Sexual Orientation
Case studies
 What did you learn?
Questionnaire for Heterosexuals
What is your sexual orientation?
 Kinsey’s continuum
Critical thinking
 If I played sex games with a friend of the same sex when I
was 15, am I gay?
 Why are men often turned on by watching two females
having sex but turned off by watching two males?
 How do your religious beliefs, or absence of beliefs,
influence your attitudes toward homosexuality?
Why are you straight?
 Hormones?
 Chromosomes?
 Brain differences?
 Psychosocial factors?
Why do we think hormones affect
sexual orientation?
 Prenatal hormones
Why do we think chromosomes affect
sexual orientation?
• Twins study
Why do we think there are brain
differences.
 Simon LeVay
Comparing gay VS straight persons in:
 Psychological adjustment?
 Mental health?
 Success in changing sexual orientation?
 Counseling & therapy techniques?
 What do the children of gay and lesbian parents show us
about sexual orientation?