Volunteer Bias

What is the Current State of Knowledge on Volunteer Bias in Sex Research?

Introduction

Many problems in research concerning sexuality of people are difficult to argue with compared to other ones, such as harmful effects of smoking cigarettes. Volunteer bias in research is one of the problems. In two research studies by Wiederman, and Strassberg and Lowe, volunteer bias in sex research is discussed. Some people like Kinsey in the film Kinsey are not bias, and as such, volunteer sex information whiles others do not. Because people are afraid of volunteering their personal sexual history in a research, it is my opinion they prefer to use anonymity in an interview through the use of questionnaires.

Review and Evaluation of Literature

In a research

He begins the study by approaching the dean of students asking permission to conduct an open-forum “sex course” (Condon 00:33:01). The dean grants him permission with specific instructions that the open-forum will only be for graduates, senior students, teachers, and married students. Most of them were afraid to “share, such an intimate relationship” (Condon 01:24:45). In the first research study, Wiederman (1999) shows that people experienced some discomfort while taking part in the sex research. As he continues to answer questions about sex education in the open-forum, he realizes that the answers are limited by lack of adequate scientific data concerning the sexual human behavior (Wiederman, 1999). Therefore, he looks to science saying, “The only way to study sex with any scientific accuracy is to strip away everything but its physiological functions” (Condon

The aim of using the questionnaires is to make sure that people volunteered information without feeling that they are being coerced to reveal intimate details about their sexual lives. The results from the questionnaires puzzle him. He realizes that sexuality among humans is varied more than the way many people think. While “every male have a history of masturbation” (Condon 00:42:18) to experience sexual pleasure, others like to have sex with the same gender. As a result, he was able to find out that some people preferred to be “heterosexual” while others “homosexual” (00:42:36). Those in relationships with the same gender were not afraid of people knowing their sexual history (Strassberg & Lowe, 1995). Personally, he is not biased because he is willing to share his own sexual history in a volunteered sex research interview, saying that he is mostly