PSYC 350A: Sexual Identity and Orientation
data on conversion therapy
- NO EVIDENCE IT WORKS - evidence shows IT'S HARMFUL (causes anxiety, depression, suicide) - be skeptical!
femme
feminine-acting, often used to describe certain lesbians or bisexual women
gynephilic vs. androphilic
gynephilic: sexual attraction to women androphilic: sexual attraction to men
gay bashers
hate crimes against gay people, sometimes includes verbal abuse as well as physical abuse
heteroerotic vs homoerotic
heteroerotic: sexual attraction to opposite sex homoerotic: sexual attraction to same sex
colloquial terms for sexual orientations
heterosexual - straight homosexual - gay, lesbian (homosexual women) bisexual - bi
gay for pay
heterosexual people who have homosexual sex for money
bears
in gay slang, a burly gay man with plenty of body hair; more generally, a member of a gay male subculture that rejects many of the prevailing standards of gay male attractiveness and behavior
gaydar
the ability to recognize gay people on the basis of unconscious behaviors, voice quality, gait and so on
sexual orientation (text)
the direction of a person's sexual feelings: sexual attraction towards persons of opposite sex (heterosexual), the same sex (homosexual), or both (bisexual)
lack of access
when people will have sex with the unpreferred sex just because they are the only people available to have sex with - for example : prisons
prevalence of homosexuality
women: 0.5-1.5% men: 1-3% - less men, but more women, identify as bisexual
Winters study data: men
- 23.5% of heterosexual men reported sexual activity with a man - 7.2% bisexual, 10.1% homosexual - 56.4% of homosexual men reported sexual activity with a woman
prenatal hormone exposure
- 2D:4D ratio = the length between the forth and second finger, cortices volume, amygdala == all indicators of testosterone - testosterone creates asymmetry in the cortices volume - testosterone causes amygdala to be less symmetrical
Winters study data: women
- 36.5% of heterosexual women reported sexual activity with a woman - 17.1% bisexual, 2.2% homosexual - 75.1% homosexual women reported heterosexual sexual activity - almost half of heterosexual women say their preference is "mainly male but sometimes female"
fraternal birth order
- Ray Blanchard - the more older brothers a man has, the more likely he's gay - idea of Y-linked antigens that are involved in the brain organization which relates to the male sex differentiation - some male Y linked antigens can leak over the barrier in-utero so that when the next son is born, the antibodies that the mom made can cross over and affect the brain organization - the more sons she has, the more antibodies there are
Spitzer study on Conversion therapy
- Spitzer: well known guy, known for studies - sample: 200 people, mostly men, some women, all white - those in the sample were either dissatisfied, wanted marriage, or had a religious background (AKA: all had a desire to want the therapy to work) - duration of the treatment 5-15 years - observed different types of therapy - retrospective study
Kinsey scale
- a 7 point scale of sexual orientation devised by Alfred Kinsey - more men than women are exclusively homosexual - more women than men fall into the intermediate groups representing various degrees of bisexaulity
bathhouses
- a facility, usually in the form of a private club, used for casual sex between men
homophobia and empathy
- a heterosexual man, when he thinks about homosexuality imagines himself engaging in sex with another man - the idea is a turn off - transfer the aversion to men who actually engage in such behavior - he fails to put himself in the MIND of a man who is sexually attracted ot men
conversion therapy
- also called reparative theory or reorientation therapy - created due to a prior assumption that homosexuality is a mental disorder in need of treatment
learning theory
- as we learn about what we like, homosexuality can occur - still comes up when talking about sexual abuse - can still have a physiological response
psychodynamic theory
- being gay is a phase that you wither stay in or grow out of
Storm's scale
- better than Kinsey's - arranged in quadrants 1) bisexual 2) homosexual 3) asexual 4) heterosexual - homoeroticism is the y axis - heteroeroticism is the x axis - better than Kinsey's since it includes asexuality
why can using homosexual as a label be problematic?
