Nature Nurture Debate On Human Sexual Orientation

THE NATURE-NURTURE
DEBATE ON HUMAN
SEXUAL ORIENTATION
Kevin Brewer
ANSWERS IN PSYCHOLOGY NO.3
ISBN: 978-1-904542-23-0
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Kevin Brewer 2006
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Contents
Page Number
INTRODUCTION 3
Terminology 3
Defining Sexual Orientation 6
Nature and Nurture 7
NATURE SIDE 8
Evolution 9
Sex Chromosomes 13
Specific Gene(s) 14
Hormones 16
Instinctive Learning or Imprinting 19
Structures in the Brain 21
Evaluation of Nature Side 23
NURTURE SIDE 25
Gender Atypical and Non-Conforming

Behaviour 25
Learning 27
Family Dynamics 29
Psychodynamics 32
Social Construction of Sexual Identity 34
Evaluation of Nurture Side 43
CONCLUSIONS 44
FOOTNOTES 46
REFERENCES 48
APPENDIX 1: BISEXUALITY 55
APPENDIX 2: CELIBACY 57
The Nature-Nurture Debate on Human Sexual Orientation; Kevin Brewer; 2006

Answers in Psychology No.3; ISBN: 978-1-904542-23-0 2
Introduction
SEX
GENDER
SEXUALITY
SEXUAL ORIENTATION
Sexual orientation and behaviour seem to be core

parts of an individual. Today, in Western society, it
manifests itself in diverse ways, but at the same time in
traditional ways:
Sexual diversity has been a familiar fact of life

throughout recorded history.. In the industrialised
North for the past several centuries the main focus
for regulating and controlling it has been through
fashioning a sharp divide between heterosexual
("normal") and homosexual ("abnormal", "perverted",
"deviant") patterns (Weeks 2001 p5).
Heterosexuality is the behaviour of the vast

majority (or so it seems). But how many people are in the
homosexual minority depends on the definition used. It is
estimated that around 2% of women and 4% of men worldwide
live exclusively as homosexuals (MacKay 2000).
The accuracy of this figure is open to question, and
is larger including individuals who hide their
homosexuality or who are not exclusive in that sexual
preference.
Kinsey et al's (1948) classic study of white US

males found that 37% admitted to some homosexual
experience (to the point of orgasm) in adolescence or
adulthood. Reanalysis of a sub-sample of this data, by
Gagnon and Simon (1973), to include experiences after the
age of fifteen years only, produced a figure of around
15%. While any homosexual experience by age forty-five
for women was reported at 20% (Kinsey et al 1953).
Mosher et al (2005 quoted in LeVay and Valente

2006), using modern sampling techniques with the National
Health Statistics Center (NHSC) survey in the US, found
that only 1.5% of men and 0.7% of women were exclusively
attracted to the same sex. This research may be more
accurate because it was a self-administered computer-
based survey.
TERMINOLOGY
It is always important to clarify the terms involved

in understanding behaviour, particularly when the terms
are confused in everyday language. The key terms to
clarify here are "sex", "gender", and "sexuality" or
"sexual orientation".
1. Sex
This refers to the individual's biological sex, and

is based upon their physical make-up, and is established
at a number of levels (Hutt 1972) (table 1).
MALE FEMALE
Chromosomes in every cell XY XX
Reproductive organs testes ovaries
Dominant hormones testosterone oestrogen/

progesterone
External genitalia penis vagina
Table 1 - Biological sex differences.
Usually the categories of biological sex are male or

female. However, there is also hermaphrodite (an
individual who has both biological sexes), and inter-
sexual (an individual whose biological sex is unclear)
(1). An individual who changes by operation from one
biological sex to another is known as a trans-sexual (2).
2. Gender
This is the behaviour that is associated with a

biological sex, and each society has its own expectations
of this. It is a "learned quality" (MacKinnon 1982). The
categories are "masculine", "feminine", and "androgynous"
(neither clearly masculine nor feminine) (3). It is
assumed in society that men will be masculine and women
feminine, but this is not inevitable.
3. Sexuality and sexual orientation
This is the area that concerns us here. Sexual

orientation refers to the preference for sexual
partner(s). The choices are:
Heterosexual - the preference for individuals of the

opposite biological sex.

Homosexual - the preference for individuals of the same
biological sex.
Bisexual - no particular preference or interest in both

biological sexes (appendix 1).
Celibacy - the decision not to engage in sexual

relations with either biological sex. This may be
enforced (ie: nobody available) or by choice (eg:
religious order or priesthood) (appendix 2).
Other - there are individuals who have sexual

preferences not related to humans (4). This is a
specific area of study, and little attention will be
paid to this group of sexual preferences.
The use of separate categories for sexual

orientation gives the impression that individuals are
clearly placed in one or another. Research suggests that
sexual orientation may be more like a continuum, and the
Kinsey Seven Point Scale reflects this fact (Stein 1999)
(table 2).
An individual's sexual history will be rated as:
0 exclusively heterosexual with no homosexual
1 predominately heterosexual, only incidental homosexual
2 predominately heterosexual, but more than incidental

homosexual
3 equally heterosexual and homosexual
4 predominately homosexual, but more than incidental

heterosexual
5 predominately homosexual, only incidental heterosexual
6 exclusively homosexual with no heterosexual
X no social-sex contacts or relations
(After Kinsey et al 1948)
Table 2 - Kinsey Seven Point Scale
Using their categories, Kinsey et al (1948)

calculated the number of US males (aged 16-55 years) who
had shown the behaviour for at least three years (table
3).

KINSEY CATEGORY US MALES (16-55 yrs) (%)
0 85.0
1 1.4
2 4.9
3 1.5
4 0.8
5 0.7
6 5.0
X 0.7
Table 3 - Sexual orientation of US males in the 1940s

using the Kinsey Scale.
Technically, sexuality is different to sexual

orientation. Sexuality refers to a set of ideas that
includes sexual behaviour (eg: monogamy, polygamy),
sexual orientation, sexual desire, and "sexual politics"
(gender and society's views on sexual behaviour)
(Mauthner 1996).
Often sexual identity is more important to
individuals from socially disadvantaged minority
orientations. Those in the majority tend not to think
about it that much (LeVay and Valente 2006).
DEFINING SEXUAL ORIENTATION
ACT
FANTASY
AROUSAL
What defines an individual's sexual orientation? Is

it the act of sexual relations or the attitude of
preference?
Stevens and Price (1996) defined homosexuality as
"the desire to have sexual relations, either in fantasy
or in fact, with a member of one's own sex".
The inclusion of fantasy in any definition of sexual
orientation is important because there are individuals
who want a particular sexual act but cannot have it for
whatever reason.
To define sexual orientation by action only would
open the question of what precise act defines sexual
orientation? Is it only penetration of some kind or just
touching? In fact, defining sexual orientation is not
clear cut. Individuals may fantasise about one thing (ie:
keep it private) and do something else (public
behaviour).
One way to define sexual orientation is by the

individual's response to sexual stimuli, which is
primarily the sex of the person to whom individuals are
attracted (Zucker 2002). The use of interviews should
assess this information. However, in cases where the
individual cannot or does not want to report their
sexual orientation, physiological measures are available
- penile plethysmography or vaginal photoplethysmography.
The stimuli of sexual arousal is not necessarily the

same as sexual identity. For example, an individual may
show homosexual sexual behaviour but not define
themselves as "homosexual". Herdt (1981) reported cases
of non-Western societies where adolescent homosexuality
was viewed as part of the normal passage to adult
heterosexuality for males.
Thus who the individual has sexual intercourse with
does not automatically define their sexual identity (or
sexual orientation).
The term "sexuality" itself can be confusing. Oakley

(1972) saw it as "behaviour related to copulation" as
well as the "whole area of personality related to sexual
behaviour".
NATURE AND NURTURE
Two other terms are important to define here -

"nature" and "nurture".
Nature
This is the belief that behaviour is innate, and

that individuals are born with the particular sexual
orientation, in this case. Therefore, there is an
evolutionary or biological explanation for the behaviour.
Learning, the environment, and society have little to do
with the cause of this behaviour.
Nurture
For this side of the debate, behaviour is learnt by

individuals, and the environment and society are crucial
in explaining sexual orientation. Sexual preference will
be learnt by the individual in some way, and it is not
something they are born with.

Nature Side
EVOLUTION
SEX CHROMOSOMES
GENES
HORMONES
IMPRINTING
BRAIN DIFFERENCES
The explanation for sexual orientation proposed by

the nature side is based in the individual's biology and
is fixed. There will be a usual pattern (ie:
heterosexuality), and unusual patterns (eg:
homosexuality) will have a different biological basis or
intervening factor (figure 1).
Usual Pattern: Heterosexuality
BIOLOGICAL SEX → SEXUAL ORIENTATION
male → female
female → male
Unusual Pattern: Homosexuality
BIOLOGICAL SEX → BIOLOGICAL → SEXUAL ORIENTATION

FACTOR
male → male
female → female
Unusual Pattern: Bisexuality
BIOLOGICAL SEX → BIOLOGICAL → SEXUAL ORIENTATION

FACTOR
male → male/female
female → male/female
Figure 1 - Nature explanation of sexual orientation.

