Sexual Orientation Development: Theories and Case Analysis

Introduction

The student at the center of this case is a junior majoring in business. During the spring semester of her sophomore year, she began attending meetings of the local gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender student group, primarily because she was feeling lonely and wanted to talk further about her sexual feelings. Since high school, she had been quite certain that she was a lesbian, but had been reluctant to come out or to discuss it with anyone. She had dated boys in high school, thinking that perhaps she would become more interested, but she did not. Since coming to college, she had avoided the social scene for the most part.

At one of the meetings in the spring, she met a young woman from the community, and they talked alone a few times. They stayed in touch over the summer, and she looked forward to pursuing the relationship when she returned in the fall. The two did become more serious during the fall semester, and they both enjoyed their social and sexual interactions. Her partner took her to meet her parents, who seemed very friendly and accepting of their relationship — an encouraging development for a student who had not yet told her own parents about her sexual orientation.

She had an older brother who, during the Thanksgiving holiday, had announced that he was gay, and this had seemed to upset their parents a great deal. She now felt even more reluctant to come out to them. At the same time, she wanted to begin building a lifestyle in which she could be open about her sexuality and free from secrecy. She had by this point told several friends, all of whom offered strong support. Some told her they were not surprised and had in fact assumed she was attracted to women. She is still deciding what to do about her parents. She has always felt close enough to them to want open, honest communication, but she also wants to ensure that her parents' reaction to her brother's disclosure does not unduly shape her own approach. Her partner continues to be a strong source of support as she works toward a decision.

The homosexuality experiences of the student's brother, and the fact that the student herself is a lesbian, may shock her parents. However, both experiences are in accord with the Kinsey Scale, which holds that people are neither entirely heterosexual nor entirely homosexual, but rather fall along a continuum of sexual tendencies. As Kinsey explained in his foundational work:

"Males do not represent two discrete populations, heterosexual and homosexual. The world is not to be divided into sheep and goats. It is a fundamental of taxonomy that nature rarely deals with discrete categories… The living world is a continuum in each and every one of its aspects."

The Kinsey Scale and Sexual Continuum

"While emphasizing the continuity of the gradations between exclusively heterosexual and exclusively homosexual histories, it has seemed desirable to develop some sort of classification which could be based on the relative amounts of heterosexual and homosexual experience or response in each history… An individual may be assigned a position on this scale, for each period in his life… A seven-point scale comes nearer to showing the many gradations that actually exist." (Kinsey et al., 1948, pp. 639, 656)

This framework provides an important lens through which to understand the case: neither sibling's orientation is an anomaly, but rather a position along a naturally occurring spectrum.

Instinct theory holds that humans are evolutionarily programmed to instinctively react according to certain tendencies. These are inborn methods of behavior and motivational drives that compel individuals to respond in different ways. Sexual orientation is considered one such drive. According to this perspective, homosexuality is an inborn drive rather than a chosen behavior. Not everyone is heterosexual, and the tendencies of both the student and her brother may be explained through instinct theory as natural, pre-programmed aspects of their identities.

Instinct Theory and Sexual Orientation

The majority of people have genes and hormones that orient them toward heterosexual relationships. Others — a comparative minority — have genes and hormones that predispose them toward homosexual partnerships. Both the student and her brother fall into the latter category. According to biological theory, genes, prenatal hormones, and brain structure may all contribute to driving sexual orientation in a homosexual direction.

Conclusion

Research generally suggests that sexual orientation is a combination of genetic, hormonal, and environmental influences (Frankowski, 2004), making both the biological theory and Erikson's developmental theory congruent with one another. Taken together, instinct theory, biological theory, and Erikson's developmental framework all offer coherent and complementary explanations for the sexual identities of the student and her brother, and underscore the importance of understanding sexual orientation as a complex, multi-determined aspect of human development.