- comes from a medical path and was used to describe a condition and therefore has a negative connotation - associated with behavior - normally used to describe M/M and not F/F
CAH
- congenital adrenal hyperplasia: in which human fetuses are exposed to high levels of androgens regardless of their sex - women with CAH are more likely to experience same sex attraction and engage in same sex relationships than are control groups of women such as their unaffected sisters
LeVay's study about gender-related differences and homosexuality
- during childhood, boys who later become gay men tend to engage less in rough-and-tumble play, aggressive behavior, and athletics - during childhood, girls who later become lesbians tend to e very active physically and are considered tomboys with male typical career plans, etc. - not possible to predict with certainty the future sexual orientation of even extremely gender-noncomformist children, but many or most of them do become gay adults according to prospective studies - in adulthood, gay men tend to be less aggressive, perform less well on male favoring tests and perform better on female favouring tests than straight men - lesbians also score in gender-atypical fashion in some tests - on average, gay and bi men describe themselves as less masculine, and lesbians and bi women describe themselves as less feminine - there is a partial correlation between sexual orientation and other asepcts of gender
lezploitation
- exploiting a bisexual/lesbian identity so that they can make more money - ex: Katy Perry's 'I Kissed A Girl'
why do people engage in bisexual behavior despite not being actually bisexual?
- exploration - dual life (having heterosexual sex to meet expectations but actually have an underlying sexual attraction to both sexes) - stepping stone to coming out (first identifying as bisexual because it's less threatening as being exclusively homosexual_
biphobia
- get prejudice from both heterosexual community and from homosexual community - get attitudes that people give them assuming that they're just homosexual
Freud's theory of homosexuality
- heterosexuality is the normal end stage of a complex multistage process of psychosexual development - if trauma causes a blockage of normal development, child might stay stuck in early homosexual stage - he just ended up traumatizing people
examples of discrimination globally against homosexuality
- homosexual acts are a capital offense (punishable by death) in Iran - killings of gay people on account of their sexual orientation happen frequently in Central America and South America - "corrective rape" where lesbians are raped with the purpose of making them heterosexual
genetics theory
- homosexuality is a contribution from parents - compared fraternal and identical twins - when looking at twins, if 1 twin is gay, there's a 50% chance the other is gay too, but that number drops when looking at fraternal twins
gender nonconformity
- kids exhibiting opposite sex play
asexual
- no sexual interest in either sex
main reasons for engaging in homosexual sexual activity
- physical pleasure and emotional intimacy - procreation can't happen
results of Spitzer study
- pre treatment: everyone attracted to same sex, post treatment: everyone shifted to the other end - treatment affect so strong (which raised a red flag) - same sex sex: post treatment, everyone only having opposite sex sex
sexual orientation
- sex of the individuals to whom a person is romantically, emotionally and sexually attracted - objective - comes from medical literature originally - use in the past to describe behaivor - it's being oriented toward someone
romantic orientation
- sex of the person who you are romantically interested in - not the same as sexual orientation or identity, but it can overlap with it - can be homoromantic or heteroromantic
Cognitive dissonance
- state of tension that occurs when a person simultaneously holds two cognitions that are psychologically inconsistent, or when a person's belief is incongruent with his or her behavior
sexual orientation and socialization
- suggests that homosexuality results from molestation during childhood, from rape during young adulthood, from consensual same sec experiences in boarding schools, or from other early sexual experiences - no evidence to support these ideas - no positive evidence that parents have a influence on sexual orientation - it is certain that socialization strongly influences how gay people think of themselves and how they live their lives
INAH3
- third interstitial nucleus of the anterior hypothalamus - neuronal cell group in the hypothalamus that differs in size between men and women and between gay and straight men
true bisexuality vs. bisexual behavior
- true bisexuality: people who have an underlying sexual preference for both sexes - bisexual behavior: people who have underlying sexual preferences for one sex but display bisexual behavior
reasons for biphobia
- widespread belief that people who claim to be bisexual are deceiving themselves or others and that they are actually either heterosexual or homosexual - stereotype that they need to express their sexual attraction to both men and woman and therefore arr incapable of being in a durable monogamous relationships
women sexuality and fluidity
- women respond to lesbian porn despite being heterosexual - women also display slight physiological signs of arousal when watching animal sex - women are most easily aroused when it comes to sexual content than men - this is the result for the specific response pattern in men that isn't seen in women
gender identity
-the gender with which one self-identifies - subjective - nothing to do with who you're sexually attracted/oriented to
sexual identity
-typically congruent with sexual orientation, although broader - subjective
Kinsey scale:
0: exclusively heterosexual 1-5: a bunch of gray area 6: exclusively homosexual
examples of those who suffered with cognitive dissonance in relation to homosexuality
1) Teg Haggard - the guy who ran his own church in Colorado Springs and was against gays but got caught when a male sex worker stepped up, he first denied it, then blamed temptation, then accepted it 2) George Rakers - PhD psychologists that "treated" homosexuality, turns out he's also gay
what are the ways to reduce cognitive dissonance?