EVOLUTION
Evolution is based around two central concepts,

proposed by Charles Darwin: natural selection and sexual
selection.
Natural selection is the idea of the survival of
animals within a species with particular traits that give
them an advantage compared to others. This behaviour is
"adapted", and is well suited to the environment that the
animal lives in. These "fit" animals will survive and
leave more offspring.
The best strategy for passing the genes into the
next generation will vary between the male and female of
the species. This is known as sexual selection. The male
is able to produce many sperm, and so can theoretically
have as many offspring as mates found.
But the female is restricted, in most species, by
giving birth to the offspring. Thus she has more invested
in its survival.
The ideas of evolution from Charles Darwin are based

upon the survival of the individual. But Dawkins (1976),
more recently, has suggested that it is the survival of
the genes that matter.
Research with other species that have short

lifespans showed that evolution plays a part in sexual
behaviour - eg: in the mating ritual of fruit flies. It
is difficult to know whether specific characteristics
related to sexual orientation occurred in early humans.
At the most basic level, this would involve the sexual
preference for the own species.
From an evolutionary point of view, homosexuality is

not productive and such individuals would die out without
any offspring. So there would be an evolutionary dead
end, and homosexual behaviour would cease. Homosexuality
is a major puzzle for Evolutionary Psychology (Stevens
and Price 1996).
One possibility is that homosexual behaviour is a

distortion of the evolutionary sexual strategies of males
and females. What evolution predicts is that different
sexual behaviour works for men and women in order to
maximise the number of offspring (and this is what
matters in evolutionary terms). Table 4 shows the
different strategies used.
Another possibility is that there may be a recessive

gene (5) with other uses than homosexual sexual
orientation. A "gay gene" remains in the gene pool
because it enhances straight males (ie: slightly
homosexual) as more attractive to females (ie:

HETEROSEXUAL HOMOSEXUAL EXAMPLE
EVOLUTIONARY SEXUAL
STRATEGY
MEN As many partners as Bell et al (1981) 25% of male

possible (ie: promiscuity) homosexuals had sex with more
than one thousand partners in
their lifetime
WOMEN Find the best partner Loney (1974) female homosexuals

and keep them had a median of three partners
(ie: selectivity) in their lifetime
Table 4 - Evolutionary sexual strategies and homosexual

examples.
evolutionary success) (McKnight 1997).

Or the gene carried by women gives them an
evolutionary advantage, but if passed to male offspring
leads to homosexuality (D'Alessio 1996).
Yet another possibility is that the same gene

inherited by a male produces homosexual behaviour, but
when inherited by a female makes them more attractive to
men. If this is so, female relatives of gay men should
have more children (ie: more evolutionary success) than
female relatives of straight men. Camperio-Ciani et al
(2004) claimed this to be the case.
A number of other evolutionary theories are used to

explain evolutionary advantages of a gene for
homosexuality (Stevens and Price 1996):
i) Kin selection hypothesis (Hamilton 1964)
This is based on the theory that the individual

genes matter more then the individual in evolutionary
terms. An individual helping their kin have offspring
will see their genes in future generations even if they
do not themselves have any offspring (6). For example,
childless lesbians helping their nephews and nieces.
It could be that individuals with one copy of the
gene are discouraged from seeking their own offspring,
and so help siblings raise their children, whereas two
copies produces homosexuality.
ii) Heterozygous hypothesis
A particular gene combined with other genes gives an

evolutionary advantage in heterosexual individuals, but
by itself the gene produces homosexuality.

iii) Dominance failure theory
It is assumed that in any population there will be a

normal distribution of dominant and submissive behaviour.
Males unable to find females, rejected by females, or
defeated by other males in competition become submissive
(ie: turn to homosexuality). To be correct, this
explanation proposes there will be more male than female
homosexuals in a population.
Human Reproductive Tasks
Buss (1991) proposed the idea of "human reproductive

tasks". Based upon evolutionary theory, these are the
necessary behaviours for individuals to have offspring
that survive, and take their genes into future
generations. Table 5 lists the tasks as applied to men
and possible evolutionary benefits of male homosexuality,
and table 6 for women and lesbians.
HUMAN REPRODUCTIVE TASKS EVOLUTIONARY BENEFITS OF

MALE HOMOSEXUALS
1. To compete for mates - Small number of homosexuals

means less men competing for
available females; important
if society has more men than women
2. To select mate of - As above

greatest reproductive
value available
3. Conception - Less sperm competition
4. Retain sexual mate - Presence of homosexual men

means less men trying to steal
mate away
5. Reciprocal alliances (7) - In groups with dominant males

who are the only ones mating,
a homosexual male can distract
the dominant male while the
heterosexual male mates. In
return the homosexual male
receives food from the
heterosexual male
6. Co-operative groups - Homosexual males helping

heterosexuals raised offspring
7. Survival of offspring - As above
8. Investment in other kin - Homosexual males helping

raise sibling's offspring
Table 5 - Human reproductive tasks for men and possible

evolutionary benefits of male homosexuality.

HUMAN REPRODUCTIVE TASKS EVOLUTIONARY BENEFITS OF
FEMALE HOMOSEXUALITY
1. To compete for mates - Means less women available to

mate: no evolutionary benefits
of such a situation
2. To select mate of - Only benefit if very limited

greatest reproductive number of males and resources
value available available in population of
many females
3. Conception
4. Retain sexual mate - Less women competing to

steal mate away
5. Reciprocal alliances (7) - As above for males where

dominant female in group
6. Co-operative groups - As above for males
7. Survival of offspring - As above for males
8. Investment in other kin - As above for males
Table 6 - Human reproductive tasks for women and possible

evolutionary benefits of female homosexuality.
Both tables 5 and 6 are speculations of possible

evolutionary benefits of homosexuality. Generally, there
is less evolutionary benefit to having females who do not
mate and produce offspring.
Evaluation
i) Many of the ideas are speculative, and depend on

imagining the situation when human beings first evolved
in the Pleistocen age (1.7 million to 100 000 years ago
approximately) (Laland and Brown 2002).
Furthermore, LeVay and Valente (2006) felt that
"none of these theories is particularly persuasive".
ii) There are limited evolutionary benefits to

homosexuality as well as paraphilias.
iii) Evolutionary explanations play down the role of

culture and society. Not all sexual behaviours are
universal which challenges the idea of evolution.
iv) Human sexual behaviour is complex and different

to non-human animals' behaviour. Thus studies with other
species may not tell us much that is relevant to human
sexual orientation.

SEX CHROMOSOMES
An early idea, proposed by Richard Goldschmidt in

1916, was that homosexuals had the wrong sex chromosomes
(Baird 2001).
In humans, the presence of a Y sex chromosome
(making XY) determines the individual to be biologically
male, and XX is for biologically female. These
distinctions are fixed for life.
It is believed that the sex-determining region of
the Y chromosome (SRY) produces testis development in the
womb (Sinclair et al 1990), but it is not the only one
(eg: weak histocompatibility antigens; H-Y antigens;
Michael and Zumpe 1996).
Some fish can undergo a sex reversal in certain

environmental conditions. For example, if a male blue-
headed wrasse is removed from a group, the dominant
female undergoes a sex reversal in a few weeks, and can
produce sperm (Warner 1984).
A variation on the fixed pattern of biological sex

occurs with inter-sex individuals. Chromosome differences
include males with Klinefelter's syndrome (XXY)
(Klinefelter et al 1942), and females with Turner's
Syndrome (XO) (Bishop et al 1960). Men with the former
condition tend to have a low sex drive (LeVay and Valente
2006).
Hamer et al (1993), using DNA-linkage studies (8),

implicated maternal transmission of the X chromosome in
114 families studied. This means that when the X
chromosome comes from the mother, it causes
homosexuality, but not if the X chromosome from the
father. This is known as the "parent of origin effect".
But a small number of men in this study did not have
the specific gene. Also it is necessary to know if rhe
same genes are present in heterosexual males, and in
heterosexual and homosexual females (ie: no control group
used) (Golombok 2000).
Evaluation
i) Limited applicability of animal studies to human

behaviour.
ii) Unusual case studies are rare, and the findings

are not generalisable to the whole population.
iii) In the unusual case studies, the chromosome

difference relate to biological sex rather than to sexual
orientation.

iv) Early ideas of the wrong chromosome as the cause
of homosexuality have been proved wrong.
v) Problems with research of Hamer et al (see

earlier).
SPECIFIC GENE(S) ("Gay Gene")
Historically, the idea of homosexuality as inherited

appeared as early as the nineth century Islamic writer,
Qusta ibn Luqa, long before genetics were known about
(Duberman et al 1989).
This explanation would be based in the idea of a
gene or genes for sexual orientation (ie: heterosexuality
or homosexuality is inherited). More often or not the
debate is about gene(s) for homosexuality (known as the
"gay gene").
A single gene altered in female fruit flies will

make them attempt to copulate with other females (Demir
and Dickson 2005). But it is not so straightforward in
humans.
Pillard and Weinrich (1986) mapped the biological

family trees of fifty heterosexual and fifty homosexual
men. The latter had four times as many homosexual or
bisexual brothers than the heterosexual group. Though
there were no differences for females, and the "results
certainly do not exclude a role for potent environmental
influences operating within a family" (Michael and Zumpe
1996).
LeVay and Hamer (1994) reported twin studies showing

concordance rates for male homosexuality of 57% for
identical (MZ) twins and 24% for non-identical (DZ)
twins, and for female homosexuality, 50% and 16%
respectively.
Bailey and Pillard (1991) found similar results in
their twin studies (9): 52% (MZ twins) and 22% (DZ twins)
for males, and 48% and 16% respectively for women (Bailey
et al 1993).
Further analysis by LeVay and Hamer suggested that

genes on chromosome X at position q28 were involved
between homosexual brothers (as 82% of such brothers
shared the same gene). But later work found less amount
of sharing (Byne 1994).
There may be a genetic basis to paraphilias. In the

