INSTRUCTIONS: Watch the Bill Condon movie, Kinsey (2004), about renowned sex researcher Alfred Kinsey. In a short paper, I want you to address the following questions:

• In what ways were Kinsey and his research a product of the times? In other words, research doesn’t just spontaneously occur; there are facilitators and barriers in place that make it particularly likely that a field of research arose when it did and not, say, 20 years earlier or 20 years later. What social and historical circumstances existed that made Kinsey’s research particularly likely to occur when it did? Kinsey by Bill Condon

• In what ways was Kinsey’s research ahead of its time? That is, in what ways were society, academia, and social science unprepared for Kinsey’s research?

• What were some of the broad ramifications of Kinsey’s research? That is, what were some of the positive or negative developments (e.g. academic or social) that emerged from the research?
NOTE: I just want to stress that the historical context is important; understand how the events of the movie are taking place within a particular time in the country and a particular time in psychology, and how those particulars contributed to the way things unfolded. The papers should be in APA, 4 pages in length, typed, double-spaced, 12 pt. font. Kinsey by Bill Condon

The movie titled Kinsey, 2004 is about the first study of human sexual behavior
conducted by Dr. Alfred C. Kinsey. The movie was published in 1947 after Kinsey interviewed
thousands of Americans for years. In the movie, Kinsey relays his controversial findings that
everybody masturbates and that about 37 percent of men in America have had at least a
homosexual experience. Briefly, after the movie premiered, it was universally agreed that
masturbation would make one go blind or insane. He also noted that most of the participants
interviewed had sex within marriage, and also most of them limited themselves to the missionary
position. Kinsey is seen in the movie as a biology professor with a good life teaching and
excelling in research works at Indiana University. This paper will answer questions; In what
ways were Kinsey and his research a product of the times? In what ways was Kinsey’s research
ahead of its time? And What were some of the broad ramifications of Kinsey’s research?