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Social Implications of Sexual Identity Formation and Coming Out Process
Chad Mosher's article, "The social implications of identity formation and the coming-out-process: a review of the theoretical and empirical literature" provides a fairly comprehensive look at the theories and realities of individuals asserting their homosexual tendencies to the world. The article is widely written as a source of material and instruction for psychologists who are employed in a therapeutic or counseling capacity with such individuals, as there are implications for them to incorporate into their practice in the article's conclusion. In addition to discussing the two principle theories regarding coming out, essentialism and social constructionism, the author discusses aspects of the theories that are integrated as well as the effect of coming out on both the audience and the homosexual perception. Audiences are stratified into three distinct categories: family members, heterosexuals, as well as homosexuals and those somewhere in between these two dichotomies. Mosher's main point is that by combining various aspects of the two principle theories for sexual identity formation, social work practitioners can better assist individuals through this process.
In order to distinguish the limitations and appeals of each of the theoretical perspectives, the author begins by providing detailed definitions of social constructionism and essentialism. These theories are largely antipodes of one another -- whereas essentialism contends that sexual identity is innate or biologically determined at birth, social constructionism views...
As such, there are some interesting distinctions found between these two perspectives, the former rigid and the latter mutable and constantly dynamic. Mosher (2001) frames the essential perspective based on Carrion and Locke's eight stage model, which he widely uses to contrast varying points of social constructionism (p.164).
The most important theoretical information in this article is the comparison of social constructionism with essentialism to analyze coming out behavior in a way that blends these perspectives. There are various points of similarities and dissimilarities between these theories as pertain to both internal and external exploration. Of the former, there is the notion that society plays a role in individuals thinking they must be heterosexual (Mosher, 2001, p. 166). The principle difference between the two, however, is that there is a dynamic nature associated with social constructionism, in which individuals can readily change their sexual preference and the dichotomy which typifies essentialism (either heterosexual or homosexual) is non-existent. Points of comparison between the two theories are also related to external factors, such as the social power that passing for heterosexual males grants to homosexuals (Mosher, 2001, p. 167). The principle strength of the article is that all of these various phases and consideration regarding coming out are substantiated with empirical evidence from an assortment of research studies,.
Another substantial boon is the stratification of coming out by…
References
Mosher, C. (2001). The social implications of identity formation and the coming-out-process: a review of the theoretical and empirical literature. The Family Journal. 9 (2): 164-173.
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