• Question: how significant is the factor of homosexuality(or any other sexuality) in the study of relationships?

    Asked by anon-204922 to Sally, Lucy, Louise, James, David, Dan on 5 Mar 2019.
    • Photo: David Chadwick

      David Chadwick answered on 5 Mar 2019:


      I am not an expert in studying relationships. I only have my own personal experiences to go on, and I have no professional experience of studying relationships. That being said, I have not found the sexuality of anyone to effect my professional relationships. Of course, the opposite is true for my personal relationships, but I am not going to elaborate on that!

    • Photo: Lucy Maddox

      Lucy Maddox answered on 5 Mar 2019:


      Fab question. I’m not an expert in academic study of relationships either, but I do think sexuality is really important. Homosexuality in particular is important because historically people who identify as gay have been treated really badly. Unfortunately even now LGBTQ+ individuals are more likely to experience discrimination and bullying and this means an increased risk of mental health problems too. So I think we have an absolute duty to think extra carefully about LGBTQ+ communities when we think about relationships in all sorts of contexts. Even day to day, there tends to be an assumption that people are straight unless they choose to come out – how exhausting though, to have to continually be coming out – it’s not really fair! I try to be careful not to make assumptions about the gender of people’s partners when they talk to me, whether that’s in the therapy room or as a colleague or friend. The organisation I work for has also signed up to a document along with lots of other therapy organisations, to say we think it’s wrong to try to give someone therapy to change their sexual orientation (people did use to do this and some people still offer it 🙁 ).

    • Photo: Sally Tilt

      Sally Tilt answered on 6 Mar 2019:


      Awareness and increased understanding of sexuality has been one of the biggest developments over the last generation. It has become a lot easier for people to include participants in studies who are attracted to same sex partners following greater acceptance of differences in sexuality, and greater openness by individuals. This has enabled greater understanding of relationships generally.

      I like to reflect on this change, and to think about areas of sexuality and gender identity that are still taboo in society – and wonder if in a further generation, our understanding and acceptance of different sexual preferences will have moved on even further.

    • Photo: Dan Taylor

      Dan Taylor answered on 6 Mar 2019:


      I think sexual orientation can be really important when looking at the study of relationships. As Lucy mentioned, homosexual individuals have been treated particularly badly and often still face discrimination today. This can affect an individuals relationships as well, if family members are more traditional, this can impact on the stress of the relationship, likewise its often considered an everyday event for a heterosexual couple to hold hands but for a homosexual couple it could attract negative attention and may even “provoke” violence. Whilst this is clearly the fault of the intolerant people committing these acts, a homosexual couple may feel the need to hide in public more often, even if they are “out”. On more intimate levels, homosexual and heterosexual sex can come with their own enjoyments and risks, its important these are taken into account when examining or studying romantic relationships. I think Lucy also raised an important point surrounding “gay conversion therapy”, I recently went to go see a film called Boy Erased which was on this subject, it was heartbreaking – the idea of changing someones sexual orientation is not only morally wrong, but not based in any kind of scientific research!

    • Photo: Louise Rodgers

      Louise Rodgers answered on 8 Mar 2019:


      This is a really interesting question for someone to research – maybe when you choose your career you could become a researcher DanAmeg! I’m not a researcher in this specialism by any means but it does make me think about other related questions – as the other scientists have mentioned, social attitudes (and laws) around homosexuality have changed a lot over the last few generations and I wonder if thats has made a difference to researchers? In terms of my own role I just have to make sure I never make assumptions or judgments about young people’s sexual identity or views. But then that’s a great rule for interacting with people in general!

      I’m afraid I can’t remember the reference but I remember reading about a study of the stages of homosexual long-term relationships which identified the distinct stages couples go through together. It then became clear to the researchers that these stages are exactly the same for heterosexual couples. That’s not much info if you want to look the study up, sorry! I think it was referenced in one of the books by the relationship therapist Andrew G Marshall.

    • Photo: James Munro

      James Munro answered on 10 Mar 2019:


      The way people think about sexuality changes the type of questions we ask, and so the type of studies we do to find out more. Many early religious books and writers claimed anything but heterosexuality (being straight) to be “unnatural” (charming…) and so many of the first ‘scientific’ studies were focused on how to “cure” non-heterosexualities. This is a long report on studies which tried to change people to become heterosexual. Trust me, some of the attempts are awful to read about – but important for the world to remember: https://www.apa.org/pi/lgbt/resources/therapeutic-response.pdf

      However, things began to slowly change in psychology. Sigmund Freud is probably the most famous psychologist, and he (along with many others) began to think of non-homosexuality as “not normal” but “unavoidable”. Psychologists sometimes use a big manual called the DSM to help them diagnose psychological conditions. In 1952 the DSM called homosexuality “sexual orientation disturbance”. It took 35 years (and a LOT of human rights campaigning) for homosexuality to be removed from the book as a mental disorder in 1987.

      So if we studied relationships in 1950, or 1980, or 2000, or now – our views on sexuality would have made a very different answer every time. I think it is SO IMPORTANT for psychologists to understand their past, and to use this long history to understand that studying all sorts of relationships and sexuality is important – but less important that making sure no one is discriminated against for their preferences. On a personal level, this is extremely important to me.

      Great question Dan.

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