From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Psychology was one of the first disciplines to study homosexuality as a discrete phenomenon. In the late 19th and throughout most of the 20th centuries, pathological models of homosexuality were standard. On December 15, 1973, the American Psychiatric Association, removed homosexuality from its official list of mental disorders. The American Psychological Association Council of Representatives adopted the same measure on January 24-26, 1975.

Major psychological research on homosexuality can be divided into five categories:^[1]

1. Which factors cause people to be attracted to their own sex?
2. What are the causes of discrimination against gays and lesbians and how can this be influenced?
3. Does being gay or lesbian affect one’s health status, psychological functioning or general well-being?
4. What determines successful adaptation to a rejecting social climate in gays and lesbians? Why is homosexuality central to the identity of some gays and lesbians, but peripheral to the identity of others?
5. How do children of lesbian and gay parents develop?

Psychological research in these areas has been important to counteracting prejudicial (“homophobic“) attitudes and actions, and to the gay and lesbian rights movement generally.^[1]

[edit] Major areas of psychological research

[edit] Anti-gay attitudes and behaviors

Anti-gay attitudes and behaviors (sometimes called homophobia or heterosexism) have themselves been the object of psychological research, usually focusing on anti-gay-male, not anti-lesbian, attitudes.^[1]

• Demographics: Anti-gay attitudes often found in people who do not know gay people on a personal basis.^[2]

This section requires expansion.

[edit] Psychological functioning

Psychological research in this area includes examining mental health issues (including stress, depression, or addictive behavior) faced by gay and lesbian people as a result of the difficulties they experience because of their sexual orientation, physical appearance issues and eating disorders, and gender atypical behavior.

• Drug and alcohol use: Gay men are not at a higher risk for drug or alcohol abuse than heterosexual men, but lesbian women may be at a higher risk than heterosexual women. This finding is contrary to a common assumption that, because of the issues people face relating to coming out and anti-gay attitudes, drug and alcohol use is higher among lesbian, gay, and bisexual people than heterosexuals.^[3] Several clinical reports address methods of treating alcoholism in lesbian, gay, and bisexual clients specifically, including fostering greater acceptance of the client’s sexual orientation.^[1][4]

• Suicide: Gay and bisexual male youths are over 13 times more likely to attempt suicide than heterosexual male youths.^[5] No such difference was found between lesbian and straight female youths.^[6] Gay and lesbian youth who attempt suicide are disproportionately subject to anti-gay attitudes, and have weaker skills for coping with discrimination, isolation, and loneliness, than those who do not attempt suicide.^[1][7]

• Psychiatric disorders: In a Dutch study, gay men reported significantly higher mood and anxiety disorders than straight men, and lesbians were significantly more likely to experience depression (but not other mood or anxiety disorders) than straight women.^[8] This difference may be caused by the stresses gay and lesbian people face stemming from anti-gay attitudes. However, a Netherlands study (where homosexuality is much more widely accepted than that in the U.S.) shows that mental health problems in homosexuals are still much higher than in heterosexuals, despite the more tolerant society.^{[9] [1]}

• Physical appearance and eating disorders: Gay men tend to be more concerned about their physical appearance than straight men.^[10] Lesbian women are at a lower risk for eating disorders than heterosexual women.^[11]

• Gender atypical behavior: While this is not a disorder, gay men may face difficulties due to being more likely to display gender atypical behavior than heterosexual men.^[12] The difference is less pronounced between lesbians and straight women.^[13]

[edit] Coming out as, and being openly gay or lesbian

Psychological research in this area includes examining the coming out process, special challenges facing lesbian and gay youth, parental attitudes toward their children’s sexual orientation, the mental health effects of being openly gay or closeted, workplace issues, discrimination and violence against lesbian and gay people, and aging issues.

• Coming out: Many gay and lesbian people go through a “coming out” experience at some point in their lives. Psychologists often say this process includes several stages “in which there is an awareness of being different from peers (’sensitization’), and in which people start to question their sexual identity (‘identity confusion’). Subsequently, they start to explore practically the option of being gay or lesbian and learn to deal with the stigma (‘identity assumption’). In the final stage, they integrate their sexual desires into a position understanding of self (‘commitment’).”^[1] However, the process is not always linear^[14] and it may differ for lesbians and gay men.^[15]

• Different degrees of coming out: One study found that gay men are more likely to be out to friends and siblings than co-workers, parents, and more distant relatives.^[16]

• Effects of coming out on the person’s well-being: Various studies have found that being out improves one’s well-being, that openly gay people have less anxiety and better self esteem and social support than closeted people,^[17] and that openly gay people are more satisfied in their relationships.^[18] This is attributed to the “negative health consequences of psychological inhibition” found in closeted people.^[1]

• Effects of “traditional values” on the coming out process: One study found that “families with a strong emphasis on traditional values – implying the importance of religion, an emphasis on marriage and having children – were less accepting of homosexuality than were low-tradition families.”^[19]

• Determinants of parental attitudes toward homosexuality: One study found that parents who respond negatively to their child’s sexual orientation tended to have lower self-esteem and negative attitudes toward women, and that “negative feelings about homosexuality in parents decreased the longer they were aware of their child’s homosexuality.”^[20]

• Violence against LGBT people (“hate crimes”): One study found that nearly half of its sample had been the victim of verbal or physical violence because of their sexual orientation, usually committed by men. Such victimization is related to higher levels of depression, anxiety, anger, and symptoms of post-traumatic stress.^[21]

[edit] Sexuality, intimate relationships, and parenting

Psychological research in this area includes examining the sexual behavior of gay and lesbian people (both for its own sake and from a public health perspective), the relative contributions of gender and sexual orientation in determining sexuality and sexual attitudes, same-sex relationships, domestic violence within same-sex relationships, relationship satisfaction, and the impact (if any) on children growing up with same-sex parents.