Gaffney et al (1984) study, 18.5% of paraphiliacs had
first-degree relatives (parents, siblings, or children)
who were also paraphiliacs compared to 3% of a sample of

adults with mental illness. However, this was not
"unambiguous evidence" of inheritance (LeVay and Valente
2006). Furthermore, all types of paraphilia were classed
together, but some are very different (eg: paedophilia
and exhibtionism).
Evaluation
i) Studies have failed to replicate the existence of

specific gene(s) among relatives of homosexuals, and
genetic studies with fruit flies are not that helpful.
For example, the gene sometimes called "GAY-1" actually
contains several hundred genes.
Twin and family studies, however, do show that
sexual orientation is "moderately heritable" (LeVay and
Valente 2006).
ii) Heterosexuality is highly heritable, but why is

there no research to find the gene(s) for this?
iii) How do the genes actually influence sexual

orientation? Research with fruit flies has found a gene
to be linked to serotonin (neurotransmitter) production,
but again how this affects sexual orientation is not
clear (Thompson 1995).
"Most genetic effects on behaviour operate

indirectly through personality and other characteristics"
(Golombok 2000 p49). One possibility is that the gene(s)
tend the individual towards gender non-conformity in
childhood, which then becomes adult homosexuality
(Coolidge et al 2002).
iv) Is it meaningful to talk about a "gay gene" when

different concordance rates are found for men and women?
Ussher (1997) felt that this was a continuation of the
"age-old practice of positioning the male as the norm",
and really research is about a "gay male gene".
v) Genetic determinism - the assumption that

behaviour is determined by genes. But genes code for
physical aspects of the body (like brain cells), and how
does this determine actual behaviour?
vi) Kinsey et al (1948) proposed a number of

conditions to be fulfilled in order to prove that
homosexuality was inherited in humans:
a) Strict definition of homosexuality;
b) Comparison of siblings requires complete sexual

histories;

c) Details of sexual histories should come from the
individuals themselves, otherwise it may be family
gossip;
d) Whether the homosexuality is exclusive or not;
e) Exclusive heterosexuality should not be assumed

even among married men (and those with girlfriends
and female partners);
f) Large samples needed for the studies;
g) The incidence of homosexuality among siblings

should be higher than among non-siblings;
h) Any "hereditary mechanisms" must allow for

individuals changing their behaviour during the
lifetime.
vii) Problems with twin and family studies including

the fact that recruitment is often by adverts in
periodicals likely to be read by homosexuals (Byne and
Parsons 1993), and this may produce a sampling bias.
Studies based on family members' recall of past
relatives as homosexual or not is open to memory problems
and honesty of responses.
HORMONES
This idea focuses upon specific hormones as the

basis of sexual orientation, either in the womb or after
birth.
Pre-natal
The key hormones appear to be androgens (steroids;

eg: testosterone) in the womb - high levels produce
attraction to females (usually in males, but in a few
females), and low levels attraction to males (usually in
females, but in a few males). This is the prenatal
hormone theory (LeVay and Valente 2006).
It also predicts other physical differences due to

the prenatal hormones. One manifestation of this hormone
difference is finger length. For women, usually the index
finger (D2 - second digit) is as long as the ring finger
(D4 - fourth finger), but in men, the index finger is
shorter. This is known as the D2:D4 ratio, which is lower
in men. Inconsistent findings have occurred as to whether
lesbians have a lower D2:D4 ratio and gay men a higher
one (LeVay and Valente 2006).

Feldman and MacCullough (1971) highlighted the case
of male foetuses where there is a lack of testosterone,
leading to female sexual preference. For lesbians, there
is too much testosterone in the womb producing a
"masculinised XX".
In animal studies injections of testosterone into

pregnant guinea pigs produced females who attempted male-
like sexual mounting of receptive females (Phoenix et al
1959). However, such studies with rhesus monkeys have
found that the change is not permanent (eg: Phoenix et al
1983).
There are cases where synthetic hormones are taken

by pregnant mothers for medical reasons, for example, and
these allow for natural studies. Table 7 lists two
examples, but "results of different studies on different
populations varied considerably" (Michael and Zumpe
1996).
STUDY DETAILS BEHAVIOUR
Money & 10 daughters of mothers tomboyish when young,

Ehrhardt given progestin (ie male but "little abnormal
(1972) hormone effects) sexual behaviour" as
adults
Ehrhardt daughters of mothers given 75% "more or less

et al diethylstilboestrol (DES) completely
(1985; (ie: male hormone effects) heterosexual", but
1989) "less maternal" than
controls
Table 7 - Studies of synthetic hormones during pregnancy.
A naturally occurring hormonal change in the womb

relates to maternal stress. Deliberately stressed
maternal rats produced less testosterone at certain
periods of their pregnancy of male offspring (Orth et al
1983). This has been proposed as an explanation for human
male homosexuality combined with genetic factors (Dorner
et al 1980).
The applicability of these ideas to humans has been
questioned (eg: Gooren et al 1990). Furthermore, gay men
and women have not experienced more stress in the womb
than straight ones (LeVay and Valente 2006).
In the case of individuals born with hormonal

problems (eg: girls with congenital adrenal virilising
syndrome have high levels of male hormones in the womb),
how do they develop in terms of sexual orientation?
Though their behaviour can be "tomboyish", such
individuals become "normal wives and mothers" (eg: Money

and Ehrhardt 1972).
One often quoted case to support the biological

basis to sexual orientation is a recessive-gene condition
that affects testosterone conversion into DHT (5 alpha-
dihydrotestosterone) in the womb. A condition known as 5-
alpha reductase deficiency. The upshot is that
individuals when born appear female, but at puberty
develop into males.
This condition is rare and is found in isolated
villages in the south-west Dominican Republic (Imperato-
McGinley et al 1974) and among the Sambia in Papua New
Guinea (Herdt and Davidson 1988). The children are reared
as girls until puberty, but when changed to boys after
puberty seemed to have no problems (Imperato-McGinley et
al 1979).
Rather than this supporting the nature side of the
argument, because the condition is quite common in these
communities, there is intense social and cultural
pressure on these children, and it is that which
influences development (Herdt and Davidson 1988).
A variation on the prenatal hormone theory comes

from Canadian researchers. Blanchard and Bogaert (2004)
noted that gay men were more likely to have older
brothers than heterosexual men. The researchers
speculated that the more male foetuses, the greater
likelihood of antibodies in the bloodstream of pregnant
women which affected brain development (and subsequently
led to homosexuality).
Post-natal
Intervention experiments with animals can produce

sexual organ changes. For example, the transplant of a
female hypothalamus to an adult male rat can produce
hormonal patterns of a female cycle (Michael and Zumpe
1996).
Testosterone is a key hormone post-natally in
studies with rats. Females given injections after birth
and in adulthood showed male sexual behaviour, and
castrated males (ie: deprived of testosterone) showed
female sexual behaviour (LeVay and Valente 2006).
Where human males have been treated with oestrogen

for hormone abnormalities, 50% showed no signs of male
sexual behaviour (Harris and Levine 1965).
Some homosexual women have higher levels of
testosterone than the average (one-third of lesbians in
Maeyer-Bahlburg 1979). But two-thirds had normal levels
in this same study.

Evaluation
i) The applicability of animal studies to humans is

limited.
ii) Unusual case studies based on small samples

limit their generalisability.
"The relatively rare instances of prenatal hormone
excess or deficiency linked to homosexuality in humans
may be special cases without much relevance to sexual
development in general" (Masters et al 1995 p382).
iii) Sexual orientation in humans is more complex

than just originating from hormone differences.
Humans are "less completely enslaved to hormones
than rats" (LeVay and Valente 2006) because, for example,
after castration, some men still maintain sexual
interest.
iv) Consistently "studies of sex hormones in adults

have failed to detect a difference between heterosexual
and homosexual men and women" (Golombok 2000 p50).
In fact, in studies, like Ehrhardt et al, of
excessive testosterone on female foetuses, most of women
are still heterosexual as adults and only report a
greater interest in lesbian relationships (Golombok
2000).
Furthermore, differences in hormone levels do not
necessarily lead to differences in actual sexual
behaviour (eg: amount of sexual arousal) (LeVay and
Valente 2006).
v) No consistent findings for gay women behaving

like men, and gay men like women (due to hormonal
differences).
vi) The prenatal hormone theory ignores hormonal

changes after birth.
"The human differs from most other mammals in that
puberty is delayed for many years, and perhaps this
provides a greater opportunity for learning and
psychosocial factors to modify hormonal influences
occurring during intra-uterine life" (Michael and Zumpe
1996 p464).
vii) The idea of prenatal stress during pregnancy as

determining homosexuality has been proved unfounded.
INSTINCTIVE LEARNING OR IMPRINTING
Imprinting is an instinctive process that occurs

soon after birth (during a critical or sensitive

period), and determines the attachment, species
recognition, and sexual orientation of the young animal.
Lorenz (1937) first described the process in birds
(particularly geese).
Experiments have disrupted this process. For
example, male mallard ducks, raised from hatching with
chickens only, as adults attempted to mate with the
chickens. While male mallards raised only with male
mallards will attempt to mate with them (Schultz 1965
quoted in Michael and Zumpe 1996).
The idea of an instinctive process for determining

sexual orientation with humans is difficult to prove, but
early development can affect adult behaviour in mammals.
In the series of studies by Harry Harlow which isolated
rhesus monkeys, their lack of social contact led to
inadequate adult sexual behaviour (eg: Harlow and
Zimmerman 1959).
However, this is evidence to support the nurture
side of the argument, and the role of child-rearing.
Money's (1980) idea of "love maps" could be included

here. A critical period up to eight years old exists, he
argued, during which the child establishes templates
(love maps) for what will be sexually attractive to them
as an adult. This idea could also be linked to
psychodynamics.
Glenn Wilson (1995) applied the idea of imprinting

to explain fetishism. For example, the lack of the
presence of a female before three years old meant
imprinting for a boy on fetish objects which linked to
the mother (eg: high heeled shoes).
Imprinting could take place in the womb in some way.

Wilson (1989) argued that sexual orientation is fixed at
three to four months of pregnancy (and gender at 5-6
months gestation age), and so the effect of the
environment on the foetus will be important at this time
(eg: stressed mothers).
Evaluation
i) Limited evidence of imprinting generally in

humans.
ii) Imprinting assumes an inflexibility after the

pattern is fixed. Human behaviour is much more flexible
than other species, and can change (including sexual
orientation).
iii) Harlow's work did not find a difference in

sexual orientation between isolated and non-isolated
animals, only differences in adequacy of performing
heterosexual sexual behaviour.
STRUCTURES IN THE BRAIN
It may be that there are neuroanatomical differences

(ie: brain structures) that explain differences in sexual
orientation.
Animal, initially, (eg: Gorski et al 1978; rats) and
then human studies have argued that there are minute
differences in particular areas of the brain, particular
the hypothalamus, that influence sexual behaviour. The
hypothalamus is important because it controls many
aspects of physiology related to biological motivation
(eating, drinking, sex) through influencing the
endocrine system (hormones).
The studies with humans are based on post-mortem

brains. Such studies found that parts of the hypothalamus
are larger in men than women relative to the overall
brain's size (Allen et al 1989).
LeVay (1991) then found that one part (INAH3 region
of medial pre-optic area) was smaller in homosexual
compared to heterosexual men. He studied the brains of
nineteen homosexual and sixteen heterosexual males, plus
six women of unknown sexual orientation. The INAH3 area
was twice as large in heterosexual men as women, and two-
thirds larger in straight men to homosexuals (ie: same
size in gay men as in women).
The average volume for straight men was 0.12 mm
compared to 0.05 mm for gay men and 0.06 mm for
straight women. Byne et al (2001) found similar findings
(0.12, 0.09 and 0.07 mm respectively) in humans, and
Roselli et al (2004) in sheep.
But the brains of the homosexual sample in LeVay's
study had come from individuals who died from AIDS-
related illnesses (Michael and Zumpe 1996).
There are certain areas of the hypothalamus that

have been found, in animals studies, to control aspects
of sexual behaviour:
pre-optic anterior nucleus: mounting behaviour in

males;
ventro-medial nucleus: female sex hormones;
anterior nucleus: female receptivity to male mounting.
It is hypothesized that these areas will be

different in homosexual individuals (Stevens and Price
1996).

