Sex and Marital Adjustment: A Critique of Kinsey's Approach

Abstract

According to the repeated assertion of the authors, this extensive quantitative investigation of the reported sexual experiences of almost 6,000 white American females has far-reaching implications for our understanding of marital adjustment. Attacks upon the problem of sexual adjustment in marriage have not proved as fruitful as they might have been, according to Kinsey, because no one has understood the basic physiology of sexual response, or the basic psychologic differences between female and male responsiveness.* (p. 8) Most of our past knowledge regarding these phenomena appears to be incorrect. (p. 12) The purpose of the study, he goes on to say, has been a factfinding survey in which there has been an attempt not only to discover what people do sexually but what factors account for their patterns of sexual behavior and how these have affected their lives. We then see Professor Kinsey emerging from his purported role of the objectively oriented scientist studying the highly restricted physiological functioning of a human biological need to that of the bold, overly confident, often naive, occasionally moralistic counselor on marital affairs.