Attempts to explain homosexuality from a psychological perspective have primarily consisted of psychoanalytic and social learning. Psychoanalytic theories focus on sex role inversion, whereby a child identifies with the gender role of the other sex parent, and acquires the attraction pattern of that parent: A male identifies with his mother’s gender and develops attraction to males, and a female identifies with her father’s gender and develops attraction to females. A rejecting father and often overly dominant mother were often seen as the cause of sex role inversion for males. One of the fatal flaws of this perspective is that sexual orientation and gender role are not linked despite what people think. In other words, very “macho” men and feminine females often identify with being homosexual. Another flaw is that research supporting these theories was highly biased. Social learning theories argue that characteristics of the social environment form sexual orientation based on reinforcement and punishment effects. Hence, if a male child’s social environment reinforces feminine behavior, then the child will become homosexual. Note the role inversion aspect. None of these psychological theories has proven valid for gender identity or sexual orientation. An interesting path analysis by Bell, Weinberg, and Hammersmith (1981) examined all hypothesized paths based on psychological theories to homosexuality, and found essentially zero support for these theories! A more detailed look at these theories and the path analysis can be found in the Psychological Theories chapter of Outing The TRUTH About Sexual Orientation.
Mar 042017