Chapter 2: The Science of Sexuality

Test Bank

Multiple Choice

1. Until the mid-1800s, which views were the most influential for understanding sexuality in Western cultures?

A. medical

B. religious

C. evolutionary

D. psychological

Learning Objective: 2-1: Explain nineteenth- and twentieth-century theoretical perspectives on sexuality.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: The Early Years: Sex, Morality, and Medicine

Difficulty Level: Easy

2. According to the authors, why is it important to understand the time period and culture in which research is conducted?

A. The researchers may themselves be shaping discourse around sexuality.

B. The role of religious leaders must always be identified.

C. Scientific research can be affected by widespread cultural assumptions.

D. In some periods, research was biased by funders.

Learning Objective: 2-1: Explain nineteenth- and twentieth-century theoretical perspectives on sexuality.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Understanding Sexuality Through Science

Difficulty Level: Medium

3. How can we best characterize Victorian era attitudes toward sexuality?

A. gender neutral

B. restrictive

C. experimental

D. scientific

Learning Objective: 2-1: Explain nineteenth- and twentieth-century theoretical perspectives on sexuality.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: The Early Years: Sex, Morality, and Medicine

Difficulty Level: Medium

4. Which early sex researcher introduced the idea that nonprocreative sex was pathological?

A. Sigmund Freud

B. Richard von Krafft-Ebing

C. Havelock Ellis

D. Alfred Kinsey

Learning Objective: 2-1: Explain nineteenth- and twentieth-century theoretical perspectives on sexuality.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Science of Sex: Sexology

Difficulty Level: Medium

5. Charles Darwin’s theory of sex selection claims that in most mammals, the female is much more invested in ______ than the male.

A. the survival rate of offspring

B. self-sufficiency

C. sexual pleasure

D. monogamy

Learning Objective: 2-1: Explain nineteenth- and twentieth-century theoretical perspectives on sexuality.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Evolutionary Theory: Charles Darwin

Difficulty Level: Easy

6. What was the most significant conclusion from the Kinsey Reports?

A. That people are either exclusively heterosexual or exclusively homosexual.

B. That people experience a similar sexual response cycle.

C. The sexuality stems from relationships to parents.

D. That sexuality should be understood as a continuum.

Learning Objective: 2-1: Explain nineteenth- and twentieth-century theoretical perspectives on sexuality.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: The Kinsey Reports: Alfred Kinsey

Difficulty Level: Medium

7. Masters and Johnson were unique from other sexologists because they ______.

A. studied physiological responses

B. studied psychological responses

C. took representative samples

D. openly analyzed their cultural biases

Learning Objective: 2-1: Explain nineteenth- and twentieth-century theoretical perspectives on sexuality.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Sexual Physiology Research: Masters and Johnson

Difficulty Level: Medium

8. Early sociological research on sexuality focused on ______.

A. normative sexual behaviors

B. sexual evolution

C. sexual deviance

D. physiological responses

Learning Objective: 2-2: Define the social construction of sexuality.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Sociology and Social Constructionism

Difficulty Level: Medium

9. How did feminist scholars expand understandings of sexuality?

A. They critiqued discursive understandings of sexuality.

B. They analyzed how structural inequalities impacted women’s sexual lives.

C. They focused primarily on accepted sexual scripts.

D. They separated different systems of oppression for analysis.

Learning Objective: 2-2: Define the social construction of sexuality.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Feminist Contributions to Sexuality Studies

Difficulty Level: Hard

10. What is the central tenet of queer theory?

A. Homosocial relationships are actually normative.

B. The personal is political.

C. Gender and sexuality are fluid.

D. Gender, race, and class should be analyzed simultaneously.

Learning Objective: 2-2: Define the social construction of sexuality.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Queer Theory

Difficulty Level: Easy

11. When did the APA stop classifying homosexuality as a mental illness?

A. 1960s

B. 1970s

C. 1980s

D. 1990s

Learning Objective: 2-3: Explicate the shifting scientific understandings of homosexuality.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Homosexuality as Mental Illness

Difficulty Level: Medium

12. ______ refers to the normalized status of partnering with one other person.

A. Serial monogamy

B. Compulsory monogamy

C. Homosociality

D. Discursive marriage

Learning Objective: 2-3: Explicate the shifting scientific understandings of homosexuality.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Sociology of Monogamy

Difficulty Level: Easy

13. Why did many early researchers focus on studying homosexuality?

A. to create new discourse around sexuality

B. to refute the idea of a gay gene

C. to challenge sexual norms

D. to try to discover a cure

Learning Objective: 2-3: Explicate the shifting scientific understandings of homosexuality. | 2-4: Describe the history of sexuality studies in academia.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: The Science of Homosexuality | Ethical Issues in Sex Research

Difficulty Level: Medium

14. Early Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies departments focused on studying which group(s) of people?

