Sexuality Chapter 2 Test

Which statement is MOST true?

In spite of the vast amount of knowledge sexologists have learned, many questions about human sexual behavior remain unanswered.

All of the following are goals of sexologists EXCEPT:

promoting sexual behavior

The role of sexology is to:

test assumptions abou sexuality in a scientific way

Which of the following goals of sexology is MOST difficult to comprehend?

controlling sexual behavior

A science writer hears of a 35-year-old male who lost his penis at circumcision. He interviews all the family members, reads medical records, and writes a book about the topic. This is MOST likely an example of which of the following?

sexology

The pioneering work of Alfred Kinsey took place only in the late:

1940s and early 1950s

The survey method:

can be done with the use of technology such as computers

In which type of research is a representative sample of people asked to answer questions about their sexual attitudes or behaviors by means of questionnaires or interviews?

survey

Most of our scientific information about human sexuality has been obtained through:

surveys

Which research method would be MOST appropriate for investigating the relationship between the religious beliefs of Americans and their attitudes toward sex education in the schools?

survey

Which of the following is a method used to conduct surveys?

all of the above

An advantage of the direct observation method is that:

it essentially eliminates the possibility of data falsification by research subjects

What is a disadvantage of the direct observational method of research?

The subjects’ behaviors may be influenced by the presence of an observer.

Direct observation is a reliable method for studying sexuality because the possibility of _________ is greatly reduced.

data falsification

Which of the following would be the most cost-effective method for conducting a survey?

questionnaires

In a(n) _______ sample, subgroups are represented according to their incidence in the larger population.

representative

A representative sample is also known as a:

probability sample

The results of the National Health and Social Life Survey reflect an American people who are:

more sexually conservative than was widely believed

In order to learn about the sexual attitudes and behaviors of all the students attending Cleveland High School, Professor Brewer randomly selected and surveyed 50 of the students. In this case, all of the students attending the high school are the:

target population

In order to generalize accurately, it is important to survey a ______ sample of cases.

representative

In written or oral surveys, a relatively small group, called the _________, is used to draw conclusions about a larger group, called the _________.

representative sample; target population

Which of the following is an advantage of using questionnaires instead of interviews?

They are usually anonymous

Questionnaires and interviews:

have all of the above characteristics

Interviews have an advantage over questionnaires in that:

the interviewer can clarify confusion questions.

Which of the following is an advantage of using interviews instead of questionnaires?

They provide opportunities for flexibility

Assume that you wanted to research a sensitive subject and that you planned to have a fairly large sample size. Helping the respondents to feel at ease as well as giving them an opportunity to elaborate on their answers is crucial. Adequate funding for your study is not a problem. Which of the following research methods would BEST suit your needs?

survey by interview

One of the problems with sex survey research is ___________, which occurs when a person refuses to participate in a study.

nonresponse

The degree to which research data may be biased as a result of the differences in the people who volunteer to participate in a study, as opposed to those who do not, is called:

self-selection

Several studies indicate that volunteers for sex research tend to:

be more sexually experienced than non-volunteers

Research (Boynton, 2003; Plaud et al., 1999) suggests that:

female sex research samples may be more influenced by volunteer bias than male samples.

Studies suggest that all of the following are characteristics of persons who volunteer for sex research EXCEPT:

college students are more willing to volunteer

A local radio talk show host asks his listeners to call in and report how frequently they engage in sexual intercourse. Which of the following BEST describes the validity of this information?

Because this sample is not representative of the community, it will not be valid

Data for the National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior (NSSHB) were collected via:

the Internet

The fact that the majority of participants in sex research have been white, middle-class volunteers illustrates the problem of:

demographic bias.

You are conducting a large scale sex survey and want to ensure that the results are representative of the larger population. In other words, you want to minimize the problem of:

demographic bias

Kinsey and his associates obtained their data on sexuality by means of:

survey interviews

Who conducted the first extensive survey of American sexual behaviors?

Kinsey

Kinsey’s studies on American sexuality were pioneering but limited, because his sample included __________.

a disproportionate number of better educated persons

Which of the following statements regarding Kinsey’s research is FALSE?

All of the respondents were married and age 30 or older.

Which of the following statements regarding Kinsey’s research is TRUE?

He published one report on male sexuality and another one on the female sexuality.

Which of the following groups was overrepresented in the Kinsey studies?

educated, city-dwelling Protestants

Which of the following statements MOST accurately describes Kinsey’s research?

It described patterns of sexual behavior in men and women.

Which of the following studies provided one of the most expansive, nationally representative studies of sexual behavior and condom use to date?

NSSHB survey

The National Health and Social Life Survey is considered noteworthy because:

it yielded data that most social scientists believe reliably indicate the sexual practices of most American adults ages 18 to 59.

For which of the following is the National Health and Social Life Survey BEST known?

A low level of nonresponse and good demographic balance of the survey population.

Many researchers consider which of the following to be the single best survey conducted of adult sexual behavior to date?

The National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior

Survey studies of various populations of men have indicated that exposure to sexually violent pornography may lead to all the following EXCEPT:

increased arousal (as measured physiologically) in nonviolent sexual encounters

Evidence from some case studies suggests that at least among chronic alcoholics subjects have shown:

decreased arousability and lowered sexual interest

Which of the following statements regarding Masters and Johnson’s research is TRUE?

