Kinsy scale. Features of the psychological technique. Kinsey scale: an attempt at measuring orientation & nbsp
In 1990, WHO removed homosexuality from the list of sexual deviations. Alfred Kinsey's research on sexual behavior has prompted other scientific work in the field that has drawn attention to issues related to sexual orientation.
How it all began
Alfred Kinsey began his career as a biologist: for a long time he studied the classification of plants and insects. Perhaps he would never have begun to research gender if he had not been invited one day to teach a course on marriage at Indiana University. The idea of this course was that sociologists, ethicists, economists, physicians and biologists should talk about marriage in terms of their disciplines.
Since A. Kinsey was popular with students, they soon began to turn to him for advice in solving their sexual problems. The questions concerned not only how to build a strong family, but also the normality of homosexual drives and masturbation. And now Alfred Kinsey faced a problem - he did not know how to answer students' questions. Therefore, he began to study biological, psychological and psychiatric literature, which revealed the topic of sexuality. But he was amazed at how the research he found was structured. Often they did not have adequate examples, the research was based on isolated cases, and often the material was presented through the prism of moral values, prejudices, and there was no normal scientific justification. Then A. Kinsey had the idea to study human sexuality from scratch, collecting stories about the intimate life of students who asked for his advice.
Since his course of lectures was popular, he quickly collected a large number of stories about the sexual life of people. Then he decided to expand his research, and collect stories not only from students, but also from people with different levels of education, religion, nationality, socioeconomic status. He conducted his research for 10 years, and in 1948 the book "Sexual Behavior of the Human Male" was published.
Here are some statistics that shocked readers at that time: 27-37% of married men had extramarital affairs; over 90% of men masturbated; 60% of men had oral-genital contacts; 37% of the men surveyed had at least one homosexual contact that ended in orgasm; 10% of men between 16 and 55 years of age have had exclusively homosexual sex for at least three years.
The data are truly staggering for the first half of the 20th century. It became apparent that not all people are purely homosexual or heterosexual. Then A. Kinsey proposed a scale of the same name.
A. Kinsey scale
A. Kinsey's scale has 7 gradations, according to which homosexuals and heterosexuals are opposite poles. The score "0" corresponded to "exclusively heterosexuals without homosexual experience", the score "6" - "exclusively homosexuals without heterosexual experience", also stood out as a separate category of "asexuality", that is, there was no attraction to men or women. Thus, people who have homosexual relationships are not necessarily considered homosexual.
A. Kinsey considered homosexuality as another variant of the norm. In different samples, be it big cities or small villages, believers or atheists, prisoners or free citizens, the percentage of homosexuals was approximately the same.
Criticism of the A. Kinsey scale
Its scale has been the most widely used tool for measuring sexual orientation for the past 60 years, but despite its popularity, it does not hold water. First, in it heterosexuality and homosexuality are opposed to each other, that is, it is necessary to make a choice either in one direction or in the other direction. Secondly, it measures sexual orientation at a specific point in time; it cannot record changes in an individual's preferences. Third, this measurement system excludes people who do not fit into the binary model of society.
Contemporary views on sexual orientation
L. Garnets believes that the following aspects of sexual orientation need to be reconsidered:
- Bipolarity. As already mentioned, it is generally accepted that sexual orientation is presented as a bipolar discrete scale. L. Garnets proposes to make two independent measurements of attractiveness to men and to women.
- Sexual behavior. Previously, it was believed that sexual orientation is determined by sexual behavior, but now it is proposed to pay attention to fantasies, emotional attachments, the status of current relationships and self-identification.
- Inconsistency of desires, behavior and sexual identity.
- Stability. Sexual orientation does not need to be constant and stable; it can change throughout life.
Thus, sexual orientation is somewhat broader than just attraction to one's own and / or opposite sex. It is also unclear how transgender and intersex people fit into this model. So is sexual orientation really measurable, or is it simple labeling?
Eliminated homosexuality from the list of sexual deviations. Alfred Kinsey's research on sexual behavior has prompted other scientific work in the field that has drawn attention to issues related to sexual orientation.
How it all began
Alfred Kinsey began his career as a biologist: for a long time he studied the classification of plants and insects. Perhaps he would never have begun to research gender if he had not been invited one day to teach a course on marriage at Indiana University. The idea of this course was that sociologists, ethicists, economists, physicians and biologists should talk about marriage in terms of their disciplines.
