Abstract
This article comments on the comments made by Tom W. Smith on the book "Kinsey institute New Report on Sex: What You Must Know to Be Sexually Literate by June M. Reinisch with Ruth Beasley which is mainly a question-and-answer presentation of basic information on sexual behavior, contraception, and sexually transmitted disease. The 18 questions were explicitly not selected on the basis of traditional psychometric guidelines related to content validity. Since the topics were, in a very real sense, selected by the people who contact the Kinsey Institute, the questions are inherently important to the large number of people concerned enough about sexual and reproductive issues to turn to a reputable source for answers. Based on the volume of questions about these issues, the topics are, therefore, very likely to represent significant concerns of a large proportion of the population in general. Smith further implies that some of the questions in the survey are too difficult for people to make judgments about because they require knowledge about medical information that may go against "conventional wisdom."
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