In a rare case study, Anne Perkins (2001) reported a
male homosexual sheep who had an amygdala similar to that
of female sheep, and it did not respond to testosterone
injections.
Peter Fenwick (1995) reported differences in

brainwave patterns in the temporal lobe of paraphiliacs
(eg: fetishism). While brain damage has been found to
trigger paraphilias, in some cases (eg: damage to the
temporal lobe and late-onset homosexual paedophilia in
two US men) (LeVay and Valente 2006).
Evaluation
i) Byne (1994) felt that:
Even if the size of certain brain structures does

turn out to be correlated with sexual orientation,
current understanding of the brain is inadequate
to explain how such quantitative differences
could generate qualitative differences in a
psychological phenomenon as complex as sexual
orientation.
LeVay (1993) himself was cautious: "To many people,

finding a difference in brain structure between gay and
straight men is equivalent to proving that gay men are
'born that way'. Time and again I have been described as
someone who 'proved that homosexuality is genetic' or
some such thing. I did not" (p122).
ii) Small sample sizes to generalise to all

homosexual men and women.
iii) One basic theory of brain difference does not

exist because different studies found different parts of
the brain as varying between gay and straight
individuals; eg: anterior commissure in one study or the
suprachiamatic nucleus in the hypothalamus in another
study (Ussher 1997).
Other studies have hypothesized about the expected
brain differences, but not actually found them.
iv) The use of dead patients means that full details

of their sexual behaviour has to be ascertained from
other sources, and the individuals themselves cannot
explain their behaviour. For example, were the gay men in
LeVay's study exclusively homosexual?

EVALUATION OF THE NATURE SIDE
i) Tatchell (2005) asked that if people are born

with their sexual orientation, what about "people who in
mid-life switch from happy heterosexuality to happy
homosexuality (and vice versa)"? These are called
"switchers".
Furthermore, said Tatchell, nature theories find to
hard to explain the Sambia (New Guinea) where all young
men have homosexual relations with an older warrior as a
rite of passage to manhood, and then, on achieving
manhood, marry a local woman.
Spitzer (2003) claimed, from telephone interviews,

that, out of two hundred one-time homosexuals, 68% of men
and 44% of women now had "good heterosexual functioning".
But LeVay and Valente (2006) questioned whether
individuals can really change their sexual orientation.
Individuals do appear to switch, but is it really a
"conversion" or more of a "coming out"?
ii) There are questions about how relevant animals

studies of sexual behaviour are to understanding human
behaviour, particularly rats (Byne 1994).
iii) Finding a biological basis has the implication

that individuals are "born that way" and thus do not
choose such behaviour.
In fact, in such a situation the individual cannot
be responsible for their behaviour. This is very
important if the sexual preference is for non-
consensual/illegal behaviour (eg: paedophilia).
Berline (1988) raised this difficult issue: "Men who
are sexually attracted to children are not this way
because they decided they wanted to be so. Rather, in
growing up they discovered this was the nature of their
sexual orientation" (p188). Furthermore, Berline said:
"it seems difficult to see how a person could be
considered blameworthy.." (p190).
iv) Use of scientific methods usually to study

behaviour.
However, Ellis and Mitchell (2000) argued that much
of the research on biological factors in sexual
orientation has been "remarkably flawed", and that "we
still have no good evidence". Furthermore, where the
evidence is clear, there are no biological differences
between heterosexual and homosexual individuals.
v) This approach can be deterministic and

reductionist. All behaviour is determined by biology in
some way, and reduced to that level of understanding. In
other words, any meaning to the individual is removed or

ignored. Birke (1994) felt that for those arguing for
biological determinism, sex "seems to mean little more
than penis-into-vagina".
Each of the theories proposed under the nature side
of the argument have different forms of determinism
(table 8).
THEORY TYPE OF DETERMINISM
Nature side Biological or physiological determinism
Evolution Sexual behaviour determined by principles

of evolution (evolutionary determinism)
Sex Chromosomes Presence of absence of certain

chromosomes determine behaviour
(chromosomal determinism)
Genes Genetic determinism: sexual behaviour

determined by specific gene(s)
Hormones Levels of hormones on body determine

sexual behaviour (hormonal determinism)
Imprinting Early imprint determines later behaviour
Neuroanatomy Structures of brain determine behaviour
Table 8 - Types of determinism on nature side.
vi) There are different types of homosexuality, and

it may be that a biological basis on exists for some of
them.
vii) Homosexual behaviour has been observed in over

four hundred and fifty species of birds and mammals
including male orang-utans, male walruses, ferrets,
hamsters, rodents, and primates (eg: chimpanzees) (Baird
2001). Killer whales were observed to devote one-tenth of
the summer months to homosexual behaviour (MacKay 2000).
There is a debate as to whether this behaviour in
animals is the same as homosexuality in humans. Tim
Clutton-Brock (2001) tended to see it as "exuberant
sexual behaviour" and not the same as being gay.

Nurture Side
GENDER NON-CONFORMITY
LEARNING
FAMILY DYNAMICS
PSYCHODYNAMICS
SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF SEXUAL IDENTITY
The nurture side sees sexual orientation as not

fixed at birth but learnt in some way. This means that
there is not a set pattern for heterosexuality as argued
by the nature side (figure 2). It also allows for an
individual to change at any time in their life.
Figure 2 - Nurture explanation of sexual orientation.
GENDER ATYPICAL AND NON-CONFORMING BEHAVIOUR
The nineteenth century belief about homosexuality

was "gender inversion"; ie: homosexual men were like
women, and homosexual women were like men.
This was adapted in the early twentieth century to
distinguish differences within the populations of gay men
and women. For example, gay female couples needed "butch"
lesbians (who were like men), and "femmes" (who were like
women). The modern gay community in the West is more
complex that that.
Bell et al (1981) (10) believed that gender non-

conformity in childhood was the only predictor of adult
homosexuality. They studied one thousand homosexual and
five hundred straight men and women in San Francisco.
Of the gay men, 63% reported disliking "boys' games"
as a child compared to 10% of straight men, while 48%
enjoyed "girls' games" compared to 11% of heterosexual
men.
Saghir and Robbins (1973) noted that 65% of male
homosexuals, they studied, were "effeminate" as child.

Studies have found gender atypical behaviour among
gay men and women in a number of different areas (table
9).
GAY MEN GAY WOMEN
- less aggressive - do better on male-favoured

cognitive tests
- do less well on male-
favoured cognitive tests - describe themselves as less
eg: mental rotation feminine
- do better on female- - more interest in visual

favoured tests sexual stimuli
eg: verbal fluency
- describe themselves as less

masculine
Table 9 - Gender atypical behaviour by gay men and women.
There is evidence that adult homosexuals recall more

cross-gender behaviour in childhood than heterosexual
adults (Bailey and Zucker 1995).
Green (1987), for example, studied sixty-six
"feminine boys" (with Gender Identity Disorder diagnosis)
and 56 control boys at seven years old, and 44 and 30 of
them respectively at 18 years old. Using both fantasy and
behavioural measures of sexual orientation, Green found
that 75-80% of the "feminine boys" were homosexual or
bisexual at 18 years old compared to 0-4% of the control
group. The persistence of feminine behaviours throughout
the whole of childhood were key.
Coolidge et al (2002) argued that gender non-

conformity may have a genetic basis.
The link between cross-gender behaviour and later
homosexuality has been used to support a biological
explanation for both behaviours; eg: genetic females with
CAH (congenital adrenal hyperplasia) from excessive
prenatal exposure to androgens (Zucker et al 1996).
Gender non-conformity can be linked to early

experiences. For example, a lack of close relations with
the father or other boys for "feminine boys" leads to
"male affect starvation" (Green 1987). Thus the sexual
attraction to males is to overcome this starvation.
While Bem (1996) argued that children's

"temperaments" lead to an attraction for the "exotic".
For heterosexual individuals, this is the other sex. But
for "feminine boys" or "masculine girls", the "exotic" is
the same sex. The idea of "temperaments" is disputed by
some (eg: Ruble and Martin 1998).
Evaluation
i) There are many homosexual men and women who show

appropriate gender roles for their society; eg: "lipstick
lesbians" (lesbians who fulfil the stereotype of
heterosexual female attractiveness).
Lesbians and gay men are a mixed bunch: "Some are
entirely conventional in their gender characteristics,
some are trifle nonconformists, and some are flagrant
gender rebels. Straight people are not always so
'straight-acting', either" (LeVay and Valente 2006 p228).
Studies that focus upon mean differences between
homosexual and heterosexual populations ignore the
diversity within each population.
ii) Terms like "effeminate" are value-laden, and

only perpetuate the idea of masculinity as "tough" and
femininity as "weak", and the continued "pathologising of
homosexuality" (Brookey 2004).
iii) Many studies on gender non-conformity used

clinical populations (eg: Green 1987); ie: individuals
who are receiving treatment, and may not be typical of
the general population (Golombok 2000).
Also these studies are based on interviews and the
recall of childhood behaviour by adults. There is a risk
of remembering the past based on how the individual feels
now.
iv) The connection between childhood gender

nonconformity and adult homosexuality may be strong, but
"it is not strong enough that one can predict a child's
future sexual orientation with confidence" (LeVay and
Valente 2006 p229).
LEARNING
Associative Learning
This is learning based upon the principles of

conditioning (as proposed by the Behaviourists).
Classical conditioning is where two events become
associated together and is based on the work of Ivan
Pavlov. Operant conditioning comes from the work of
B.F. Skinner and concentrates on learning based on the
reward and punishment of past behaviour (known as
stimulus-response).
The "conditioning hypothesis" (McGuire et al 1965)