Their final sample population consisted primarily of individuals with above average intelligence from an academic community.

The book Human Sexual Response was written by:

Masters and Johnson

Masters and Johnson’s research findings would be LEAST likely to be applied in:

the treatment of sexually compulsive behavior.

If you wanted information on how men and women respond physiologically during sexual arousal and orgasm, your BEST source of information would be:

Masters and Johnson

The National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior (NSSHB) survey included:

All of the above

Most information about human sexual behavior has been obtained through:

surveys.

A kind of sampling bias in which certain segments of society (such as White, middle-class, white-collar workers) are disproportionately represented in a study population is known as

demographic bias

A science writer hears of a 35-year-old male who lost his penis at circumcision. He interviews all family members, reads medical records, and writes a book about the topic. This is MOST likely an example of which of the following?

case study

One specific advantage of the case study method is that it allows:

for intensive study of a specific behavior

Which of the following research methods allows us to draw cause-and-effect relationships?

experimental method

A direct consequence of the shift in funding sources from federal agencies to drug companies has been a(n):

de-emphasis on the psychosocial aspects of human sexual functioning

Which of the following statements regarding case studies is FLASE?

Masters and Johnson’s research (Human Sexual Response) is an example of the case study method.

Since case study evidence demonstrates that rapists often report high exposure to sexually violent pornography, we can conclude that:

there may be na association between the exposure to violent pornography and rape.

One disadvantage to using the experimental method for research is that:

the artificiality of laboratory settings can result in bias.

All of the following are limitations of the case study method EXCEPT the:

inflexible data-gathering procedures

After helping two of her psychotherapy clients deal with the impact of viewing excessive amounts of pornography in their intimate relationships, Dr. Kamari began to grossly overestimate the negative effects of viewing sexually explicit materials. Dr. Kamari should be reminded of the limits of:

case studies

An advantage of the survey method of research is that:

they are relatively inexpensive and data can be obtained from large groups of people.

Studies have shown that circumcision is one of the many effective strategies for reducing the spread of:

HIV/AIDS

In the experimental method, the ________ variable is controlled by the researcher while the _________ variable is the outcome that the experimenter observes and records.

independent; dependent

What is a major advantage of the experimental method?

Control over variables that influence the behavior being studied.

A group of college men is exposed to films with nonviolent sexual themes. A second group is exposed to R-rated films in which men commit sexual violence against women. Several days later, all men complete an attitude questionnaire. The results demonstrate that the second group of men is more accepting of violence toward women than the first group. What is the dependent variable in this study?

the subjects’ responses to the questionnaire

In one high school, condoms are freely available. In another similar high school, students must request condoms from the school nurse. The number of pregnancies among both groups of students are compared. The dependent variable is:

the number of pregnancies

Which of the following research methods would be MOST appropriate if you wished to examine the effects of different room temperatures on physiological sexual response?

experimental research

A matched group of rapists and non-rapists listen to taped descriptions of sexual activity, one involving rape and the other involving consensual sexual interaction. The researcher measures the degree of penile engorgement in each group. The independent variable is:

the taped descriptions

Which of the following research strategies would provide the MOST effective way of demonstrating that sexually violent media may cause or contribute to some rapists’ assertive behaviors?

the experimental method

One of the best and most efficient ways to manage research data is through the use of:

Internet-based surveys

One of the major drawbacks of Internet-based research is:

the risk of sample-selection bias

Why are privacy issues especially acute when doing sex research in cyberspace?

Anonymity can never be 100% guaranteed.

A vaginal photoplethysmograph:

measures increased vaginal blood volume

The penile strain gauge

has been used to measure arousal in experimental research

A written or self-administered questionnaire (SAQ) provides an alternative survey method that can overcome some of the difficulties of an IAQ by:

providing a more private and potentially less threatening means of reporting sensitive behavior

At present, a "digital divide" exists, meaning that:

Internet users are still not representative of the general U.S. population

How many varieties of CASI technology are currently used?

two

When an interviewer-administered questionnaire (IAQ) is used in sex research, the human element involved in a face-to-face encounter can influence the respondent to:

underreport certain sensitive behaviors and to overreport more normative or socially acceptable behaviors

The penile strain gauge can measure:

changes in penis size

One drawback of the self-administered questionnaire (SAQ) is that:

it may be affected by the reading ability or literacy of the respondents

One limiting factor of using Internet-based research is that:

it is vulnerable to sample-selection bias

Surveys administered over the Internet may be especially useful because:

participants can be recruited from distant places

If deception must be used, a post experiment debriefing must thoroughly explain to participants

why the deception was necessary

An extreme example of violating ethical guidelines occurred in the 1940s when U.S. researchers deliberately injected thousands of Guatemalans with sexually transmitted infections (STIs) such as:

gonorrhea and syphillis

Between 1946 and 1948, U.S. government researchers experimented without consent on more than 5,000 Guatemalan soldiers, prisoners, prostitutes, orphans, and people with:

psychiatric disorders

Ethical guidelines for doing sex research with humans require which of the following?

All of the above are true

Which of the following criteria would be MOST useful in evaluating a particular piece of research?

Find out if other research confirms or contradicts the study in question.

Knowing and evaluating a researcher’s background and credentials is helpful in trying to decide whether or not:

all of the above