That doesn't seem to be the case. Take this from his Wikipedia article:
"James H. Jones wrote that Kinsey’s appetite for unconventional sex and his disdain for conventional sexual morality, drove Kinsey's agenda to strip sexuality of guilt and to undermine traditional sexual morality. Critics contend that Kinsey allowed his agenda to bias his work.[10] They point to Kinsey's over representation of prisoners and prostitutes, his classification of selected single people as "married"[11] and his refusal to use African Americans in his research.[12]"
That doesn't mean his research is useless but it does make you wonder how much he skewed results. He wouldn't be the first scientist to try to make the data fit a pre-conceived theory.
I admit I have not looked into it yet. I am in the process of watching the movie, and am interested enough to want to know more about him and his methods.
Just looking around on Amazon I have seen a couple of books by religious nuts trying to debunk his work, but it doesn't look like they're fooling anyone. They remind me of his father in the movie.
By the way, did Kinsey really have as big of a wang as they say he did?
The only real problem with Kinsey's results are that people volunteered - so they were likely already to be outside the norm. If they could have got the real story from people who'd never volunteer for something like that they'd get much more accurate results.
I don't know about the movie, but how useful is that study? He was biased due to his own weird sexual practices.
ReplyDeleteAll evidence says that he was as scrupulous as any scientist can be about being unbiased.
ReplyDeleteThat doesn't seem to be the case. Take this from his Wikipedia article:
ReplyDelete"James H. Jones wrote that Kinsey’s appetite for unconventional sex and his disdain for conventional sexual morality, drove Kinsey's agenda to strip sexuality of guilt and to undermine traditional sexual morality. Critics contend that Kinsey allowed his agenda to bias his work.[10] They point to Kinsey's over representation of prisoners and prostitutes, his classification of selected single people as "married"[11] and his refusal to use African Americans in his research.[12]"
That doesn't mean his research is useless but it does make you wonder how much he skewed results. He wouldn't be the first scientist to try to make the data fit a pre-conceived theory.
Yes, but there is also a newer biography which contradicts the James H. Jones biography on these points.
ReplyDeleteI admit I have not looked into it yet. I am in the process of watching the movie, and am interested enough to want to know more about him and his methods.
ReplyDeleteJust looking around on Amazon I have seen a couple of books by religious nuts trying to debunk his work, but it doesn't look like they're fooling anyone. They remind me of his father in the movie.
By the way, did Kinsey really have as big of a wang as they say he did?
--Brian
The only real problem with Kinsey's results are that people volunteered - so they were likely already to be outside the norm. If they could have got the real story from people who'd never volunteer for something like that they'd get much more accurate results.
ReplyDeleteSo, his results aren't of much use really.