ABSTRACT
Throughout the history of quantitative sexuality research, the validity of many studies has been questioned because the field has had difficulty reaching one of the basic requirements of any science: that, other things being equal, different investigators should reach consistent conclusions. Amid the lively debates about the meaning of results from sexuality research, one of the most justifiable criticisms concerns the ways in which samples have been selected and recruited. In this chapter, I review aspects of the history of sampling in sexuality research, describe standard methods for sample selection, and give examples where these have been applied. Finally, I discuss biases that arise from self-selection, and consider ways in which these problems can be minimized.