Since A. Kinsey was popular with students, they soon began to turn to him for advice in solving their sexual problems. The questions concerned not only how to build a strong family, but also the normality of homosexual drives and masturbation. And now Alfred Kinsey faced a problem - he did not know how to answer students' questions. Therefore, he began to study biological, psychological and psychiatric literature, which revealed the topic of sexuality. But he was amazed at how the research he found was structured. Often they did not have adequate examples, the research was based on isolated cases, and often the material was presented through the prism of moral values, prejudices, and there was no normal scientific justification. Then A. Kinsey had the idea to study human sexuality from scratch, collecting stories about the intimate life of students who asked for his advice.
Since his course of lectures was popular, he quickly collected a large number of stories about the sexual life of people. Then he decided to expand his research, and collect stories not only from students, but also from people with different levels of education, religion, nationality, socioeconomic status. He conducted his research for 10 years, and in 1948 the book "Sexual Behavior of the Human Male" was published.
Here are some statistics that shocked readers at that time: 27-37% of married men had extramarital affairs; over 90% of men masturbated; 60% of men had oral-genital contacts; 37% of the men surveyed had at least one homosexual contact that ended in orgasm; 10% of men between 16 and 55 years of age have had exclusively homosexual sex for at least three years.
The data are truly staggering for the first half of the 20th century. It became apparent that not all people are purely homosexual or heterosexual. Then A. Kinsey proposed a scale of the same name.
A. Kinsey scale
A. Kinsey's scale has 7 gradations, according to which homosexuals and heterosexuals are opposite poles. The score "0" corresponded to "exclusively heterosexuals without homosexual experience", the score "6" - "exclusively homosexuals without heterosexual experience", also stood out as a separate category of "asexuality", that is, there was no attraction to men or women. Thus, people who have homosexual relationships are not necessarily considered homosexual.
A. Kinsey considered homosexuality as another variant of the norm. In different samples, be it big cities or small villages, believers or atheists, prisoners or free citizens, the percentage of homosexuals was approximately the same.
Criticism of the A. Kinsey scale
Its scale has been the most widely used tool for measuring sexual orientation for the past 60 years, but despite its popularity, it does not hold water. First, in it heterosexuality and homosexuality are opposed to each other, that is, it is necessary to make a choice either in one direction or in the other direction. Secondly, it measures sexual orientation at a specific point in time; it cannot record changes in an individual's preferences. Third, this measurement system excludes people who do not fit into the binary model of society.
Contemporary views on sexual orientation
L. Garnets believes that the following aspects of sexual orientation need to be reconsidered:
Bipolarity. As already mentioned, it is generally accepted that sexual orientation is presented as a bipolar discrete scale. L. Garnets proposes to make two independent measurements of attractiveness to men and to women.
Sexual behavior. Previously, it was believed that sexual orientation is determined by sexual behavior, but now it is proposed to pay attention to fantasies, emotional attachments, the status of current relationships and self-identification.
Inconsistency of desires, behavior and sexual identity.
Stability. Sexual orientation does not need to be constant and stable; it can change throughout life.
Thus, sexual orientation is somewhat broader than just attraction to one's own and / or opposite sex. It is also unclear how transgender and intersex people fit into this model. So is sexual orientation really measurable, or is it simple labeling?
If you choose people of the opposite sex as sexual partners, you are heterosexual, if you are of the same gender, then you are homosexual. But there are also intermediate provisions. The first to speak about this was Alfred Kinsey, who developed a scale for the gradation of sexual orientation, according to which a value of 0 indicates complete heterosexuality, and a value of 6 indicates complete homosexuality. Based on the Kinsey scale, more than one test has been developed to determine sexual orientation, you can take one of them right now.
Kinsey Gay Signs Scale Test
To take a Kinsey test, you need to answer the following questions. The answer number is equal to the number of points. The test is intended for women:
1. Have women ever turned you on?
- like this?
- yes, but by accident;
- once or twice;
- sexy pictures from magazines yes, in reality - never;
- I like sexy girls more than guys;
- often;
- only girls excite.
2. How did you feel about your peers as a teenager?
- just were friends;
- my girlfriend seemed very pretty to me;
- some occasionally had occasional flirting;
- once the line of friendship was crossed and I would like to repeat it;
- I was practically in love with one of my friends;
- fell in love enough to know that I was a lesbian;
- there was a lot of sex and a few serious hobbies.
