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Human Sexuality PSYC 350 > Sex Research Methods > Flashcards

Sex Research Methods Flashcards

1
Q

Challenges within sex research?

A
  • Finding participants who are willing to participate and honestly report on aspects of their sexuality
  • Finding a sample that is generalisable
  • Trying to minimise bias (cultural, religious, political)
  • Selecting an appropriate research method
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2
Q

Volunteer bias in sex research?
- Advertised as a Personality Study, with questions other than related to sex
- Looked at willingness to volunteer in Sexuality Research
N = 1031 individuals
Cisgender men = 307
Cisgender women = 719
Transgender men = 3
Transgender women = 2
28% of men and 36% of women reported sexual attractions to both gender/sex or the same gender/sex

Results?

A

Results
- As perceived invasiveness of study procedures increased, willingness to volunteer decreased.
- More men than women were willing to do the more invasive studies.
- Sexual attraction influence the effects, such that individuals with any degree of same gender/sec attraction were more willing to volunteer for the more invasive studies.

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3
Q

Predictors of willingness to volunteer in sex research?

A
  • More sexual experience
  • More positive sexual attitudes
  • Higher levels of impression management
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4
Q

What methodology is best when conducting sex research?

A
  • Some methodologies are better suited to certain research questions or to certain samples
  • Each methodology has strengths and weaknesses, which researchers must weigh when designing their studies
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5
Q

Qualitative vs. Quantitive
Qualitative?

A
  • Accounts for the subjective aspects
    • Attitudes, beliefs, emotions
  • Participant as the expert
    • Less concerned with “average”
    • Captures the diversity
  • Descriptive
  • Great first step to understand a phenomenon
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6
Q

Qualitative vs. Quantitive Quantitative?

A
  • Allow for the objective measurement of behaviour and processes
  • Useful in experiments
    • Allows for examinations of cause and effect
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7
Q
  1. Interview Methods
    Kinsey?
A
  • Descriptive
  • Asked questions about marriage, sexual health education, physical history, masturbation, sexual orientation, sexual behaviours
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8
Q

Kinsey Scale of sexual orientation?

A
  • The Kinsey scale of sexual orientation was based on both qualitative and quantitative methodologies
  • Worked from the assumption that everyone has engaged in a wide variety of sexual of sexual behaviours
  • 0-1, 6 Bisexual, 3 any other gender/sex, 0 only the other gender/sex
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9
Q

Criticism of Kinsey Scale of sexual orientation?

A
  • Oversamples white men/women
  • Nonrandom sampling
  • Outdated language
  • Conflates attraction with behaviour
  • Single axis
  • Attraction exists, regardless of behavioural stigma or limitations
    Asexuality designed as X
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10
Q
  1. Observational Methods
    Master & Johnson?
A
  • First systematic large scale study of human sexual response in the 1950s
  • Empirical approach to sexuality
    • Observed AND measured sexual response!
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11
Q

Master & Johnson
Observational Studies?

A
  • Book 1: Human Sexual Response (1966)
  • Book 2: Human Sexual Inadequacy (1970)
    Observed 694 individuals masturbate and/or have sexual interaction to:
  • Speculate about patterns of sexual response
  • Characterise abnormal sexual function
  • Measured physiology
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12
Q

Criticism of Master & Johnson Observational Studies?

A
  • Oversampling white individuals
  • Focusing on orgasm as the goal of “normal” sex
  • Over emphasis on the physiological aspects of sex
  • Pathologizing variation in sexual behaviour, medical model of dysfunction
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13
Q

Sex Research Methods & Designs? (3)

A
  • Descriptive
    • Direct observation
    • Interview
    • Case study
  • Correlational
    • Surveys
  • Experimental
    • Sexual psychophysiology
    • Brain Imaging
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14
Q

Descriptive Designs?

