Psychology On Homosexuality
Psychology on Homosexuality
One of the deeply debated topics in psychology is homosexuality, some psychologists believe that it's genetic and some believe that it is a learned sexual orientation. In my personal opinion, I think that homosexuals are born with that sexual orientation. I believe that a homosexual might not always have fully known they were gay but some part of them always did know. I strongly disagree with the psychologists who say that homosexuality is learned; you just don't go and learn sexual orientation like you learn something in school. There are also some psychologists who believe that homosexuality is a psychological disorder. I believe that this too is wrong, just because someone likes a person of the same sex …show more content…
In another survey, which is known for being very reliable, Laumann and others (1994) stated that the percentages of people who said to be homosexual or bisexual were 2.8% men and 1.4% women. But 5.3% of men and 3.5% of women said that they had had sexual experience with the same sex only about once since puberty. And even bigger percentages of the people surveyed-10% of men and 9% of women-said that they had had same sex desires. Other survey suggests that the exact measure of the prevalence of homosexuality might still be missing something. For one thing, a purely homosexual orientation appears to be rare. For instance, Sell and his associates (1995) rethought the results of an 1988 Harris Poll to include homosexual attraction and behavior. They learned that 6% of the males and 3-4% of the women participants identified themselves as homosexual in both attraction and behavior. But only 1% of these poll participants claimed to have no sexual contact at all with the opposite sex in the past 5 years. Moreover, demographic studies state that homosexuality is not equally prevalent in all races or in all places. College educated white American men who live in big cities are most likely to identify themselves as being homosexual then are other men …show more content…
One such psychologist is Charles Socarides, a clinical professor of psychiatry at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Socarides believes that gayness is caused by a person's mental health. Mental health is influenced by many factors such as our nurturing as children, the environment we are exposed to, and the influence of the many different people in our lives. Socarides was quoted by Washington Post as saying, "Homosexuality is a psychological and psychiatric disorder. It is a purple menace that is threatening the proper design of gender of gender distinctions in society" (Small 1993). This quote indicates that he did not like homosexuals very much because he felt that they are all screwed up in the head. Neuroscientist Simon LeVay (1991) reported that a area in the hypothalamus governing sexual behavior is about two times as large in heterosexual men as in homosexual men. This part of the hypothalamus, is no larger than a grain of sand, is about the same size in heterosexual females as in homosexual men. LeVay admits that his research offers no direct evidence that the brain differences found cause homosexuality, and critics were quick to point out that all the gay men in this research sample died of AIDS. Researchers looking for a genetic contribution to sexual orientation suggest that a number of "feminizing" genes work together to shift male brain development in
One of the deeply debated topics in psychology is homosexuality, some psychologists believe that it's genetic and some believe that it is a learned sexual orientation. In my personal opinion, I think that homosexuals are born with that sexual orientation. I believe that a homosexual might not always have fully known they were gay but some part of them always did know. I strongly disagree with the psychologists who say that homosexuality is learned; you just don't go and learn sexual orientation like you learn something in school. There are also some psychologists who believe that homosexuality is a psychological disorder. I believe that this too is wrong, just because someone likes a person of the same sex …show more content…
In another survey, which is known for being very reliable, Laumann and others (1994) stated that the percentages of people who said to be homosexual or bisexual were 2.8% men and 1.4% women. But 5.3% of men and 3.5% of women said that they had had sexual experience with the same sex only about once since puberty. And even bigger percentages of the people surveyed-10% of men and 9% of women-said that they had had same sex desires. Other survey suggests that the exact measure of the prevalence of homosexuality might still be missing something. For one thing, a purely homosexual orientation appears to be rare. For instance, Sell and his associates (1995) rethought the results of an 1988 Harris Poll to include homosexual attraction and behavior. They learned that 6% of the males and 3-4% of the women participants identified themselves as homosexual in both attraction and behavior. But only 1% of these poll participants claimed to have no sexual contact at all with the opposite sex in the past 5 years. Moreover, demographic studies state that homosexuality is not equally prevalent in all races or in all places. College educated white American men who live in big cities are most likely to identify themselves as being homosexual then are other men …show more content…
One such psychologist is Charles Socarides, a clinical professor of psychiatry at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Socarides believes that gayness is caused by a person's mental health. Mental health is influenced by many factors such as our nurturing as children, the environment we are exposed to, and the influence of the many different people in our lives. Socarides was quoted by Washington Post as saying, "Homosexuality is a psychological and psychiatric disorder. It is a purple menace that is threatening the proper design of gender of gender distinctions in society" (Small 1993). This quote indicates that he did not like homosexuals very much because he felt that they are all screwed up in the head. Neuroscientist Simon LeVay (1991) reported that a area in the hypothalamus governing sexual behavior is about two times as large in heterosexual men as in homosexual men. This part of the hypothalamus, is no larger than a grain of sand, is about the same size in heterosexual females as in homosexual men. LeVay admits that his research offers no direct evidence that the brain differences found cause homosexuality, and critics were quick to point out that all the gay men in this research sample died of AIDS. Researchers looking for a genetic contribution to sexual orientation suggest that a number of "feminizing" genes work together to shift male brain development in