1) change attitude/belief 2) change behaviour 3) justify attitude/belief or behavior 4) denial
elements of coming out
1) coming out to oneself; realizing and consciously accepting that one is gay 2) coming out to others 3) joining a gay or lesbian community 4) integrating the gay side of their identity with the other aspects of who they are
when determining homosexuality, what must you differentiate?
1) desire with no behaviour 2) desire with behaviour 3) behaviour without desire 4) self identity
treatments of conversion therapy
1) electric shock - watch gay porn, shocked if aroused 2) nausea inducing drugs - watch gay porn, take gross vomit pill 3) masturbatory reconditioning - pairing pleasure with new preference 4) visualization - trying to normalize hetero-fantasy 5) social skills training - idea that they are gay because they don't have the social skills to pick up girls 6) psychoanalytic theory - digs into past to figure out what "caused" or "triggered" homosexuality 7) spiritual interventions - praying or biblical interference
biological theories for homosexuality
1) genetics 2) fraternal birth order 3) prenatal hormone exposure: 2D:4D ratio, cortices volume ratio, amygdala 4) prenatal stress on mother: handedness
reasons behind doing gay-for-pay
1) guys get paid more in gay porn than in heterosexual porn 2) if they do this and are closeted, it lets them justify the same sex behavior with the pay 3) more premium to be paid for when a straight guy first experiencing same sex - similar to having a virgin
ways homosexual couples can have children
1) lesbians can simply have sex with a man or use artificial insemination 2) gay male couples can employ a surrogate mother who may be artificially inseminated or made pregnant through in vitro 3) adoption
3 psychological theories for homosexuality
1) psychodynamic theory 2) learning theory 3) gender nonconformity
factors that correlate with attitudes toward gay people
1) religion 2) beliefs about the origin of homosexuality
bad parts of Spitzer's study
1) sample selection: HUGE biases 2) no control group 3) exclusively self report measures 4) retrospective design 5) reparative therapy not well defined 6) does not prove causality 7) potential harms or risks of reparative treatment
good parts of Spitzer's study
1) sample size 2) detailed, multi item measures 3) assessed behaviors, AND fantasies, attitudes, desires and level of satisfaction 4) structured interview
reasons why gay men have sex in locations other than their bedrooms
1) simply the lack of other options 2) probably the thrill seeking aspect of sex in public places, the sense of hunting for a partner and being hunted combined with the possibility of public disclosure 3) opportunity to have sex with a number of different partners in a short time
factors that DO NOT explain homosexuality
1) smothering mother or absent father which led to the father not having a strong enough of an influence 2) emotional problems 3) same sex play in childhood and adolescence 4) parental practices 5) role models 6) choice (it's a lifestyle??)
arguments against gay marraige
1) their children will suffer/become homosexual 2) marriage is religious, and the Bible forbids homosexuality 3) homosexuals spread disease 4) same sex couples can't procreate 5) attack on the sanctity of marriage for heterosexuals 6) people will want to marry multiple partners, or their pets 7) homosexuals suffer from higher rates of mental disorders
what were the variables that Spitzer looked at for his conversion therapy study?
1. sexual attraction scale 2. sexual orientation self-identity 3. bothered by homosexual feelings 4. frequency of sex (both) 5. yearning for emotional intimacy 6. looking with lust/day dreaming 7. % masturbation with hetero/homo sexual fantasies 8. use of gay porn 9. % of heterosexual sex with homosexual fantasies 10. emotional satisfaction with heterosexual relationships 11. physical satisfaction
implicit associaition tests
a psychological test that is intended to reveal unconscious or unstated preferences
medial preoptic area
a region of the hypothalamus involved i the regulation of sexual behaviors typically shown by males
gender variant
atypical in gender characteristics
butch
masculine acting, often used to describe certain lesbians
femiphobia
prejudice against femininity in males
homophobia
prejudice against homosexuality or gay people
bisexual
sexual orientation to member of either sex
heterosexual
sexual orientation to member of other sex
homosexual
sexual orientation to member of the same sex
tops and bottoms
tops: defined by a preference for the insertive role in anal intercourse, relatively masculine and dominant bottom: preferred the receptive role and were more feminine
