Hot Topic 3: A Closer Look at Sex Research

A Closer Look at Sex Research

Would you invite your students to complete a researcher’s anonymous online survey about young adult sexual attitudes?  I suspect most professors would. You might hesitate, though, if you received a request for student volunteers for a study requiring observation during sexual activity. At the very least, you might want to check the integrity and intentions of the researchers.

The contributions of sex research participants is discussed in Chapter 2 of Sexuality Now: Embracing Diversity (3e), and Critical Thinking Question #3 invites students to consider whether they would participate in research studies like those conducted by Masters and Johnson. The following classroom activity builds on this topic by using current sexology topics to engage students in thinking about whether and why they might participate in research studies. The goal of the activity is to move students from affective decision-making, i.e., “Suppose someone I knew found out?” to a deeper level of thought about values and boundaries, i.e., “What sexual health issues might be more important than personal embarrassment?”

Petra Boynton, PhD, in a blog post titled, “Want to be in a sex study?” http://www.drpetra.co.uk/blog/?p=164  provides a reality check for students who may be interested in participating in research. The article can be assigned as pre-class reading.

If you need more Research Study topics, visit the websites of the Kinsey Institute, the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality, and the National Sexuality Resource Center, respectively, at

http://www.kinseyinstitute.org/research/surveylinks.html 

http://www.sexscience.org/publications/index.php?category_id=437

http://nsrc.sfsu.edu/sexuality_research_social_policy

If you would like to explore this topic further, I recommend you read Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex, by scientific journalist Mary Roach. It is a fascinating and funny book with many passages you might want to share with your students.

Activity:  Who Helps, and Why?

Materials:  Research Study examples provided in this blog post; broad-tip markers; newsprint; poster tack or tape; means for dividing class into triads (random selection, count-off by 3s, color-coded nametags at the start of class, etc.); index cards

Preparation: 

• Assign Carroll’s Chapter 2 to be read prior to the class meeting
• Optional reading assignment: Petra Boynton’s blog on sex research  http://www.drpetra.co.uk/blog/?p=164 
• Print out the Research Study descriptions
• On white board, projector or handout, post these Question Prompts:
  • Who might be doing the research, and why? (is it purely academic, or will the findings benefit a commercial product or business?)
  • What might be the purpose of the research?
  • 3 reasons someone might participate
  • 3 reasons why someone might not participate
  • What kinds of people are most likely to participate in this study, and why?

Procedure:

• Review Chapter 2, emphasizing the importance of sexuality research. Review the concept of informed consent (p. 50)
• Divide students into triads
• Give each triad a large newsprint sheet and broad tip marker
• Distribute the Research Study descriptions
• Instruct the students to select a research study to discuss, write the topic at the top of the newsprint, and answer the Question Prompts. Answers should be printed legibly on the newsprint, which one member of the group will present to the class later. Note: Students need not answer from their own perspectives, i.e., whether they would participate in the study. No personal disclosure is required.
• Allow 15-20 minutes for discussion before inviting the group spokespeople to take turns posting their newsprint on the wall and reporting the triad’s findings.
• After each group has presented, compliment students’ thinking and correct any misinformation. Point out assumptions that may have been made, i.e., “People who are promiscuous are more likely to participate.”
• Ask students to look at the answers on the posters for patterns. Do common concerns run through them, regardless of the study topic? Is there a similarity in terms of the research purposes? How do these answers relate to the research challenges presented in the textbook?
• Distribute one index card per student. Instruct students to anonymously write on their card the type of sex research they might be willing to participate in and why (or why not, if they wouldn’t participate in any fashion). Examples: an anonymous online survey, a phone survey, a focus group, a body fluid sample, a written record of sexual activity, electronically monitored sexual activity, researcher-monitored activity (via film), etc.
• Collect, shuffle, and read the cards. Is anyone surprised by the results? Are there any patterns? Would the answers be different if responses were gathered by people in a different age or demographic group? Conclude the discussion by referring to the difficulty researchers can have finding a sufficient number of research participants to make generalizations.

How do you bring hot topics into your Human Sexuality classroom? How can you refine a lesson based on the Carroll text? I invite you to contact me for help.

Melanie J. Davis, MEd, teaches Human Sexuality as well as Marriage and the Family at Moravian College. She is a doctoral candidate in Human Sexuality Education and is the owner of Honest Exchange LLC, a sexuality consulting and resource development practice based in Somerville, NJ. Melanie is a partner in the New Jersey Center for Sexual Wellness, located in Bedminster, NJ.

Research Studies Handout

Study 1:  You will be asked to complete a questionnaire about your sexual activity. During sexual activity (solo or partnered), you will use the sample of personal lubricant provided to you by the researcher. You will visually monitor your genital appearance every day for 30 days, noting the appearance on a chart provided by the researcher.

Study 2:  You will be randomly assigned to receive 3 doses of a herpes vaccine or investigational hepatitis A vaccine during a 6-month period. Your health will be monitored for 20 months following dosage. The vaccine contains no live or infectious virus.

Study 3: If you are biologically female and test negative for HIV, you will be provided with an HIV-blocking gel that acts as a “molecular condom.” After insertion in the vagina, the gel will become a semi-solid in the presence of semen, trapping the AIDS-causing virus, as well as other viruses and sperm, in a microscopic mesh. You will be asked to record your sexual activity and use of the gel for a 3-month period. Your health will be monitored from the time you receive the gel to 24 months afterward.

Study 4: You will sit by yourself, in a medical exam room. If you are male, you will slip a band around your flaccid penis. The band will be attached to a measuring device. If you are female, you will be asked to insert a tampon-like measuring device into your vagina. With the device in place, you will view pornographic film clips and indicate (by clicking a computer mouse) if or when you become aroused. The researcher will compare your subjective rating of arousal with the physiological measurements recorded by the devices.

Study 5: You will be interviewed by a researcher, by phone, about your sexual knowledge, fantasies, and behavior from age 12 to 18. You will be asked for your real name for the researcher’s Informed Consent paperwork, but your name will not be attached to your answers or published.

Study 6: If you identify as a male, you will participate in a focus group discussion on how men decide whether to have sex with a particular woman, how they communicate their sexual interests to women, and how they interpret women’s sexual interest in them.