Carving Sexuality at Its Joints: Defining Sexual Orientation in Research and Clinical Practice (original) (raw)
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Defining and measuring sexual orientation: A review
Archives of sexual behavior, 1997
This review is intended to further our understanding of mis subject and to encourage researchers to be critical of how they classify subjects based upon sexual orientation.
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Journal of Psychosexual Health, 2020
Background: Sexual orientation is a continuing amorous pattern of attraction toward the opposite sex (heterosexual), same sex (homosexual), or both sexes (bisexual) or it is lack of sexual desire toward anyone (asexual). Psychosocial and biological explanations regarding the development of an individual's sexual orientation are related to life incidents, parenting patterns, psychological attributes of the individual, or may also be related to an imbalance in sex hormones. There is no strong evidence-based scientific research revealing the exact causes for one's sexual orientation for it is not static but dynamic in nature. Aim: The purpose of the study is to develop a psychological assessment scale which identifies an individual's sexual orientation, particularly when he/she denies to reveal his/her sexual preference in the marital life. Methodology: A tool with 32 items was developed by conducting focus group discussion, interviewing the experts in the relevant fields and reviewing the literature. Test-retest and split half reliability were established with Cronbach's alpha to analyze the internal consistency. Both logical-based validity (face, content, and focus group) and empirical-based validity (criterion, concurrent, convergent, and divergent) were established. These methodologies were standardized by a sample of 506 participants (217 males and 289 females) between the age range of 18 and 50 years. Results: The test-retest reliability was found to be r = 0.96, Spearman-Brown and Guttman split half reliability was 0.73, and Cronbach's alpha ranged from (α) 0.71 to 0.88. Implications: This scale would be beneficial for premarital counselors and mental health professionals to understand the sexual orientation of their clients explicitly.
Three Identified and Critiqued Measures of Sexuality
2018
Abstract: Female Sexual Interest/Arousal Disorder (FSIAD), a condition described in the DSM-5, can be quantified with available psychometric tools. Three measures of FSIAD are compared. Conclusions are drawn as to their relative merits.
Conceptualization and measurement of homosexuality in sex surveys: a critical review
Cadernos de saúde pública, 2006
This article reviews major national population sex surveys that have asked questions about homosexuality focusing on conceptual and methodological issues, including the definitions of sex, the measured aspects of homosexuality, sampling and interviewing technique, and questionnaire design. Reported rates of major measures of same-sex attraction, behavior, partners, and sexual identity from surveys are also presented and compared. The study of homosexuality in surveys has been shaped by the research traditions and questions ranging from sexology to the epidemiology of HIV/AIDS. Sexual behavior has been a central topic at least since Kinsey. Issues of sexual attraction and/or orientation and sexual identity have emerged more recently. Differences in the treatment of men and women in the design and analysis of surveys as well as in the reported rates in different surveys, in different countries and time periods are also presented and discussed. We point out the importance of the consid...
Surveying sexual orientation: Asking difficult questions and providing useful answers
Culture, Health & Sexuality, 2008
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Multidimensional Measurement of Sexual Orientation: Present
Journal of Bisexuality, 2014
Journal of Bisexuality of the beloved-not two people (the lover and the beloved). (Weinrich, 2008, pp. 3-4) Each scale. .. describes eight basic types of erotic fantasy experiences. On one scale, each of the eight erotic items is described with men as the object of the fantasy (the androerotic scale); on the other scale, women are described as the object of the fantasy (the gynoerotic scale). (Storms, 1980, p. 786
Annals of Psychiatry and Treatment, 2021
Purpose: The aim of this research is to detect any clinical evidence in patients on the basis of their sexual orientation choice. The starting hypothesis, taking into account the neurobiological and endocrinological data of the last twenty years on the subject of sexual orientation, is to demonstrate an increase in psychopathological indexation in non-heterosexual patients, and then to detect among the possible psychological causal hypotheses which indicators are most present in the individual clinical history, in order to demonstrate that sexual orientation other than heterosexuality is an adaptation to a previous psychological trauma with a strong emotional and sexual impact. This research work aims to answer the following one question: "Are there any dysfunctional psychological factors that occur more frequently in any of the five identified groups?". Methods: Clinical interview and administration of the PICI-1 and PSM-1. Results: In the male heterosexual group, the psychopathological values were 43.96%, with a greater presence of neurotic disorders, while in the female heterosexual group, the values were 57.27%, with the same majority found in the male group. In the male homosexual group, the psychopathological values were 66%, with a greater presence of neurotic disorders, while in the female homosexual group, the values were 76.97%, with the same majority found in the male group. In the male bisexual group, the psychopathological values were 76.44%, with a greater presence of neurotic disorders, while in the female bisexual group the values were 70%, with the same majority as in the male group. In the groups related to the other sexual orientations (bi-curiosity, asexuality and pansexuality), none of the respondents ticked "None of the above", thus endorsing the thesis that at least one of these factors could be a concomitant cause of the onset of non-heterosexual preference. With reference to the results obtained from the PSM-1, to the question "Are there dysfunctional psychological factors that occur more frequently?" the ticking of "None of the above" emerges in half of the respondents and tends to decrease to zero in the non-heterosexual orientations, confirming the trend already underlined. Conclusions: The topic under consideration is very thorny, more for its socio-political implications than for its clinical ones. Here, in fact, is not at stake any judgment of merit or form, but the exact clinical placement in the cognitive and experiential framework. These considerations are completely detached and far from any form of judgment or condemnation ethical, moral, social and personal. On the subject of the pathologization of sexual orientations other than heterosexuality, between the two theses under discussion (confirmation, on the one hand, or disconfirmation, on the other), this research suggests the "median" position that on the one hand confirms the non-pathological nature of sexual orientations other than heterosexuality in itself (since there is no scientific evidence to the contrary), but on the other confirms the hypothesis that, on the basis of the person's experience, psychopathological conditions can coexist that require psychotherapeutic intervention, regardless of the orientation in itself. In conclusion, therefore, significant data emerge from this research in favour of the psychological etiological hypothesis (even if the writer adheres to the multi-causal hypothesis) according to which in sexual orientations other than heterosexuality there is a marked indexation of psychopathological and dysfunctional traits compared to the heterosexual group, with the presence of causal indicators identified in PSM-1 in increasing numbers in the same non-heterosexual groups. These data would support the hypothesis that non-heterosexual orientations could actually be the adaptive consequence of psychological trauma, with a strong emotional and sexual impact (including abuse, violence, neurobiological, hormonal, and somatic predispositions, affective-emotional dysregulation with reference figures, and socioenvironmental and family readjustments), in itself therefore not pathological but circumstances favouring negative and unfavourable dynamics, of the social and environmental matrix, such as to favour or aggravate psychopathological conditions, including mood, depressive, obsessive, somatic, personality and suicidal disorders.
Adolescents define sexual orientation and suggest ways to measure it
Journal of Adolescence, 2004
Researchers disagree on how to assess adolescent sexual orientation. The relative importance of various dimensions (e.g. attraction, relationships, behavior, self-labeling) is unknown, which calls into question the validity of studies assessing adolescent sexual orientation. To address this issue, 50 male and female adolescents of varied sexual orientations participated in focus groups and interviews. Two types of sexual attraction-one a physiologic reaction and the other a cognitive response-were central to adolescent sexual orientation. Participants did not perceive sexual behavior and self-identification as necessarily relevant. Preliminary items to measure sexual attraction were developed based on these adolescents' perceptions.