From straight to gay
Is everyone a mix of straight and gay? A social pressure theory of sexual orientation, with supporting data from a huge global sample
Introduction
Humans have a strong tendency to categorize phenomena that are in fact continuous in their physical characteristics (Jorde and Wooding, ; Culotta, ). When should scientists position aside category labels in favor of a continuum model that more accurately describes the phenomenon of interest? This issue has been debated in various scientific fields for at least a century and is still of affect today, in part because of an obvious benefit that continuous variables own over categorical ones. Categories often exist on nominal or ordinal scales of low resolution (male/female, red/blue/yellow), whereas continuous variables attend to make precise measurement possible, facilitating the maturation of predictive, quantitative models.
Mathematical aspects of continua were discussed at length in Science in an essay by Luce and Narens (), in which they concluded, continuous variables are the correct kind of idealization for many, if not mos
Long-suffering Spectator readers be entitled to a seasonal interval from yet another Remoaner diatribe from me. My last on this page, making the outrageous suggestion that the populace may sometimes be wrong, is now being brandished by online Leaver-readers of my Times column as proof that I am in fact a fascist; so there isn’t anywhere much to go from there.
Instead, I shift to sex. There is little period left for me to write about sex as the thoughts of a septuagenarian on this subject (I spin 70 this year) may soon assemble only a shudder. But I hold a theory which I have the audacity to believe important.
What follows is not written here for the first time, and much of it is neither original nor new; but on very few subjects have I ever been more sure I’m right, or more sure that future generations will see so, and wonder that it stared us in the face yet was not recognized. My firm faith is that in trying to categorise sex, sexuality and — yes — even gender, the late 19th, 20th and early 21st centuries have taken the medical and social sciences down a massive bl
by Fred Penzel, PhD
This article was initially published in the Winter edition of the OCD Newsletter.
OCD, as we know, is largely about experiencing severe and unrelenting doubt. It can cause you to doubt even the most basic things about yourself – even your sexual orientation. A study published in the Journal of Sex Research found that among a group of college students, 84% reported the occurrence of sexual intrusive thoughts (Byers, et al. ). In organize to have doubts about one’s sexual identity, a sufferer deserve not ever have had a homo- or heterosexual experience, or any type of sexual trial at all. I have observed this symptom in young children, adolescents, and adults as well. Interestingly Swedo, et al., , establish that approximately 4% of children with OCD experience obsessions concerned with forbidden aggressive or perverse sexual thoughts.
Although doubts about one’s own sexual identity might appear pretty straightforward as a symptom, there are actually a number of variations. The most noticeable form is where a sufferer experiences the thought that they mig
Hi. I&#;m the Answer Wall. In the material earth, I&#;m a two foot by three foot dry-erase board in the lobby of O&#;Neill Library at Boston College. In the online world, I reside in this blog. You might say I own multiple manifestations. Like Apollo or Saraswati or Serapis. Or, if you aren&#;t into deities of information, like a ghost in the machine.
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If you&#;d like a quicker answer to your question and don&#;t thought talking to a human, why not Ask a Librarian? Librarians, since they acquire been tending the flame of knowledge for centuries, know where most of the answers are concealed, and enjoy sharing their knowledge, just like me, The Answer Wall.