Mcveigh (Oklahoma City Bomber) Terms Acts Violence,

¶ … McVeigh (Oklahoma City bomber) terms acts violence, childhood background, situational factors,

In the last several years, there has been a significant degree of research into the nature of homosexuality. Traditionally, homosexuality was regarded as a preference and a mere by-product of an individual's nurturing. However, a bevy of research has been produced in the past decade that alludes to the fact that there may be biological, social, as well as psychological or cognitive processes that significantly affect an individual's proclivity towards sexual orientation. Although there has yet to be a conclusive determinant for the specific psychological processes that possibly affect an individual's sexual orientation, the bulk of research points to both genetic and biological processes that may affect the psychological perceptions of gender and attraction. An examination of the articles within this document reveals that there is more evidence that supports biological factors affecting the psychology involved in determining whether or not an individual is homosexual, as opposed to those relating to genetics.

There are several different ways to elucidate cognitive differences in homosexuals and non-homosexuals, which contemporary researchers are utilizing to draw relationships that can provide concrete evidence for an individual's predetermination towards the former. One of the articles that reveals a number of these psychological examinations and their implications towards someone's sexual orientation is an article from Rahman et al. entitled "Brief communications: a specific sexual orientation-related difference in navigation strategy." These quantitative tests include a map test, a Mental Rotation test, a Money Standardized Road Map Test of Directions Sense exam as well as a WAIS-R vocabulary subtest and a spatial location memory exam. The results of these examinations offered a substantial degree of insight into the cognitive processes of homosexuals and straight people. By testing 20 individuals who were either straight men, gay men, straight women or homosexual women, the researchers were able to determine two critical facts. The first of these is that men tended to utilize cardinal directions other than women, who gave directions by referring to landmarks. More importantly, however, the study found that homosexual men tended to use the same landmark strategy that women utilized -- which demonstrates a definite link between the cognitive processes of homosexual men and women (Rahman et al., 2005, p. 314).

The overarching value in these findings in the study of Rahman et al. is that they directly correlate to a hypothesis in which others have found certain prenatal processes to play a crucial role in the determination of an individual's sexuality. Essentially, there is a synthesis between these biological prenatal occurrences and the resultant psychological phenomena that seemingly accounts for tendencies towards homosexuality. Prenatal androgen theory is discussed within the aforementioned article, as well as in an article by Bocklandt and Vilain entitled "Sex differences in brain and behavior: hormones vs. genes." In the latter article, the researchers indicate that organizational gonadal androgens play a substantial part in determining an individual's sexual orientation (p. 45). Rahman et al. claim that theses organizational gonadal androgens are actually responsible for the differences in thinking related to issues of gender and sexuality (Rahman et al. 2005, p. 311).

This aspect of research into the root causes of homosexuality contends that the prevalence or dearth of a large amount of sex hormones -- either male or female, testosterone or estrogen -- help to constitute the reason why certain people are homosexual or heterosexual. These sex hormones, of course, are largely produced and become viable factors during the prenatal stage of development. Whereas the different ways that males and females give directions seems to be in alignment with effeminate men and women relying on landmarks and individuals with higher testosterone counts utilizing cardinal directions, it is critical realize that there is a relationship between these findings and similar ones in the cognitive processes of animals. Some researchers, most notably Simon LeVay, who wrote Gay, Straight and the Reason Why: the Science of Sexual Orientation, a fairly comprehensive manuscript denoting the relationship between genetics, biological factors and cognition in determining one's sexual propensities, have drawn a direct parallel between sexual hormones and orientation. LeVay claims that there are certain animals which were oriented towards one form of sexuality which, when injected with quantities of either male or female sex hormones, tended to switch their sexual preferences to the opposite perspective.

One of the most effective aspects about the article by Rahman et al. is that it provides evidence about the question of animal cognition and sexual preference in terms of spatial relationships. Whereas LeVay's manuscript elucidated the fact that there are several different members of the animal kingdom in which homosexuality occurs too frequently to be considered an aberration (including geese, sheep, and bonobos) (p. 68). Rahman et al. references the fact that estrogen has been linked to rats navigating their way out of a maze more successfully than others. This article also claims that animals with full functioning sexual organs -- versus controls that did not have their organs functioning -- were also more adept at maze navigation (p. 315). Again, this bit of evidence corroborates the notion that cognitive processes are directly influenced by prenatal gonadal hormones in the form of estrogen and testosterone. Interestingly enough, Rahman et al. concluded that estrogen aided the navigational prowess of rodents as opposed to testosterone.