Kinsey Scale
Alfred C. Kinsey is one of the most influential the researchers who have studied sexuality. His interest in sex research began in 1947 at Indiana University. There, he founded the Institute for Sex Research, now know as the Kinsey Institute. Some of his most influential research was directed to homosexuality. Kinsey believed that homosexuality was much more prevalent than had been previously thought. In fact, his findings indicated that 37 percent of males in the US at that time had one or more homosexual experiences. This finding, however, was heavily criticized due to the fact that Kinsey did not use probability sampling. In other words, his subjects were not randomly selected. Because all of Kinsey's subjects were volunteers and many were prisoners, his findings were skewed, and his results concerning the incidence of homosexual experience are now thought to be exaggerated.
Nearly fifty years after his death, Kinsey's research findings are still being discussed today. One of his theories is that people are not just homosexuals or heterosexuals. Kinsey argued that there is a continuum between pure homosexuality and pure heterosexuality. According to Kinsey, some people might be homosexual and lean slightly towards being heterosexual. Similarly, a person could be heterosexual and lean slightly towards being homosexual. This theory is well supported by facts such as the existence of bisexuality in the US population.
