Lecture 10: Sexual Orientation & Mental Health Flashcards
1
Q
homophobia (4)
A
- Fear (or “dread”) of homosexuals (or sexual minorities).
- Somewhat outdated.
- Only captures a small range of negative attitudes; negative attitudes towards sexual minorities not always fear-based.
- The “closeted homophobe” myth (MacInnis, 2013)—the term homophobia is often related to the idea that people are only homophobic if they’re afraid of or suppressing their own sexuality.
2
Q
homonegativity (4)
A
- Negative evaluations/reactions to sexual minorities.
- Created to address weakness of “homophobia”.
- Broader range of negative responses (e.g. anger, annoyance, dismissiveness).
- More useful for attitude research as well as it covers more attitudes of negative valence.
3
Q
heterosexism (5)
A
- A system of attitudes, bias, and discrimination in favor of heterosexuality and heterosexual relationships.
- A system of oppression, distinct from individual prejudices; it exists on an institutional and societal level.
- Homophobia and homonegativity could be thought of as the “effects” of heterosexism.
- Understanding heterosexism as a social phenomenon also allows us to understand internalized heterosexism.
- Distinction between external and internal heterosexism is also important for understanding the mental health consequences of heterosexism.
4
Q
external heterosexism (4)
A
- When heterosexist attitudes, biases, and discrimination are applied to others.
- e.g. Heterosexuals’ attitudes and behaviours towards sexual minorities.
- “Attitudes about Others”
- Often focusses in terms of and draws upon intergroup theory.
5
Q
internal heterosexism (6)
A
- When heterosexist attitudes, biases and experiences of discrimination are internalized.
- e.g. Sexual minorities’ negative feelings about their sexual identity or attraction.
- e.g. Negative attitudes about sexual identity match negative attitudes in society.
- “Attitudes about the Self”
- Can be thought about as a part of domain-specific self-esteem.
- Caveat: can also take the form of negative attitudes towards other sexual minorities.
6
Q
The Minority Stress Model
A
- On average, sexual minorities have much higher rates of anxiety and/or mood disorders than the general population.
7
Q
self-report scales measuring external heterosexism (3)
A
8
Q
self-report scales measuring internal heterosexism (2)
A
9
Q
problems with measuring heterosexist attitudes (5)
A
- Who is Represented?
- Gender → different experiences of heterosexism, different attitudes.
- Most scales designed for gay men, or change gendered language to suit lesbians.
- Unique attitudes towards bisexuals, queer people, asexuals and other sexual minorities.
- Changing Times: Many measures may be increasingly invalid, as attitudes towards sexual minorities are rapidly changing.
10
Q
what external heterosexism looks like (5)
A
- Discrimination and prejudice (e.g. “job misfit”; Pichler, 2010).
- Beliefs about non-heterosexual behaviour (e.g. mental illness, immorality).
- Negative emotional responses (e.g. fear, disgust).
- Stereotypes (e.g. promiscuity, less masculine/feminine).
- Beliefs/stereotypes about sexual minorities often overlap with gender stereotypes.
11
Q
Massey (2010) (8)
A
- Explored positive/negative beliefs about sexual minorities.
- Participants were asked to list as many positive and negative qualities about gay men and lesbians as possible.
- Many of the negative things listed were “undesirable gendered traits”; e.g. men were described using derogatory things traditionally used for women.
- The most common thing for men was that they’re “like women” and women were “like men”.
- Many of the positive traits drew on “desirable gendered traits”; e.g. gay men are more emotional and caring, while lesbians are more athletic or strong.
- The most common positive trait for women was actually that their sexuality is an object to be enjoyed by heterosexual men.
- This demonstrates how heterosexism targets genders differently, as well as how women’s sexuality is derogated compared to men.
- Overall, gender norm transgression is seen as both a negative and a positive.
12
Q
Burn (2000) (5)
A
- Looked at heterosexual men’s use of anti-gay slurs to deride other heterosexual men. The sample of men who were all high in anti-gay behaviours (e.g. using slurs often) were split into two groups based on their attitudes.
- Correlation between anti-gay behaviours and negative attitudes.
- But only moderate correlation?
- Individuals with high in negative attitudes (the “anti-gay” group) were high in homonegativity, and unwilling to change their behaviour.
- The group that was low in negative attitudes (the “external conformity” group) scored low in homonegativity and actually willing to change their behaviour.
13
Q
Burke (2017) (5)
A
- Example of a problem with a generalized approach to sexual prejudice.
- Some sexual minorities may be more accepted.
- Does Need for Closure predict negativity towards bisexuals?
- Need for Closure: High NFC individuals prefer to structure information simply, dislike ambiguity, deviations from the norm.
- Bisexuality complicates standard sexual binaries, adds social categories.
- Conservatism, social dominance orientation and perspective taking all predicted attitudes towards all sexual minorities.
- But NFC predicted especially negative attitudes towards bisexuals.
14
Q
Herek et al. (2009) (10)
A
- Explored whether heterosexism is an attitude, and what effects that might have on mental health.
- Study 1: If internalized heterosexism is an attitude, it should predict beliefs, feelings and behaviours. They found that people high in IH:
- Associated more “costs” with sexual orientation (cognition);
- Had lower collective self-esteem (i.e. positive group identity; affect);
- And had less “outness”, i.e. more concealment of identity (behaviour).
- Study 2: If internalized heterosexism is a negative attitude about the self, should predict mental health consequences. Found that higher IH:
- Predicted greater psychological distress and lower positive affect;
- And predicted lower global self-esteem.
- Low global self-esteem mediated mental health consequences of internalized heterosexism.
- i.e. People high in IH and had low global self-esteem as a result of this high IH were more likely to develop mental health problems later on.
15
Q
effects of social connection on internal heterosexism (5)
A
- Psychological variables (e.g. self-esteem, self-criticism) mediate internalized heterosexism and mental health.
- But social factors also play a strong role.
- Social support buffers minority stress (Sattler, 2016).
- Community connectedness mediates IH and mental health (Puckett, 2015).
- Having strong, positive ties to other sexual minorities may be a protective factor.
