Masters and Johnson

Gynecologist William Howell Masters (December 27, 1915 – February 16, 2001) and psychologist Virginia Eshelman Johnson (born February 11, 1925) pioneered research into the nature of human sexual response and the diagnosis and treatment of sexual disorders and dysfunctions from 1957 until the 1990s.

Criticisms

Some sex researchers, Shere Hite in particular, have focused on understanding how individuals regard sexual experience and the meaning it holds for them. Hite has criticised Masters and Johnson's work for uncritically incorporating cultural attitudes on sexual behaviour into their research.

Related Topics:
Sex researcher - Shere Hite

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For example, Hite's work showed that 70% of women who do not have orgasms through intercourse are able to achieve orgasm easily by masturbation. She has criticised Masters and Johnson's argument that enough clitoral stimulation to achieve orgasm should be provided by thrusting during intercourse, and the inference that the failure of this is a sign of female "sexual dysfunction". Whilst not denying that both Kinsey and Masters and Johnson have been a crucial step in sex research, she believes that we must understand the cultural and personal construction of sexual experience to make the research relevant to sexual behaviour outside the laboratory.

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Similar research on the topic was carried out by Sunil Shetty and Rachna Tiwari in Memphis University during 2003-04. This research was based on lab studies of 97 females and 128 males drawn from multiethnic backgrounds. The research paper published in Dec 2004 concluded that the human sexual response can neither be categorised in strict classes of behaviour nor is there any correlation between the two aspects.

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