(ie: learning by classical and operant conditioning) has
been used to explain paraphilias. The sexual pleasure
associated with masturbation in the teenage years becomes

linked to an object in fetishism. It can explain why
paraphilias are more often male behaviours because boys
masturbate more as teenagers than girls.
Another example is of a woman's ring fetish which
was linked to her aunt in childhood, and confirmed by
masturbation in adolescence (Gene Abel 1995).
Experiments on classical conditioning have paired
pictures of naked women for heterosexual men with
pictures of boots, and, in time, the men showed
physiological sexual arousal to the pictures of boots
(Rachman 1966). However, other studies have not supported
this simple association.
Negative Experiences
It may be that negative experiences cause

individuals to develop a certain sexual orientation.
Recent US survey data found that homosexual and
bisexual individuals reported more cases of being touched
sexually by an adult during childhood (7.5% of men and 3%
of women) (LeVay and Valente 2006). But the numbers are
small compared to those homosexual and bisexual
individuals who were not touched.
One explanation often proposed for lesbians is

unpleasant heterosexual experiences (even sexual
violence). Some feminists have argued that coercive sex
is a normal part of heterosexuality.
Gavey (1992) interviewed women about their sex
lives, and in particular coerced experiences of
heterosexual intercourse. One interviewee reported being
accused of not caring if she did have sex when her
partner wanted, and a consequent argument developed.
While another interviewee admitted giving in to his
demands for sex, just for "a few hours rest and peace and
quiet".
Gavey (1996) noted that:
(S)everal women reported experiences which seemed

to me like clear cases of rape or sexual aggression,
but which they were reluctant to label as such -
thus implicitly accepting them to be within the
realm of ordinary heterosexual practice.
However, most women remain heterosexual (which is a

point of issue for radical feminists).
Cognitive Learning

Gagnon and Simon (1973) saw the importance of
"scripts", acquired from society, to help in attributing
meaning to sexual behaviour. So, for example, teenage
sexual exploration is understood using the "sexual
scripts" to help individual decide whether they are gay,
straight or whatever.
Gagnon and Simon argued that individuals do not
learn to become aroused to a particular object, but it is
the "script" surrounding the object. For example, rather
than learning to be aroused by shoes (object), the
individual is aroused by the "sexual script" of the
person wearing the shoes and taking them off in the
context of sexual behaviour.
Evaluation
i) Ignores biological predispositions and assumes

that all sexual behaviour is learnt from the beginning.
ii) It may be a better explanation of learning the

correct sexual behaviour rather than learning sexual
orientation.
Marshall (1971) reported the case of the inhabitants
of Mangaia (Cook Islands, South Pacific) where children
learn about sex from watching adults (as many families
sleep in a big room), and from direct tuition at puberty
from older men and women on sexual techniques.
While in the West, Bancroft (1989) summarised the
traditional medical view that "the sexuality of women may
be more susceptible to the effects of social learning
than that of men".
iii) Classical conditioning is too simplistic to

explain the complexity of all human sexual behaviour.
iv) Behaviourism treats the individual in a

mechanistic way as a product of learning from past
rewards and punishments. It is also reductionist.
FAMILY DYNAMICS
A number of popular explanations are linked to the

family including weak or absent father, emotionally
demanding mother, only child and parental pampering, or
poor relationship with the mother for lesbians. The
experience of dysfunctional relations with parents,
including abuse, has been proposed to explain paraphiliac
behaviour (William Marshall 1995).
Bieber et al (1962), psychoanalysts, studied the

family background of 106 homosexual and 100 heterosexual

men seen for analysis. The former were more likely to
have overprotective, domineering mothers, and weak or
passive fathers. Bieber et al proposed that fear of
heterosexual interactions were created by this family
pattern, which in turn produced homosexuality.
Wolff (1971) looked for similar family problems
among 100 lesbians and 100 heterosexual women. The former
had more rejecting mothers, and distant or absent
fathers. Wolff believed that a lack of maternal love led
to seeking love from other women.
Siegelman (1978) found that homosexual men reported
more disturbed relationships with their parents than
heterosexual men. But when neuroticism was controlled
for, the differences disappeared.
Other studies have found complete contradictions
(eg: Bell et al 1981).
The family dynamics or make up of the family (eg:

single parent) could influence the gender nonconformity
of the child, and possible adult homosexuality.
There is a situation of two parent households that

exists, but both parents are of the same-sex: gay and
lesbian households. The child(ren) here may be adopted or
biologically related to the adult(s).
Research is limited because there are not that many

same-sex parent households, and the majority tend to be
female.
Most of the interest is with the development of
sexual identity in the children in same-sex households.
Sexual identity is studied in a number of ways including,
for example, knowledge of sexual stereotypes, and
adoption of sex roles through choice of toys. Some
studies with older children include sexual orientation.
Green (1978) (and Green et al 1986) studied 37

individuals (eighteen male and nineteen female) aged 3-20
years raised by lesbian or trans-sexual parents. All,
except possibly one individual, developed heterosexual
preferences and conformed to traditional gender roles.
There was no comparison group of heterosexual parents.
In a still-running longitudinal study, Golombok et

al (1983) used a comparison group of heterosexual single
parents. This research compared 38 children (aged 5-17
years) in such situations with 37 raised in lesbian
households (average age nine-years-old). There were no
differences in gender identity, sexual preference,
emotional development, or behaviour between the two
groups.
Golombok et al (1983) concluded that "rearing in a
lesbian household per se did not lead to atypical

psychosexual development or constitute a psychiatric risk
factor" (p565).
This study was followed-up by Golombok and Tasker

(1996) when the individuals were 23 years old. It was
possible to find twenty-five of those from lesbian
households and 21 from the control group. The most
important finding related to sexual orientation - only
two of those in the lesbian household group classed
themselves as gay (and they were both women).
However, individuals in this group admitted having
thought about homosexual relationships before the
rejecting the idea more than the control group. Four of
the former group did try homosexual relationships in
their adolescence. Being raised in a lesbian household
had encouraged the individuals to be open-minded about
their sexual orientation, which is not bad in a society
where discrimination against homosexuality is still
common (Kitzinger 1999).
There is more research on children raised by two

women than by two men. However, Bailey et al (1995) did
look at the sexual orientation of adult sons of gay
fathers. This study did not concentrate on gay
households, only if the father was gay. From adverts,
fifty-five gay or bisexual men volunteered for the study.
Their sons were contacted and interviewed as well.
Ninety-one percent of the sons were classed as
heterosexual. Of the remainder, they were either classed
as homosexual, bisexual, or the sexual orientation was
unclear. The length of time the boys had lived with their
fathers was not a factor in sexual orientation.
Evaluation
i) The comparison of one parent with two is crude

because of other family contacts, particularly other
males (Schaffer 1998). For example, in the Golombak et al
study, many of the children saw the fathers often.
Furthermore, children in lesbian or gay households may
have spent some time in heterosexual families.
ii) The studies are based upon volunteers (eg:

Bailey et al placed adverts in gay publications), and the
samples are small. Volunteers are not necessarily typical
of the general population (Brewer 2005).
iii) There are problems with the measurement of

behaviours, like sexual identity in children.
Measurements include asking children about their
preferred toys and games, preferred sex of playmates, and
future job aspirations.

Green (1978) measured the gender behaviour using a
projective test called the "Draw-A-Person Test" (DAP)
(Machover 1949).
The child is asked to draw a person, then a person
of the opposite sex. The proportion of the body parts are
taken as signs of psychological problems.
iv) Early studies on family dynamics were based on

clinical populations (eg: those in psychoanalysis)
(Golombok 2000). These individuals may not be typical of
the whole population.
PSYCHODYNAMICS
Trying to explain the origins of sexual orientation,

particularly homosexuality, exists in a context, and, in
this case, that homosexuality was perceived as
"psychopathic" in psychoanalysis. Freud (1911), for
example, talked about the repression of homosexual
impulses and the link to paranoid delusions.
Much of the basis of these ideas comes from Freud's

(1905) work on the Oedipal complex in psychosexual
development at three to five years old. Failure of this
process, particularly for boys, leads to inappropriate
gender development, which, to Freud, meant also
homosexuality. It is the identification with the
aggressor (ie: the father as rival for the mother) which
is key in the whole process.
Blockages could occur at different phases of the
boy's development, and this lead to homosexuality -
during the anal phase (two years old) leading to
preference to receive anal intercourse, as well as during
the Oedipal phase.
Limentani (1996) distinguished three clinical types

of homosexuality:
i) Group I - "Attachment to members of the same sex

is linked with the flight from the opposite sex, which is
perceived as being dangerous, threatening and
domineering" (p218). In other words, a fear or hatred of
women. From a psychoanalytic point of view, the
individual may have experienced early separation from
the mother;
ii) Group II - Again in terms of psychoanalysis,

