On 2 December 2009 Scott Lilienfeld wrote: >I know at least one person who works at the Kinsey Institute, and >she does quite good science. Although founded by Kinsey, I don't >believe the Institute harbors any strong allegiance to his methods >or his work. My understanding is that the Institute is now a pretty >rigorous consortium of researchers conducting research on human sexuality.
Thanks for the inside information, Scott. Still, it is unfortunate that as recently as 1998 the then Director of the Kinsey Institute, Dr John Bancroft, defended Kinsey's use of detailed diary material from, in particular, two serial child sexual abusers, Rex King (on whose "work" is based Chapter 5 in "Sexual Behavior of the Human Male") and the Nazi paedophile Fritz von Balluseck. Details of Kinsey's co-operation with and encouragement of these two serial child sexual abusers are given in the UK Channel 4 documentary "Kinsey's Paedophiles" broadcast in 1998: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8606305708018993332 Rex King's diaries meticulously record his experiences with over 800 boys and girls: babies (youngest 2 months), infants and children. Kinsey encouraged King in his endeavours, writing to him "I congratulate you on your research spirit." King's diaries show he continued his predatory sexual abuse of children for some ten years after Kinsey first met him. According to the Channel 4 documentary, Fritz von Balluseck had been a senior Nazi Party official, a pre-WW2 Stormtrooper, and had commanded a ghetto in a Polish town during the war. Kinsey contacted Balluseck, who sent him some of his detailed diaries that he had kept of his abuse of children. When Balluseck went on trial in the 1950s for suspected murder of a child (on which charge he was acquitted) information about his collaboration with Kinsey emerged. (Balluseck pleaded guilty to 30 allegations of sexual abuse of children.) When questioned about this material, including meticulous details from King on the abuse of babies and infants, Dr Bancroft said that people have to ask themselves if they believe that research into human sexuality should be undertaken. Pressed further on the question of the continuing abuse by the paedophiles in question after being contacted by Kinsey, Bancroft said you should consider the cost of remaining in ignorance unless we know about these behaviours. How (unvalidated) reports of vile sexual abuse of babies and infants, recorded in meticulous detail, enlarges our knowledge of human sexuality, Dr Bancroft failed to enlighten us. Allen Esterson Former lecturer, Science Department Southwark College, London http://www.esterson.org ---------------------------------- RE: [tips] nifty psych gift Lilienfeld, Scott O Wed, 02 Dec 2009 04:07:59 -0800 BTW, I don't know what "soon" science is (interesting Freudian slip on my part, perhaps?). Having trouble typing on my little laptop. Should be "good" science (thank you Sigmund....)......Scott ________________________________________ From: Lilienfeld, Scott O [[email protected]] Sent: Wednesday, December 02, 2009 7:01 AM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: RE: [tips] nifty psych gift I know at least one person who works at the Kinsey Institute, and she does quite soon science. Although founded by Kinsey, I don't believe the Institute harbors any strong allegiance to his methods or his work. My understanding is that the Institute is now a pretty rigorous consortium of researchers conducting research on human sexuality. ....Scott ________________________________________ From: Allen Esterson [[email protected]] Sent: Wednesday, December 02, 2009 2:44 AM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: RE: [tips] nifty psych gift I think it's time to introduce a serious note to all this seasonal jocularity. Sue Franz linked to the Kinsey Institute: http://www.kinseyinstitute.org/research/ak-hhscale.html I have no knowledge of the current activities of the Kinsey Institute, but I think it is unfortunate that the name Kinsey remains a byword in the field of sexual research. I have the impression that there has been a reluctance to take a critical stance towards the famous Kinsey claims by some people because at the time (and later) much of the criticism has come from conservative groups concerned about the influence of the Kinsey Report on social attitudes in the States. But, as NPR has noted, "the most damaging critiques focused on his sampling method, questioning whether the enormous number of people he interviewed -- his pride and joy -- were representative of the American population. Indeed this was not an idle question, given Kinsey's predilection for recruiting college students, prostitutes, and prison inmates to participate in the study." http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/kinsey/peopleevents/e_male.html Again: "In 1948, the same year as the original publication, a committee of the American Statistical Association, including notable statisticians such as John Tukey, condemned the sampling procedure. Tukey was perhaps the most vocal critic, saying, "A random selection of three people would have been better than a group of 300 chosen by Mr. Kinsey." [Refs] Criticism principally revolved around the over-representation of some groups in the sample: 25% were, or had been, prison inmates, and 5% were male prostitutes. [Ref.] "A related criticism, by some of the leading psychologists of the day, notably Abraham Maslow, was that Kinsey did not consider 'volunteer bias'. The data represented only those volunteering to participate in discussion of taboo topics. Most Americans were reluctant to discuss the intimate details of their sex lives even with their spouses or close friends. Before the publication of Kinsey's reports, Dr. Maslow tested Kinsey's volunteers for bias. He concluded that Kinsey's sample was unrepresentative of the general population. [Ref] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinsey_Reports#Objections_to_methodology Not to mention ethical considerations. Kinsey's reporting of masturbation of children as young as two months was described in a letter to the "Archives of Sexual Behavior" as "the only example in Western scientific literature where egregious abuse of human subjects has been accepted as a valid data source by scientists wishing to be taken seriously." http://www.springerlink.com/content/ut266g0v73hg6006/ Allen Esterson Former lecturer, Science Department Southwark College, London http://www.esterson.org ------------------------------------------------------------- RE: [tips] nifty psych gift Frantz, Sue Tue, 01 Dec 2009 16:27:59 -0800 Guess where your friends and family fall on the Kinsey Scale, and get them a t-shirt. http://www.kinseyinstitute.org/services/scale_tshirt.html That couldn't possibly go wrong. -- Sue Frantz Highline Community College Psychology, Coordinator Des Moines, WA 206.878.3710 x3404 [email protected] Office of Teaching Resources in Psychology, Associate Director Project Syllabus APA Division 2: Society for the Teaching of Psychology APA's p...@cc Committee --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