3. Do you have lesbians among your girlfriends?
- there is a friend from Internet correspondence;
- yes, but we haven't communicated for a long time;
- I am in contact with a lesbian couple;
- there are several, and I often communicate with them;
- yes, and we meet all the time;
- a lot, all my girlfriends are lesbians.
4. Have you ever kissed a woman?
- never;
- only in their fantasies;
- probably could, but it never happened;
- kissed both men and women, it was equally good;
- it happened, but it happened to men too;
- yes, and very often;
- I only kiss women.
5. Would you like more:
- romantic dinner with a man;
- meeting with girlfriends and friends;
- a party with an ambiguous sexual theme;
- a party in a club to meet a sex partner, maybe it will be a woman;
- a party in a mixed company;
- a fun night with lesbian friends, although you can also invite heterosexual girls;
- cool lesbian club.
6. You met a sexy woman. What's next?
- you will see a competitor in it;
- compare it with yourself;
- compliment her;
- ask your man if he liked her;
- think how good it would be with her in bed;
- try to flirt;
- speak to her immediately and firmly.
7. The last time you slept with a man, you ...
- enjoyed it;
- not bad, but it could be better;
- it was said that having sex with a woman can be intriguing;
- at some point imagined that you are in bed with a girl;
- imagine that a woman has joined you;
- there was another woman with you;
- you don't remember the last time you had sex with a man.
8. You are in the same bed with a woman, what can happen?
- no physical contact is out of the question;
- innocent physical contact is possible;
- gentle and as if accidental touches;
- start a conversation about having a man join you;
- lovemaking, but you wouldn't go too far;
- a night of sexual experiments;
- passionate sex.
9. You feel most sexy when you:
- delicate or bold lingerie set;
- something that meets the latest fashion trends;
- sexy underwear under a formal suit;
- something that only a girl will appreciate;
- jeans and a pair of jewelry;
- military uniform with high boots;
- masculine or asexual outfit.
About ten years ago, the word "sex" was illegal. They were afraid to say it out loud, and even more so they did not speak about it openly. Now the sexual theme is allowed for almost everyone. In addition, people try to expose the features of their orientation to the public. New terms appear every year that characterize this process. For example, this is the "kinsey scale". What is it and what parameters does it measure?
What does this concept mean?
The term "kinsey scale" refers to the degree of a person's sexual behavior. It is a psychological technique for determining the characteristics and sexual orientation of an individual. This concept was invented by Alfred Kinsey. As a basis, he took the gradation of possible directions of the sexual behavior of the individual.
A little about the inventor
Alfred Kinsey devoted his entire life to biology. From childhood he was interested in the world of animals and plants. Back in 1947, he was invited to practice at the World University of Scientists. There he needed to make an informative report on biological topics. During its creation, the scientist realized that there is a limited amount of information about sexual behavior in the public domain. After graduating from practice, he closely began to develop a methodology that would allow to characterize the sexual behavior of a person.
His interests were supported by biologist Wardell Pomer, who later co-authored the book Sexual Behavior of the Human Male, published in 1948. Five years later, this manual was improved and received a new name: "Sexual behavior of a human female."
The works of the two biologists were not in vain. The information presented in their scientific work revealed the answers to many questions to the readers.
Operating principle
The kinsey scale for women works as follows: a lady has to answer a series of questions on sexual topics. Basically, these are personal moments concerning the last three years of intimacy. A certain number of points is given for each question. Summing them up, you can get a psychological feature of a person's sexual orientation. The results can be presented as follows:
- 0 points - absolutely normal orientation, without a hint of unconventional connections;
- 1 point - possible appearance of non-standard inclinations;
- 2 points - there are several times more heterosexual experience than the opposite one;
- 3 points - a person develops in the same way in two orientations;
- 4 points - lesbian experience is several times more than heterosexual;
- 5 points - unconventional orientation with casual relationships;
- 6 points - pronounced lesbian inclinations.
The kinsey scale proves that a person's sexual experience is directed strictly towards certain contacts.
A little about men
Is there a similar Kinsey scale for men? The scientist gives a categorically negative answer to this question. In his opinion, representatives of the strong half of humanity do not have secondary inclinations, they are strictly either heterosexual or homosexual. He expressed this idea of "males" in 1960.