"homosexuality is employed as a massive defence
mechanism, aimed at warding off overwhelming separation
and psychotic anxieties, a dread of mutilation and even
disintegration" (p219);

iii) Group III - Bisexuality.
Limentari was writing in a psychoanalytic tradition,

and implicit in all the terminology is homosexuality as a
problem, and an individual's problem not caused by the
reactions of society. But, then again, psychoanalysis
sees most behaviour as problematic.
Psychoanalysis tends to focus upon male

homosexuality and say little about women, generally, and
lesbianism. However, what Freud said about female sexual
development can be summarised as: "the little girl's
first desire is for her mother; she then replaces this
with the desire for a penis, then for a child from her
father, finally for a male child of her own" (McDougall
1996 p231).
For this explanation, lesbianism is due to fixation
in the first stage - desire for the mother.
Psychoanalytic writings are very complex including much
jargon, like "homosexual libido", but it is not possible
to be homosexual without it being a weakness or a failure
in "normal development" (McDougall 1996).
So if this is the view taken, it is not surprising

that therapy is recommended to rectify homosexuality. For
example, Socarides (1996) proudly told of the success of
psychoanalysis with forty-five "overt homosexuals",
"nearly 50% developed full heterosexual functioning and
were able to develop love feelings for their heterosexual
partners" (p273).
But taking such a stance, it allows for
heterosexuality, in any form or excess, to be seen as
"normal" or acceptable.
Evaluation
i) Many psychoanalytic concepts are hypothetical

(eg: Oedipal complex).
ii) Over-emphasis on male experiences.
iii) Assumes that heterosexuality is the norm and

anything else is pathological. There is a devaluing of
sexual differences by psychoanalysts - eg: non-
heterosexual activities are only "substitutes for
intercourse" (Storr 1964).
This negative attitude towards homosexuality has
caused individuals to undergo therapy to change to
heterosexuality.
iv) Parents can end up feeling responsible for their

child's homosexuality.

v) Too much emphasise on the first few years of life
as determining later sexual behaviour.
vi) On the plus side, Freud made the distinction

between "sexual object" and "sexual aim" as part of
sexual desire, and psychosexual development for children.
However, these terms are not always clear (Ellis and
Mitchell 2000).
SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF SEXUAL IDENTITY
This approach sees sexual orientation as contained

within sexual identity, which like all aspects of social
identity is socially constructed.
"Sexual identity and sexual desire is not fixed and
unchanging. We might create boundaries and identities for
ourselves to contain what might otherwise threaten to
engulf or dissolve into formlessness" (Elizabeth Wilson
quoted in Caplan 1987).
Most definitely, sexual identity and orientation are
not fixed at birth. They are labels used by society to
give meaning to behaviour. Social constructionism
challenges the essentialism argument. Here this means the
idea that sexual orientation is an inner state or essence
of the individual, which they can repress, discover, deny
or acknowledge (Kitzinger 1999). The patterns of meanings
used are discourses:
People develop and "express" their identity through

the use of verbal, non-verbal, and other symbolic
means of communication, such as art. Then, when
they feel as if they are genuinely "expressing"
something inside themselves, they pick up and
reproduce certain discourses about the nature
of the self, and they find it difficult to step
back and question where those ways of describing
the world may come from and what interests they
may serve (Parker 1997 p285).
The evidence to support this argument comes from

looking at differences in the understanding of sexual
orientation.
What this means is that sexual orientation is not
clear-cut: there are "many permutations in time and place
of lesbianism and homosexuality - especially the blurred
line between friendship and lesbianism, between same-sex
acts and defining oneself or others as gay , in other
words sexual identity" (Mauthner 1996 p143).

Historical differences
There are examples from history of different views

than held in Western society today towards homosexuality,
for example. Male homosexuality in Ancient Greece was
seen as normal, partly because of the low position of
women in society.
While free male citizens in Ancient Rome had choices
between "irrumo" (offering penis for sucking), "futuo"
(female penetration), or "pedico" (male penetration)
(Duberman et al 1989). What mattered more was the status
of the individual rather than their gender. Looking at
examples from history like this has been called "queer
history".
There are also historical differences in the nature

of relationships themselves; ie: what is acceptable
behaviour.
Carrol Smith-Rosenberg (1975) analysed the letters
and diaries of families in America between 1760s-1880s.
One strong theme that came out of correspondence between
two married women (Sarah Butler Wister and Jeannie Field
Musgrove) was the level of intimacy. Friends since
teenage years, their letters expressed feelings that
would be viewed differently today:
Sarah: "I can give you no idea how desperately I shall want
you.."
Jeannie: "How I love you and how happy I have been. You are
the joy of my life.. I want you to tell me in your
next letter, to assure me that I am your dearest.."
It is important to emphasise that these are the

letters of two friends, and there was no evidence of
homosexuality. What it does show is the differences in
social norms about friendships, particularly here, with
the expression of feelings (Coates 1996).
Cross-cultural differences
Cultures around the world view sexual orientation

differently to the West. For example, there are societies
with an "unspoken cultural acceptance" of bisexuality,
where marriage is compulsory and homosexuality illegal:
male migrant workers from Mozambique in South Africa have
a wife at home and a boyfriend where they work, or, in
Peru, where men see home their female fiancée at the end
of the evening and then visit a male prostitute (Baird
2001).
Evans-Pritchard (1971) told of a behaviour in Azande

society in pre-colonial Africa called the "boy-wife
custom". Rich men had many wives, which left a shortage
of women for the other men. These men "married" boys aged
12-20 years old, who became "housewives". When the boy
became an adult, he left this "marriage" and went to find
a female wife (if he was wealthy enough). Meanwhile,
women in large polygynous households may have sex
together if the husband rarely had intercourse with them.
In a classic anthropological study of seventy-eight

"primitive" societies, forty-nine saw male homosexuality
as positive, and seventeen for female homosexuality (Ford
and Beach 1952). More recently, of seventy societies
studied, homosexual was found to be common (accepted) in
41% (Broude and Green 1980).
Kinsey et al (1953) reported only one society
(Mohave American Indians) with records of exclusive
female homosexuality.
"Doing" not "being"
Many individuals engage in homosexual behaviour

without identifying themselves as "homosexual" or "gay";
ie: doing the behaviour without being (identity). For
example, in Latin America, two men having anal
intercourse: the inserting partner is not seen as gay,
but the receptive is "marecon" (not a "real man")
(Seabrook 2000).
A study in 1998 (Seabrook 1999) in a Delhi park in

India of men-who-have-sex-with-men found that few said
they were "gay", but gave reasons like no women
available, male prostitutes available, or the belief that
it was safer for HIV and sexually transmitted diseases
(STD) (Baird 2001).
There is the example of "jail sex". This is

heterosexual men using other prisoners, and "they would
never think of themselves as homosexual", said one
prisoner interviewed by Bruce Jones in 1995 for the BBC
Radio 5 programme "Banged Up" (Brewer 2000).
Chou Wah-shen (2000; reported in Drucker 2000)

interviewed two hundred gay men and women in China. They
tended to use the word "tongzhi" (comrade) of themselves
rather than "tongxinglina" (homosexual). This may be due
to official attitudes about homosexuality (punishable
with imprisonment under "hooliganism" laws), or the fluid
conception of Chinese sexuality that "treats
homosexuality as an option that most people can
experience, rather than as something restricted to a
sexual minority having fixed, inherent traits" (Baird

2001 p17).
Concerning women having sex with other women, in

Surinam the term "mati" is used, and it is not seen as
lesbianism. These women may also have sex with men
(Blackwood and Wieringa 1999).
Labels and categories
For Ussher (1997), "'sex' is not an immutable,

biological, given fact", but behaviour clearly socially
defined. For example, in Western society, vaginal
intercourse is seen as sex, but what about masturbation,
nocturnal emissions, or the rubbing together of naked
bodies, she asked?
Furthermore, Ussher said:
In Anglo-American Western cultures science and

law are two of the major social institutions that
influence the process, shaping what we see as "sex",
how we learn to desire, how we experience our
sexual selves and how we learn to repress or
conceal the sexuality that is currently forbidden.
As a consequence, this shapes how we experience
ourselves as "women" or "men" (p258).
The term "homosexuality" was first used by Karoly

Maria Kertbeny (German-Hungarian) in the mid-19th
century, and by John Addington Symonds in English in 1891
as "homosexual instinct" (Baird 2001).
Homosexuality is not a single category of behaviour,

and Werner (1995) distinguished four types:
a) Adolescent type - common in adolescence and

disappears later; eg: at boarding schools;
b) Age-grade type - mentor/pupil; eg: Ancient

Greece;
c) Transvestite type - homosexual male has sex

usually with a male heterosexual; whether the individual
is active or passive is important; eg: South America;
d) Gay type - communities of homosexuals; eg:

Northern Europe.
The terms "homosexual", "gay" and "lesbian" carry

specific social meanings. This has led researchers to
prefer terms like "men-who-have-sex-with-men" (MSM) and

"women-who-have-sex-with-women" (WSW) in areas of study
like HIV, condom use, and sexual behaviour.
Normality/Abnormality
Any understanding of sexual orientation and sexual

identity is in a context of what a society or culture
sees as normal and abnormal, and how these are defined.
For example, the "so-called natural male sex drive
upholds heterosexuality as the norm" and "relegates other
forms of sexuality to the deviant and the abnormal"
(Mauthner 1996 p143).
While Ussher (1997) noted that at the International

Academy of Sexual Research conference in 1995, there were
nine papers on the underlying cause of homosexuality, but
none on the underlying cause of heterosexuality
("presumed to be the natural state").
Compulsory Heterosexuality
Rich (1984) has argued that this is "compulsory

heterosexuality". This is the dominant form of sexuality
in Western societies forced upon individuals, especially
women. It is not just about being heterosexual, but the
specific assumptions for men and women within that (eg:
"real men"; "loose women").
What is seen as "natural" sexual behaviour in this

society - male initiation and female receptiveness - is
not borne out in other cultures. For example, Mead (1935)
observed very different behaviour among the Arapesh of
south-east Asia:
(T)he Arapesh further contravene our traditional

idea of men as spontaneously sexual creatures,
and women as innocent of desire, until wakened,
by denying spontaneous sexuality to both sexes..
Both men and women are conceived as merely capable
of response to a situation..(and) regarded as
helpless in the face of seduction.
While Davenport (1965) reported that in South West

