Psychology - Sexual Orientation the Term Paper

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Materials used for this study consisted of a series of questionnaires: Series 1 was distributed to 300 individuals and included the question identifying sexual preference; Series 2 was designed to gauge the degree to which study participants considered themselves able to disclose potentially embarrassing information in an anonymous study; Series 3 consisted of specific questions designed to reveal any perceptions or disclosures on the part of participants consistent with the hypothesis.

The procedure employed by this study consisted of distributing Series 1 questionnaires to college students on two campuses with an effort made to include homosexual and bisexual individuals by soliciting responses from members of acknowledged gay associations as well as from the general student population. The experimenters then used Series 2 questions to narrow the original field of 300 participants to a smaller field of 100 to identify those individuals who expressed confidence in their willingness to discuss the issue of homosexuality openly in their answers to Series 3 questions. Series 3 questions are discussed in further detail in the Discussion section below.

Discussion:

The results of the study consisted of the responses to the following questions in the Series 3 Questionnaire: (1) Have you ever experienced doubt that you are completely heterosexual/homosexual/bisexual? (2) if yes, please describe any changes in your self-perception of sexual orientation between your first sexual thoughts and your present sexual orientation; (3) Please describe any doubts, confusions, or concerns you have ever experienced about your sexual orientation.

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The results disclosed that 85% of homosexual and bisexual individuals had experienced some confusion of sexual orientation before establishing their present identity and only 15% knew they were not absolutely heterosexual since puberty. The results disclosed that 97% of those who described themselves as absolutely heterosexual had never experienced any bisexual or homosexual urges or inclinations.

On the basis of these results, the researchers concluded that the hypothesis was disproved and that the results were consistent with earlier studies (TKI 2008) indicating that absolute heterosexuality is the norm in human beings. The implications of the study suggest that the erroneous beliefs expressed in the hypothesis reflect the projection (Gerrig & Zimbardo 2005) of personal experiences of those who struggled with sexual identity resulting in their assumption that heterosexuals necessarily experience similar paths toward their ultimate sexual identity that often characterizes the experiences of coming to terms with homosexual urges in a society that does, in many ways, penalize alternate sexual identities. The researchers concluded that the experience of repression, confusion, and ambivalence is more characteristic of bisexual and homosexual individuals than of heterosexual individuals......

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