A
  • Summarising patterns
  • Generate ideas for future research by documenting aspects of sexuality from observation or self-report
  • Can be qualitative (small samples) and quantitative (large samples)
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15
Q

Direct Observation? + Weaknesses

A
  • Most basic and non-intrusive descriptive method
  • Monitoring or recording of patterns of sexual or relational behaviour
  • Can provide important contextual information
    Strengths: ecologically valid; can code behaviours; reduces retrospective biases
    Weaknesses: researcher has no control/cannot manipulate the behaviours of interest; observation can influence behaviour
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16
Q

Interviews? + limited by

A
  • The purpose is to collected detailed self-report data
  • Has the advantage of being able to ask additional questions
  • Useful clinically
    Limited by:
  • Recall/memory bias
  • Responder bias (impression management/social desirability)
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17
Q

Case Study? + Weaknesses

A
  • Examines a single individual, event, or group of interest in great detail over a period of time
  • Can provide a longitudinal account
  • Really useful for studying things that are rare/uncommon
    Weaknesses:
  • Interpretation bias
  • Poor generalisability
  • Lack of a control group or experimental design
18
Q

Surveys
Correlational?

A
  • How variables change in relationship to one another
  • Can be over time
  • Can be within couples
19
Q

Surveys
Standardised?

A
  • Validated, tested though many different studies
  • Fixed set of questions/responses
  • Scores are meaningful, and associated with a certain outcome
20
Q

Surveys
Validity/Reliability?

A
  • Clarity of questions
  • Defined terminology
21
Q

Surveys
Unstandardised?

A
  • Fixed set of questions with fixed and open responses
  • Something that has not been studied yet, we haven’t validated this measure
22
Q

Surveys
Sampling?

A
  • Convenience
  • Random
  • Stratified
23
Q

“I Am Double The Bi”: Positive Aspects of Being Both Bisexual and Biracial
- All three authors identify as bisexual/pansexual/queer and biracial or Black.
- Survey method + qualitative to descriptively examine the positives of being bisexual and biracial.

4 Findings?

A
  1. Uniqueness of being: “I am the only one of me around” (bisexual, Black and White 21-year old)
  2. Multiplicity of experience: “ it allows me to see different sides to issues from my many identities
  3. Community connection “I get the best of both worlds”
  4. Stench and impact: “I am able to emphasise more. It comes with its own unique sense of pride.”
24
Q

Psychophysiological Methods?

A
  • Measures of Genital Response
  • Eye tracking
  • Brain Imaging
25
Q

Why do we need measures of genital responses? Why not just record other less invasive physiological responses like heart rate?

A
  • Less accurate, less specificity
26
Q

What is sexual psychophysiology?

A

“Sexual psychophysiology can be defined as the application of psychophysiological methods to the study of sexual arousal, with special emphasis on the interplay between subjective experience and physiological determinants of sexual arousal.”

27
Q

Measures of Genital Response?

A

Vaginal/Vulvar/Clitoral
- Vaginal/Clitoral Photoplethysmography
- Vaginal Lubrication
Penile
- Penile strain gauge
Vaginal/Vulvar & Penile
- Thermography
- Laser Doppler Imaging, a medical device that looks at surface blood flow

28
Q

Vaginal/Clitoral Photoplethysmography?

A
  • Most widely used
  • Indirect measure, we cannot compare between individuals with a unit of measure such a temperature.
  • The device emits infrared light, and then a light sensitive detector records the amount of light reflected back (as the vaginal walls pool with blood during arousal, more light is reflected back)
  • Specific to detecting response to sexual stimuli
  • Weak positive correlations with self-reported arousal (low sexual concordance)
29
Q

Vaginal Lubrication?

A
  • Valid measure to assess vaginal/vulvar lubrication at the introitus
  • Degree of colour change on the test strip is indicative of amount of lubrication
  • Strong positive correlation with self-reported arousal
30
Q

Penile Strain Gauge?

A
  • Most widely used
  • Assesses changes in penile circumference during an erection (mm), direct measure -> can compare across people
  • Does not provide information about rigidity/firmness
  • Strong positive correlation with self-reported arousal
31
Q

Thermography?

A
  • Infrared heat sensing camera that records change in genital temperature
  • Surface temperature of the genitals changes during arousal (degrees Celsius)
  • Can be used with all genitals
  • Strong positive correlation with self-reported arousal
  • Challenge: sensitive to movement, difficult when penis is moving. Temperature is slow to change, so cannot how as many stimuli
    Temperature colour scheme ranges from purple (coldest), blue, green, yellow, red, to white (hottest)
32
Q

Laser Doppler Imaging?