Pacific society, intercourse is assumed to be equally
pleasurable for both sexes (and deprivation equally
harmful). Malinowski (1932) noted the Kwoma and Mataco
societies where women exclusively take the sexual
initiative.
The frequency of sexual intercourse is also culture-

based. Heider (1976) studied the Dani society in south-
east Asia who rarely have intercourse (nor masturbate),
and show few signs of concern or frustration.
Rich would also see the prejudice and discrimination

against homosexuals and homosexuality as a means of
forcing individuals into heterosexuality, particularly
here men.
Kimmel (1997) argued that the predominance of
prejudice and discrimination against LGBT individuals was
due to the fact that traditional masculinity is
intrinsically homophobic:
"As adolescents, we learn that our peers are a kind
of gender police, constantly threatening to unmask us as
feminine, as sissies.." (p234), and violence is often the
strongest indicator of "being a man".
Thus picking on others (verbal or physical violence)
allows the perpetrator to establish that they are "safe"
(masculine) as opposed to the victim who is not.
Individuals, when considering their first sexual

experiences, are faced at school or college with
prejudice and discrimination.
Human Rights Watch (2001) compiled a report about
the experiences of being a lesbian, gay or transgender
student in US middle and high schools. One study quoted
in the report recorded that anti-gay comments were made
on average every seven minutes in Iowa public schools.
Teachers only intervened in three percent of cases,
and usually when "straight students are targets of
homophobic harassment". "Unfortunately, when school
officials respond only after a straight student is
'mistakenly' targeted, they reinforce the notion that
lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students are not
worthy of protection" (Human Rights Watch 2001 p31).
a) Verbal and non-physical harassment
Most of the 140 US pupils and students interviewed

by Human Rights Watch in 2000 reported verbal abuse. The
most common term used was "fag" or "faggot". "Chance M"
felt that those terms were not playing around: "A few
times, I'm sure that's true. But a lot of times it's pure
hate" (Human Rights Watch 2001 p35).
Mallon (1998) interviewed fifty-four gay and lesbian
teenagers, and found that verbal abuse was experienced as
hurtful as physical abuse because of the effect upon
self-esteem.
"Miguel S" told of a whispering campaign, in his
junior high school, that he had AIDS, while "Dylan N"
reported fake love letters to other boys in his name. In
one Texas school, graffiti saying "all gays must die"

appeared (Human Rights Watch 2001).
b) Sexual harassment
The most common form of sexual harassment reported

was being touched in an unwelcome way. Two young lesbians
said: "People would grab my breast area", and "They'd
come up and grab my waist, put their arm around me".
Reports showed that lesbian and bisexual teenagers

received more sexual harassment than other groups at high
school (Human Rights Watch 2001).
The response towards homosexuality varies from

culture to culture as shown by this view of homosexuality
from Ireland: "If you're Irish and gay, your parents must
be English" (Berriss 1996). This is almost a suggestion
that homosexuality is unpatriotic, or at least "unIrish".
Social Control
Feminists have argued that men have the power to

define what is normal. Kitzinger and Coyle (1995) pointed
out that: "Lesbian and gay couples are struggling to
build and to maintain relationships in the context of a
society that often denies their existence, condemns their
sexuality, penalises their partnership and derides their
love for each other" (p67).
The acts which are classed as normal sexual

behaviour have clear boundaries of what is acceptable or
not (eg: consensual sado-masochism; Hopton and Hopton
2001).
In terms of assessing the historical construction of

sexuality, Foucault (1979) took a different view to many
traditional histories. For many, the Victorian period was
one of silence about sexuality, but, for Foucault, it was
the opposite. It was a period of cataloguing and
categorising of individual acts, and the establishing of
sexualities as part of the person rather than specific
acts. For example, a person is a homosexual rather than
performing homosexual acts.
Kitzinger (1994) pointed out that:
(H)omosexual activity is translated into homosexual

(or lesbian, gay etc) identity. Heterosexual activity
per se is generally seen as having no particular
implications for identity (p195).

Most importantly, "normal" and "abnormal" sexuality
were clearly laid out. Jeffreys (1985) quotes the example
of passionate middle class female friendships in the 18th
and 19th centuries, which were accepted at that time as
"useful because they trained women in the ways of love in
preparation for marriage". In the late 19th century with
the construction of the category "lesbian", these
friendships became seen as unacceptable.
Another example of the definition of normal and

abnormal sexuality comes from the psychiatric categories
for mental illness. DSM-II (APA 1968) included
homosexuality as a sexual deviation. This was removed in
1973, and replaced by the category "ego-dystonic
homosexuality" (EDH) - someone who finds their
homosexuality anxiety-producing and prefers to be
heterosexual.
DSM-IIIR (APA 1987) dropped EDH, while the current
term is "sexual disorder not otherwise specified" (DSM-
IV; APA 1994). This is a category for "persistent and
marked distress about one's sexual orientation".
Kutchins and Kirk (1997) believed that
"psychiatrists have seemingly agreed not to call their
clients homosexual, although they have indirect ways of
identifying homosexuality" (p91).
While in East Bay, Melanesia, male homosexuality is
positively encouraged during adolescence (Humphreys
1997).
The acceptability and normality of behaviour is

greatly influenced by the legal position. For example,
homosexuality is illegal in over seventy countries of the
world, and punishable by death in seven (Baird 2001).
Other laws enforce discrimination. In the mid-1980s,
the Queensland state government in Australia passed a law
making it illegal to serve alcohol to "perverts and
deviants" (which included homosexuals). While only in
1997 did the Tasmanian state government, in another part
of Australia, decriminalise homosexual sexual practices
(Hogg and Vaughan 2002).
Women and Sexuality
Despite media which often seem saturated with

sexual imagery, sex as a serious topic of conversation
is still taboo in many contexts. This is exacerbated
by powerful discourses which construct only certain
expressions of sexual desire and behaviour as
normal and acceptable (Marsh 1996 p309).
This is usually heterosexuality, and particularly

focused on intercourse.
Modern culture has assumed an intimate connection

between the fact of being biologically male or female..
and the correct form of erotic behaviour (usually
genital intercourse between men and women)
(Weeks 1986 p13).
Richardson (1992) ironically points out that many

sexually active lesbians are technically virgin because
they have never had penetrative intercourse.
Within feminist writings, the issue of lesbianism

has figured more and more. Often as much as a political
statement as a sexual preference.
For a woman to be a lesbian in a male-supremacist,

capitalist, misogynist, racist, homophobic,
imperialist culture, such as that of North America,
is an act of resistance.. No matter how a woman
lives out her lesbianism - in the closet, in the
state legislature, in the bedroom - she has rebelled
against becoming the slave master's concubine, viz.
the male-dependent female, the female heterosexual.
This rebellion is dangerous business in
patriarchy (Clarke 1981).
While Wittig (1992) took the argument further:

"'woman' has meaning only in heterosexual systems of
thought and heterosexual economic systems. Lesbians are
not women".
Brown (1993) argued for heterosexual celibacy as a

woman: "while I find men disgusting I also desire them..
I live a lonely life but I prefer this to the nonsense
of a heterosexual existence and I have no desire to be a
lesbian" (p91).
The existence of norms of sexual behaviour place

great pressure upon individuals who are different. Cronon
(2006) interviewed twenty-two self-identified lesbian
women aged 45-68 in the UK and the US (half face-to-face,
and the others by email). One key theme that emerged was
"getting married at a younger age because of social
pressures". Eleven of the women were divorced or
separated, and ten of these had children. Lesley said: "I
was trying to 'do what was right' by society's standards,
even if they weren't right for me" (p114).

Evaluation
i) Ignores any biological basis to sexual

orientation.
ii) Some radical feminists, like Rich, are arguing

for all women to become lesbian, whether in terms of
sexual behaviour or as a political stance ("political
lesbianism").
iii) Anti-essentialist. Social constructionism

argues that there are no inner states or essences, and
all behaviour is socially constructed from the discourses
available.
iv) The proportion of individuals in a society who

are homosexual seems to be similar around the world
(Whitam 1983). The social construction of behaviour would
suggest that rates of behaviour will vary from culture to
culture. This is evidence to support the nature side of
the argument.
EVALUATION OF THE NURTURE SIDE
i) Plays down any biological basis to sexual

orientation.
ii) It has the strength of showing the diversity of

sexual behaviour, and that sexual orientation is not
fixed as the same around the world.
iii) Limited use of scientific methods in studying

sexual orientation.

Conclusions
Ussher (1997) argued that the nature-nurture debate
about sexual orientation is "nothing but a red herring":
For what it assumes is that there is this single

distinction between heterosexuality and
homosexuality, that gay men or lesbians are a
homogeneous group of people identifiably different
from the heterosexual man or woman, that
homosexuality is an absolute state, not expected
to differ throughout life, that it is something
we are born with - like red hair or blue eyes
(pp303-304).
It is far more complicated than this, she said, as

few people have a "uniquely homosexual sexual life".
There are many different theories to explain sexual

orientation and sexual preference on both the nature and
the nurture side of the argument. Sexual orientation is a
complex behaviour and no single explanation is
sufficient, so a combination of ideas would be helpful.
But the question is how to combine the different
theories. I am proposing an adaptation of a synthesis
model to explain aggression (Brewer 2003).
Three types of factors (individual, group and
social) combine to give the general sexual preference,
and then specific triggers lead to the actual sexual
behaviour (figure 3).
The important point of a synthesis model is the need

to combine both sides of the nature and nurture debate.

GENERAL SEXUAL BEHAVIOUR
SEXUAL → → → → → → → → → - heterosexual;
PREFERENCE ↑ homosexual; bisexual;
- own sex; ↑ celibate; other
other sex; ↑
both; neither ↑
SPECIFIC
↑ TRIGGERS
eg first sexual
SOCIAL FACTORS experiences; availability
eg society's views of sexual partners
and norms; media
GROUP FACTORS
eg family norms
and behaviour;
peer group
INDIVIDUAL FACTORS
eg genes; neurochemistry
Figure 3 - A synthesis model to explain sexual

orientation.

