Previous Measures : How can we improve?

Hi Jaimie,

when I read Genna's ideas about "when determining gender diagnosticity and therefore our sample should include an equal, or close to equal sample of BOTH males and females." I was wondering does sexual orientation effect the results of gender diagnosticity? That is to say, the more "masculine" role in Lesbian couple, compared with the more "feminine" role in Gay couple? Is this a related part need to be concerned in future research?

Hi SunnyZHENG,

I was hoping someone would bring this up! I summarized a study that looked at heterosexual and homosexual men and women: http://wiki.ubc.ca/Course:PSYC305/2013ST2/ClassProject/2.2.1_Introduction_-_GD_Studies#Gender-Related_Traits_of_Heterosexual_and_Homosexual_Men_and_Women

The same occupational preferences that distinguish men from women are the same that distinguish heterosexual men from gay men and lesbian women from heterosexual women. So yes, lesbian women are more likely than heterosexual women to be self-ascribed as masculine, while gay men are more likely than heterosexual men to be self-ascribed as masculine. I'm not entirely certain whether or not their responses would skew the overall results, but I do think it is relevant for future research.

I was reading over my notes/text book from my human sexuality class, which states that gay men and lesbian women are overrepresented in certain occupational areas (the creative arts, and professional sports, respectively). Do you think that a GD or homosexuality-heterosexuality diagnosticity (which was also shown to be just as effective in the same study), would be a stronger predictor of over- or under-representation of the homosexual community over other demographic factors such as educational attainment, SES, or background?

Hi Schuolee,

thanks for your reply and guide me to the related previous studies on sexual orientation and gender-related traits. Firstly, I have to say I have read an article that states many women become homosexual due to genetics. There still have gender differences on homosexual heredity, which may be applied to study homosexual community as you stated above.

Ok, so back to the topic. "Previous studies found that gay men are more feminine than heterosexual men, while lesbian women are more masculine than heterosexual women (Dunne, Bailey, Kirk, & Martin, 2000; Haslam, 1997; Lippa, 2000; Pillard, 1991)." - quote from "GD Studies". As seen, previous research studies the extent of masculine and feminine of the same sex/gender, but how about on opposite sex? For instance, we can compare the masculine or feminine behaviours and cognitions of lesbian women with gay men. What do you think?

Hey SunnyZENG,

I didn't consider comparing masculine vs. feminine preferences/behaviours/cognitions of just the homosexual community for our future research!

I should also note that earlier I wasn't sure if the homosexual community's responses skewed overall responses, but I realized from your response that the study DID mention averages of the homosexual community as a whole:

"In absolute terms, the mean GD scores for gay men (0.51) and for lesbians (0.55) indicated that both groups, on average, had neither strongly male- nor female-typical occupational pref- erences. That is, both group means were near the mid- point of possible GD scores (i.e., 0.50)."

So since the differences between the homosexual and heterosexual community are offset by the average scores as a whole, they're not skewed.

Ok, back to your question. I definitely think we can study and compare gay men and lesbian women alone using GD, since their preferences seem to parallel the heterosexual community. But since, as mentioned above, their responses don't actually skew results, so I'm wondering if the findings/results of the GD would essentially be the same, but applied to opposite sexes? What are your thoughts?

yes, this is what I am thinking. In further studies, researchers might examine GD of homosexualities based on opposite sexes because participants’ sexual orientations and gender identities role in society do really effect the reliability of GD in this research. For future research, participants can be equal sample size of Lesbians and gays, maybe the same method to test the masculine and feminine extents of gay men and lesbian women (or do you have a better way to examine?). Do you agree or any advise?

I agree, we know from research (some summarized in this paper) that gays, lesbians, and bisexuals are more likely to experience stigma, bullying, harassment, and as a result negative physical and mental health behaviours and outcomes. Future research could look at the extent to which this is due to gender nonconformity and a GD scale like ours would be perfect to do this.