In measuring the incidence of a given behavior, one immediately finds a dichotomy: those with the behavior and those without it. Together they form what we call a “total” sample; those with the behavior we call an “active” sample. The great majority of the frequencies used in this study are based upon the; active sample. Frequencies based upon total sample are likely to be misleading because they are strongly influenced by the proportion of individuals in each group who have that particular behavior. For example, average masturbation frequencies for a total group may be low only because a minority of the group masturbate, whereas those few who do masturbate (the active sample) may do so with high frequencies.

This total vs. active division is merely another form of holding one variable constant. In the same way we differentiate the; never married and the ever married. In brief, there are many occasions when analysis must be focused upon the eligible rather than upon the ineligible, or upon the total of both. There is no profit in including in a comparison of masturbation fantasies of individuals who never masturbated. For analytical purposes we have in a few cases constructed special categories, such as habitual (patterned) offenders for comparison with the nonhabitual (incidental) offenders.

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