 2020, from https://www.apa.org/monitor/2015/10/research-kinsey.