Now modern scientists in the field of psychology and biologists deny this fact, believing that in men, predispositions to all-round contacts can also be identified.
Briefly about women
This technique is specially designed for "females". Since it is they who have the most changeable character, especially in terms of sexual life. This fact is proved by the Kinsey scale for women. A seemingly heterosexual representative of the weaker sex can pass the test, however, some of her subconscious ideas about the sexual sphere may indicate a possible homophobia.
What has the research led to?
As soon as the Kinsi scale, new for humanity, appeared, scientists began to test it in practice and conduct various studies. It was found that 2 percent of American women aged 20 to 35 are equally heterogeneous and homophobic. In 2106, that number increased to 7. The study was conducted among American men of the same age. Surprisingly, their predisposition to two sexual orientations at the same time turned out to be much higher.
The kinsey scale is not just a technique, but a real psychological study that can reveal a person's potential at a subconscious level.
Polysexuality Antisexuality
Autosexuality
Kinsey scale Klein lattice
Sexual self-identification
Binary gender system
Egodystonic orientation
Romantic orientation
Biology and sexual orientation
Sexual orientation statistics
Situational sexual behavior
Sexual behavior of animals
Paraphilia Zoophilia
"Kinsey Scale"- an attempt to measure the sexual orientation of people on a scale from zero (exclusively heterosexual orientation) to 6 (exclusively homosexual orientation). It was first published in the book Sexual Behavior of the Human Male in 1948, written by zoologist and sexologist Alfred Kinsey, with Wardell Pomeroy and others, and was also featured in a companion paper by Kinsey and collaborators, Sexual Behavior of the Human Female, published in 1953 year. Both papers also used an additional “X” for asexuality.
Introducing this scale, Kinsey wrote:
|
The scale looks like this:
| Rating | Description |
|---|---|
| 0 | Exceptional heterosexuality |
| 1 | Predominant heterosexuality, isolated manifestations of homosexuality |
| 2 | Predominant heterosexuality, non-accidental manifestations of homosexuality |
| 3 | Bisexuality |
| 4 | Predominant homosexuality, non-accidental manifestations of heterosexuality |
| 5 | Predominant homosexuality, isolated manifestations of heterosexuality |
| 6 | Exceptional homosexuality |
| X | Asexuality |
Scientific findings
Kinsey reports
Between 2% and 6% of women between the ages of 20 and 35 were rated “5” (predominantly homosexual) and between 1% and 3% of unmarried women between the ages of 20 and 35 were rated “6” (exclusively homosexual).
Modern data
Research conducted in the early 1990s with the United States as part of the General Social Survey project yielded significantly smaller proportions of respondents who self-identify as homosexual or bisexual; according to the study, such among men was 3.3%, among women - 2.3%
Kinsey also did not determine the type of distribution of individuals according to the scale he defined: work in this area appeared in the 90s of the XX century when studying the genetic prerequisites of homosexuality. It turned out that if for men the distribution is bimodal (J-shaped) (see Fig. 1), with maximums at the extreme marks of the Kinsey scale, then women are characterized by a sharp maximum at the heterosexual end of the scale (rating 0) with a decline to complete homosexuality ( L-shaped distribution), which casts doubt - at least in terms of population genetics - Kinsey's thesis that "males do not represent two separate subpopulations."
Influence
American sexologist Hani Miletsky, by analogy with the Kinsey scale, suggests using the zoosexuality scale. According to this concept, every person is zoosexual to one degree or another.
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Notes (edit)
Literature
- A.C. Kinsey, W.B. Pomeroy, C.E. Martin. Sexual Behavior in the Human Male. - Philadelphia, PA: W.B. Saunders, 1948. - ISBN 0-253-33412-8.
- A.C. Kinsey, W.B. Pomeroy, C.E. Martin, P.H. Gebhard. Sexual Behavior in the Human Female. - Philadelphia, PA: W.B. Saunders, 1953. - ISBN 0-253-33411-X.
see also
Links (in English)
Excerpt from the Kinsey Scale
- Who are they? - I asked, pointing to the "butterflies".“It's you,” was the answer again. - It's all of you.