• Sexuality: Contemporary psychology views gender, not sexual orientation, as the primary determinant of sexuality. Thus, gay male relationships are more frequently “open” than heterosexual relationships because the individuals are men, not because they are gay. Likewise, lesbian couples have sex less often than heterosexual couples, “although they seem to be more satisfied with their sex lives.”^[1]

• Attitudes toward sex: One study found that gay and lesbian people “had a better sexual self-understanding, and showed less guilt regarding masturbation and sexuality in general” than straight people.^[22][1]

• Non-consensual sex: One study found that among sexually active gay men, over 27% of them had experienced non-consensual sex at least once.^[23]

[edit] Fluidity of sexual orientation

The Association of Gay and Lesbian Psychiatrists (ALGP) has stated “some people believe that sexual orientation is innate and fixed; however, sexual orientation develops across a person’s lifetime”.^[24] In a joint statement with other major American medical organizations, the APA says that “different people realize at different points in their lives that they are heterosexual, gay, lesbian, or bisexual”.^[25] A report from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health states: “For some people, sexual orientation is continuous and fixed throughout their lives. For others, sexual orientation may be fluid and change over time”.^[26] One study has suggested “considerable fluidity in bisexual, unlabeled, and lesbian women’s attractions, behaviors, and identities”.^[27][28] In a 2004 study, the female subjects (both gay and straight women) became sexually aroused when they viewed heterosexual as well as lesbian erotic films. Among the male subjects, however, the straight men were turned on only by erotic films with women, the gay ones by those with men. The study’s senior researcher said that women’s sexual desire is less rigidly directed toward a particular sex, as compared with men’s, and it’s more changeable over time.^[29]

However, the APA also says that “most people experience little or no sense of choice about their sexual orientation”.^[30] American medical organizations have further stated therapy cannot change sexual orientation, and have expressed concerns over potential harms.^[25] The director of the APA’s LGBT Concerns Office explained: “I don’t think that anyone disagrees with the idea that people can change because we know that straight people become gays and lesbians … the issue is whether therapy changes sexual orientation, which is what many of these people claim”.^[31] The American Psychiatric Association (APA) states, in a 2000 position statement, that they oppose “any psychiatric treatment, such as “reparative” or conversion therapy, which is based upon the assumption that homosexuality per se is a mental disorder or based upon the a priori assumption that a patient should change their sexual orientation.^[32] Similarly, United States Surgeon General David Satcher issued a report stating that “there is no valid scientific evidence that sexual orientation can be changed”.^[33]

[edit] Psychotherapy with lesbian, gay, and bisexual clients

Most lesbian, gay, and bisexual people who seek psychotherapy do so for the same reasons as heterosexuals (stress, relationship difficulties, difficulty adjusting to social or work situations, etc.); their sexual orientation may be of primary, incidental, or no importance to their issues and treatment. Whatever the issue, there is a high risk for anti-gay bias in psychotherapy with lesbian, gay, and bisexual clients.^[34]

This section requires expansion.

[edit] Developments in Individual Psychology

In contemporary Adlerian thought homosexuals are not considered within the problematic discourse of the “failures of life”. Christopher Shelley (1998), an Adlerian psychotherapist, published a volume of essays in the 1990s that feature Freudian, (post)Jungian and Adlerian contributions that demonstrate affirmative shifts in the depth psychologies. These shifts show how depth psychology can be utilized to support rather than pathologise gay and lesbian psychotherapy clients. The Journal of Individual Psychology, the English language flagship publication of Adlerian Psychology, released a volume in the summer of 2008 that reviews and corrects Adler’s previously held beliefs on the homosexual community.

[edit] See also

• Association of Gay and Lesbian Psychiatrists
• Biology and sexual orientation
• Environment and sexual orientation
• Ego-dystonic homosexuality

[edit] Resources and external links

American Psychological Association

• Answers to Your Questions About Sexual Orientation and Homosexuality
• A Selected Bibliography of Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Concerns in Psychology
• Guidelines for Psychotherapy with Lesbian, Gay, & Bisexual Clients
• Avoiding Heterosexual Bias in Psychological Research
• Being Gay Is Just as Healthy as Being Straight
• Resolution on Sexual Orientation and Marriage
• Resolution on Sexual Orientation, Parents, and Children

American Academy of Pediatrics

• Sexual Orientation and Adolescents

National Mental Health Association

• Factsheet: Bullying and Gay Youth
• What Does Gay Mean? How to Talk with Kids about Sexual Orientation and Prejudice