A
  • A low-power, infrared laser beam images blood perfusion 2-3mm below the skin’s surface
  • Measures movement of blood which causes a Doppler frequency shift of the scattered laser light, which is then detected as an image and processed into a cloud coded map
  • Direct measure of blood flow
  • Can be used with all genitals
  • Strong positive correlation with self-reported arousal
  • Sensitive to sect sexual function diagnosis
  • Good for people with pain, or prefer measure where genitals aren’t touched
33
Q

A tale of many measures… Which is best for capturing bisexual arousal?

Gender-Specificity of Genital Response and Self-Reported Sexual Arousal in Women Endorsing Facets of Bisexuality
- Strengths: Audio stories developed by the researchers producing more experimenter control
- Used the Vaginal/Clitoral Photoplethysmography as a measure method

Results?

A

Results: Among people who endorsed bisexual behaviour 5 endorsed all facets of sexuality, our aromatic factors are less endorsed than our behaviour. Significantly greater arosual to stimuli depicting women.

34
Q

Robust evidence for bisexual orientation among men
- Combined data from 8 studies (n = 474-5888 cisgender males)
- Previous studies had small samples, different methods and thus produced varied results

Results?

A

Genital arousal consistent with self-reported Kinsey scale of sexual behaviour number. Example, a 3 shows genital arousal to both genders, 0 only other gender, and 6 only same gender.

35
Q

Eye tracking?

A
  • Eye tracking is used as a measure to assess visual attention.
  • Participants view stimuli (e.g., images/films) on the monitor while their eye movements are unobtrusively recorded.
  • Using an infrared light source and a camera, the direction and time spent focusing on a particular location on the screen is recorded.
  • Can also assess automatic arousal via pupil dilation.
36
Q

Pupil Dilation to Explicit and Non-Explicit Sexual Stimuli
Strengths:
- Large sample: 325 men and women of varied sexual attractions
- Same measure used for all people (enables stronger gender/sex comparisons)
- Same structure assessed (pupils), which enables more direct comparisons across gender/sex

Results?

A
  • In both men and women, the amount of pupil dilation to opposite-vs. Same-gender/sex visual sexual stimuli corresponds to Kinsey score, which gives the different view that you can objectively measure bisexuality.
  • (i.e., lower Kinsey score = more pupil dilation to other-gender/sex; higher Kinsey score = more pupil dilation to the same-gender/sex; mid-range Kinsey score = equal to other and same-gender/sex
37
Q

Brain Imaging -fMRI?

A
  • Used to examine brain activity during activation of the sexual response system
  • fMRI you are interested in patterns of activity in the brain during a task (usually the presentation of sexual stimuli) relative to a baseline/nonsexual task
  • Involves exposing the brain to multiple magnetic fields
  • Hydrogen protons response by emitting an electromagnetic signal
  • Scanner receives signal, uses it to create high-res image of the brain
38
Q

fMRI to understand Sexual Arousal Pattern
Neural Correlates of Sexual Orientation in Heterosexual, Bisexual, and Homosexual Men

Results?

A

Look at slides

39
Q

So what can we conclude about arousal in bisexual people from the various research methods?
VOO/PPG?

A
  • Women tend to show arousal to both male and female stimuli, but greater to female stimuli
  • Men tend to show a bisexual pattern of arousal
  • BUT… we are not assessing arousal using the same device or assessing homologous structures
40
Q

So what can we conclude about arousal in bisexual people from the various research methods?
Eye tracking?

A
  • Evidence of bisexual patterns of pupil dilation autonomic activity (autonomic activity associated with arousal)
  • Used the same measure and assessed a homologous structure
41
Q

So what can we conclude about arousal in bisexual people from the various research methods?
Brain imaging?

A
  • Evidence of bisexual activation among men, but greater brain activation to female stimuli in women
  • Used the same measure and assessed the same structure

Human Sexuality PSYC 350 (11 decks)

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