I could not understand what he was talking about, but somehow I knew that a real, pure and bright Good was coming from him. Suddenly, very slowly, all these unusual "butterflies" began to "melt" and turned into an amazing star fog sparkling with all the colors of the rainbow, which gradually began to flow back into me ... There was a deep feeling of completeness and something else that I could not understand, but only felt very strongly with all my gut.
“Be careful,” my guest said.
- Careful about what? I asked.
- You were born ... - was the answer.
His tall figure began to hesitate. The glade spun. And when I opened my eyes, to my great regret, my strange stranger was nowhere to be found. One of the boys, Romas, stood opposite me and watched my "awakening". He asked what I was doing here and whether I was going to pick mushrooms ... When I asked him what time it was, he looked at me in surprise and answered and I realized that everything that happened to me took only a few minutes! ..
I got up (it turned out that I was sitting on the ground), dusted myself off and was about to go, when I suddenly noticed a very strange detail - the whole clearing around us was green !!! As amazingly green as if we found it in early spring! And what was our general surprise when we suddenly noticed that even beautiful spring flowers appeared on it from somewhere! It was absolutely amazing and, unfortunately, completely inexplicable. Most likely, it was some kind of "side" phenomenon after the arrival of my strange guest. But, unfortunately, I could not yet explain or at least understand this.
- What have you done? - asked Romas.
“It's not me,” I muttered guiltily.
“Come on, then,” he agreed.
Romas was one of those rare friends of the time who were not afraid of my "antics" and were not surprised at anything that constantly happened to me. He just believed me. And so I never had to explain anything to him, which for me was a very rare and valuable exception. When we returned from the forest, I was shaking with chills, but I thought that, as usual, I had just caught a little cold and decided not to bother my mother until something more serious happened. The next morning everything went away, and I was very pleased that this fully confirmed my "version" of a cold. But, unfortunately, I didn't have to rejoice for long ...
In the morning, as usual, I went to breakfast. Before I had time to reach out for a cup of milk, the same heavy glass cup moved abruptly in my direction, spilling some of the milk on the table ... I felt a little uncomfortable. I tried again - the cup moved again. Then I thought about bread ... Two pieces lying next to each other jumped and fell to the floor. To be honest, my hair began to stir ... Not because I was scared. At that time I was not afraid of almost anything, but it was something very "earthly" and concrete, it was close by and I absolutely did not know how to control it ...
I tried to calm myself, took a deep breath and tried again. Only this time I didn't try to touch anything, but decided to just think about what I want - for example, to have the cup in my hand. Of course, this did not happen, she again just simply moved sharply. But I was jubilant !!! All my insides just screeched with delight, because I already realized that it was harsh or not, but it happened just at the request of my thought! And it was absolutely amazing! Of course, I immediately wanted to try the "novelty" on all the living and inanimate "objects" around me ...
The first to come across my arm was my grandmother, who at that moment was calmly preparing her next culinary "work" in the kitchen. It was very quiet, grandmother was humming something to herself, when suddenly a heavy cast-iron frying pan jumped like a bird on the stove and crashed to the floor with a terrible noise ... Grandmother jumped from surprise no worse than the same frying pan ... But, we must give her credit, right away pulled herself together and said:
- Stop!
I felt a little offended, because no matter what happened, out of habit, they always accused me of everything (although at the moment this, of course, was absolutely true).
- Why do you think it's me? - I asked pouting.
“Well, we don't seem to have ghosts yet,” said my grandmother calmly.
I loved her very much for this equanimity and unshakable calmness. It seemed that nothing in this world could really "unsettle her." Although, of course, there were things that upset her, surprised or made her sad, but she took it all with amazing calmness. And that's why I always felt very comfortable and protected with her. Somehow, I suddenly felt that my last "trick" was interested in my grandmother ... I literally "felt in my gut" that she was watching me and was waiting for something else. And of course, I did not keep myself waiting long ... After a few seconds, all the "spoons and cooks" hanging over the stove, with a noisy roar, flew down for the same frying pan ...
- Well, well ... To break - not to build, would do something useful, - said the grandmother calmly.
I gasped with indignation! Well, please tell me how she can relate to this "incredible event" so coldly ?! After all, it is ... SO !!! I couldn’t even explain what it was, but I knew for sure that it’s impossible to relate to what was happening so calmly. Unfortunately, my indignation did not make the slightest impression on my grandmother, and she again calmly said:
- You shouldn't spend so much effort on what you can do with your hands. Better go read it.