A. straight and lesbian women

B. sexual deviants

C. gay men and lesbians

D. people who are LGBTQ identified

Learning Objective: 2-4: Describe the history of sexuality studies in academia.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Sexuality Studies in Academia

Difficulty Level: Easy

15. Which concept captures the reality that people who participate in sex research tend to be more sexually experienced?

A. informed consent

B. ethical dilemma

C. self-selection bias

D. stigma

Learning Objective: 2-5: Debate ethical and methodological issues in sex research.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Methodological Issues in Sex Research

Difficulty Level: Easy

16. How does sexuality stigma impact scholars’ ability to do research?

A. They are less likely to receive grants.

B. They are more likely to publish in low-ranking journals.

C. They have difficulty recruiting participants.

D. They must rely on multiple collaborators.

Learning Objective: 2-5: Debate ethical and methodological issues in sex research.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Methodological Issues in Sex Research | Stigma and Sexuality Research

Difficulty Level: Hard

17. What are researchers required to do when recruiting potential research participants?

A. pay them for their time

B. obtain informed consent

C. ensure a representative sample

D. share the results of their research

Learning Objective: 2-5: Debate ethical and methodological issues in sex research.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Ethical Issues in Sex Research

Difficulty Level: Hard

True/False

1. Sexual inversion is an older medical term for homosexuality.

Learning Objective: 2-3: Explicate the shifting scientific understandings of homosexuality.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: The Science of Homosexuality

Difficulty Level: Easy

2. Queer theory is the same thing as feminist theory.

Learning Objective: 2-2: Define the social construction of sexuality.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Queer Theory | Feminist Contributions to Sexuality Studies

Difficulty Level: Easy

3. Sexology focuses on understanding sexuality from a biological perspective.

Learning Objective: 2-1: Explain nineteenth- and twentieth-century theoretical perspectives on sexuality.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Science of Sex: Sexology

Difficulty Level: Easy

4. Freud argued that sexual drive comes from one’s social context.

Learning Objective: 2-2: Define the social construction of sexuality.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Psychoanalytical Theory: Sigmund Freud

Difficulty Level: Medium

5. Female sex researchers are more likely to experience sexuality stigma.

Learning Objective: 2-5: Debate ethical and methodological issues in sex research.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Stigma and Sexuality Research

Difficulty Level: Easy

Short Answer

1. According to Foucault, how do scientists shape understandings of sexuality?

Learning Objective: 2-2: Define the social construction of sexuality.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Post-Structuralism: Michel Foucault

Difficulty Level: Hard

2. Describe one ethical dilemma in sex research as described in the textbook.

Learning Objective: 2-5: Debate ethical and methodological issues in sex research.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Ethical Issues in Sex Research

Difficulty Level: Easy

3. What was the connection between sex and morality before the 1800s and then during the Victorian era (1800s)?

Learning Objective: 2-1: Explain nineteenth- and twentieth-century theoretical perspectives on sexuality.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: The Early Years: Sex, Morality, and Medicine

Difficulty Level: Medium

4. How did classifying homosexuality as a “mental illness” impact lesbians and gay men?

Learning Objective: 2-3: Explicate the shifting scientific understandings of homosexuality.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: The Science of Homosexuality

Difficulty Level: Hard

5. What is queer theory, and how is it different from feminist theory?

Learning Objective: 2-4: Describe the history of sexuality studies in academia.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Queer Theory | Sexuality Studies in Academia

Difficulty Level: Medium

Essay

1. Describe the key contributions of early researchers of sexuality. In what ways are their perspectives shaped by 19th-century cultural ideologies?

Learning Objective: 2-1: Explain nineteenth- and twentieth-century theoretical perspectives on sexuality.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Understanding Sexuality Through Science

Difficulty Level: Medium

2. Who are some of the main sociological contributors to the social constructionist perspective on sexuality? In what ways are their perspectives shaped by 20th-century ideologies?

Learning Objective: 2-2: Define the social construction of sexuality.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Sociology and Social Constructionism

Difficulty Level: Medium

3. How does feminist theory contribute to the science of sexuality? How does intersectionality expand our understanding of sexuality?

Learning Objective: 2-2: Define the social construction of sexuality.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Feminist Contributions to Sexuality Studies

Difficulty Level: Medium

4. What do LGBTQ scholars focus on today, and how are they treated in academia?

Learning Objective: 2-4: Describe the history of sexuality studies in academia.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Sexuality Studies in Academia | Researching Sex: Methodological and Ethical Concerns

Difficulty Level: Medium

5. Why do we need to be careful about drawing conclusions from sex research? Address at least one ethical and one methodological concern.

Learning Objective: 2-5: Debate ethical and methodological issues in sex research.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Methodological Issues in Sex Research | Ethical Issues in Sex Research

Difficulty Level: Hard