Footnotes
1. Eg: Adrenogenital Syndrome - chromosomal female but
with male appearance of genitalia. It is caused by
excessive testosterone during the development of a female
foetus (Gross 1992).
2. Individuals may use other terms to describe

themselves, like "transgendered", or "trans person" (or
"trans"). "Trans" can also include transvestites (cross-
dressers), and eunuchs (Baird 2001).
3. Bem (1974) developed a test for androgyny called the

Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI). Individuals can be
androgynous because they have low scores on both
masculine and feminine or because they have high scores
on both.
4. Sexual preference for non-human objects are classed as

paraphilias in DSM-IV (APA 1994). Paraphilias also
includes sexual arousal with human beings other than
consensual sex. DSM-IV distinguishes three groups of
paraphilias (table 10).
NON-HUMAN OBJECTS SUFFERING AND NON-CONSENTING

HUMILIATION PARTNERS
- Fetishes - Sadism: sexual - Exhibitionism

i) part of body pleasure from
ii) inanimate inflicting pain - Voyeurism
extension of body and from
eg: shoes domination - Paedophilia
iii) specific
tactile stimulation - Masochism: - Rape
eg: leather sexual pleasure
from receiving
- Transvestism: pain and from
dressing in being dominated
opposite sex's
clothes for sexual
arousal, not necessarily
wanting to be other sex
Table 10 - Types of paraphilia in DSM-IV.
5. Genes have two types - dominant or recessive. Dominant

genes require only one copy from either parent to
manifest the behaviour (phenotype), while both copies are
needed for recessive genes to show the behaviour.
Individuals with one copy of a recessive gene are known
as carriers.
6. Dawkins (1976; 1989) reduced all behaviour to the

aurvival of the gene rather than the survival of the

individual. He proposed the Central Theorem of Extended
Phenotype: "An animal's behaviour tends to maximum
survival of genes 'for' that behaviour, whether or not
those genes happen to be in the body of the particular
animal performing it" (Dawkins 1989 p253).
For example, a mother who dies to save her three
offspring will have saved one and a half times her own
genes because each offspring carries half of the mother's
genes (3 x ½ = 1½). Though the mother dies, for Dawkins,
it is the genes that survive, and evolution is about the
continuation of the genes not the individual (ie:
"survival of the fittest genes").
7. Trivers (1971) proposed the idea of "delayed

reciprocal altruism" to explain two genetically unrelated
individual working together. It is the idea of returning
favours.
8. Linkage studies are based on families with a

particular behaviour (or disorder), and it segregates
family members with or without the behaviour. It is
possible to focus upon a particular loci (position on
chromosome), and to see which allele exists there for
those family members with the behaviour and those
without.
At any given genetic locus (position), there are two
alleles (copies) of the DNA sequence. One of the alleles
is from the biological mother, and one from the
biological father.
9. Identical (MZ) twins reared apart showed a higher rate

to non-identical (DZ) twins reared together. The fact
that the identical twins were raised separately removes
the influence of the same environment, and means that any
similarities must be due to shared genes. Other research
has found higher levels of homosexuality among biological
children and relatives than between adopted relatives
(Stevens and Price 1996).
10. Bell et al (1981) individually interviewed, for

between three to five hours, 686 homosexual males, 293
homosexual females, 337 heterosexual males, and 140
heterosexual females.

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Appendix 1: Bisexuality
The degree of bisexuality in a society depends upon
the definition used:
If defined as any degree of sexual attraction to both

sexes, recent US studies recorded approximately 13% of
women and 6% of men;
If defined as equal attraction to the two sexes, then

the figures are 2% and 1% respectively (LeVay and
Valente 2006).
Some researchers have questioned the existence of

"true bisexuality" in men (eg: Kurt Freund 1974), and
suggested that it is a phase of "coming out" for gay men.
Weinberg et al (1994) saw bisexuality as a rejection

of both heterosexual and homosexual sexual identities.
Based on a series of interviews, the researchers
categorised four stages in the construction of a bisexual
identity:
i) Initial confusion
Respondents were confused about their sexual

attraction towards both sexes: "I couldn't reconcile
different desires I had. I didn't understand them. I
didn't know what I was. And I ended up feeling really
mixed up, unsure, and kind of frightened" (female
respondent).
ii) Finding and applying the label "bisexual"
Realisation that there was a category of sexual

orientation called "bisexual": "The first time I heard
the word, which was not until I was twenty-six, I
realised that was what fit for me.. up to that point.. I
was either a latent homosexual or a confused
heterosexual" (male respondent).
iii) Settling into the identity
Usually associated with self-acceptance, and the

feelings that bisexuality was not a transition phase. Of
the respondents, 90% believed their bisexuality was a
permanent sexual orientation, though 40% of them did
accept that one day they could change.
iv) Continued uncertainty
Even after the previous stage, a quarter of men and

women still admitted to confusion about their
bisexuality. The reaction of others, like rejection by
the gay community, was important.
But heterosexuals were not that welcoming either.
For example, US heterosexual college students rated
bisexuality men and women more negatively than
homosexuals (Eliason 1997) (table 11). This has been
called "biphobia".
% OF HETEROSEXUAL
US COLLEGE STUDENTS
Bisexual female 50
Lesbian 38
Bisexual male 60
Gay man 42
(After LeVay and Valente 2006)
Table 11 - Rating of sexual orientation as "very" or

"somewhat unacceptable".

Appendix 2: Celibacy
Surveys of sexual behaviour find that a small group
of individuals are not having sexual contact either out
of choice or not. Donnelly et al (2004) defined the
latter as "involuntary celibacy" to include couples who
no longer have sex, individuals who cannot find a willing
partner, and those who have never had sex. They can be
any sexual orientation.
There are a number of reasons for celibacy from
choice and involuntary (table 12).
VOLUNTARY CELIBACY INVOLUNTARY CELIBACY
- religious reasons - couples: pregnancy/recent

eg: priesthood childbirth; unhappiness with
relationship; presence of
- fear of disease (eg: HIV) children in home; increasing
or pregnancy age
- persons with illness - singles: unable to find

or disability willing partner because of
opportunity (eg: lack of
suitable people available in
local area) or motivation
(eg: too tired after working)
- disability/illness: either
individual unable to find
partner or others unwilling
towards individual
Table 12- Types and reasons for celibacy.
Donnelly et al (2004) interviewed online eighty-two

volunteer participants (sixty men; twenty-two women) in
their study of "involuntary celibates". The majority were
US residents (70%), white (89%), and heterosexual (85%).
Three categories of respondents were explored:
i) "Virginal celibates" (34 participants) - No

current partner and never had sex; 76% male and 24%
female; youngest of three categories. Many experienced
difficulties in the teen years, in terms of dating
relationships, and never made the transition into sexual
relationships. Shyness was common (94% of respondents in
this category);
ii) "Single celibates" (25 participants) - no

current partner but had past sexual experiences; 80% male
and 20% female; some had lived with a partner in the
past, and some had used prostitutes before. Had
difficulty finding and maintaining relationships, and so
tended to go long periods between sexual behaviour.

Shyness was an issue (84% of respondents here).
As with "virgins", concern over body image was
mentioned as were practical issues like work arrangements
(eg: sex-segregated occupations);
iii) "Partnered celibates" (23 participants) -

currently partnered and had previous sexual experiences
with that person; 61% male and 39% female; oldest of
three categories. In most cases the lack of sexual
behaviour evolved, and, in some cases, where a definite
decision was made, it related to childbirth.
Celibacy is the situation of not having sex despite

being interested, but there are individuals who show no
interest in physical sexual intimacy throughout their
lives. These are asexual individuals, and make up 1% of
the population (Bogaert 2004). Obviously some asexual
individuals would be among the "virginal celibates".


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THE NATURE-NURTURE

ANSWERS IN PSYCHOLOGY NO.3

Orsett Psychological Services,

Kevin Brewer 2006

All rights reserved. Apart from any use for the

Evaluation of Nature Side 23

Gender Atypical and Non-Conforming

Evaluation of Nurture Side 43

The Nature-Nurture Debate on Human Sexual Orientation; Kevin Brewer; 2006

Sexual orientation and behaviour seem to be core

Sexual diversity has been a familiar fact of life

Heterosexuality is the behaviour of the vast

Kinsey et al's (1948) classic study of white US

Mosher et al (2005 quoted in LeVay and Valente

It is always important to clarify the terms involved

The Nature-Nurture Debate on Human Sexual Orientation; Kevin Brewer; 2006

This refers to the individual's biological sex, and

Chromosomes in every cell XY XX

Reproductive organs testes ovaries

Dominant hormones testosterone oestrogen/

External genitalia penis vagina

Table 1 - Biological sex differences.

Usually the categories of biological sex are male or

This is the behaviour that is associated with a

3. Sexuality and sexual orientation

This is the area that concerns us here. Sexual

Heterosexual - the preference for individuals of the

The Nature-Nurture Debate on Human Sexual Orientation; Kevin Brewer; 2006

Bisexual - no particular preference or interest in both

Celibacy - the decision not to engage in sexual

Other - there are individuals who have sexual

The use of separate categories for sexual

An individual's sexual history will be rated as:

0 exclusively heterosexual with no homosexual

1 predominately heterosexual, only incidental homosexual

2 predominately heterosexual, but more than incidental

3 equally heterosexual and homosexual

4 predominately homosexual, but more than incidental

5 predominately homosexual, only incidental heterosexual

6 exclusively homosexual with no heterosexual

X no social-sex contacts or relations

(After Kinsey et al 1948)

Table 2 - Kinsey Seven Point Scale

Using their categories, Kinsey et al (1948)

The Nature-Nurture Debate on Human Sexual Orientation; Kevin Brewer; 2006

Table 3 - Sexual orientation of US males in the 1940s

Technically, sexuality is different to sexual

DEFINING SEXUAL ORIENTATION

What defines an individual's sexual orientation? Is

One way to define sexual orientation is by the

The stimuli of sexual arousal is not necessarily the

The term "sexuality" itself can be confusing. Oakley

NATURE AND NURTURE

Two other terms are important to define here -

This is the belief that behaviour is innate, and

For this side of the debate, behaviour is learnt by

The Nature-Nurture Debate on Human Sexual Orientation; Kevin Brewer; 2006

The explanation for sexual orientation proposed by

Usual Pattern: Heterosexuality

BIOLOGICAL SEX → SEXUAL ORIENTATION

Unusual Pattern: Homosexuality

BIOLOGICAL SEX → BIOLOGICAL → SEXUAL ORIENTATION

Unusual Pattern: Bisexuality