Karen Dawson -Sunday, September 21, 2008
Assignment: Unit 5: Written Assignment
PSY 210--Human Sexuality
Does biology affect sexual orientation?
There are many theories on the different effects of hormones, genetics, prenatal influences, and brain structure with regard to sexual orientation.
Biology and sexual orientation is research into possible biological influences on the development of human sexual orientation. Research has identified several biological factors which may be related to the development of a heterosexual, homosexual or bisexual orientation. These include genes, prenatal hormones, and brain structure.(1)
No simple cause for sexual orientation has been conclusively demonstrated, and there is no scientific consensus as to whether the contributing factors are primarily biological or environmental. Many think both play complex roles.
What makes someone gay? The pursuit for the biological roots of sexual orientation remains common with controversy. Is it in your genes, handedness, or the hormonal soup of the early foetus? Or, is the answer hidden deep inside the brain? The science of sexual attraction captures everyone's attention.
There are aspects of choice to sexual orientation in terms of our behaviour, who we actually choose to have sex with, how we choose to call ourselves and so on. But our actual sexual feelings, where they come from, that's something in my view that's nothing to do with making decisions, conscious decisions. And I think science really supports that point of view.
People always ask what causes people to be gay and I think the broader question is what causes sexual orientation. And when you view it from that perspective this research is every bit as much about heterosexuality as it is about homosexuality. It's kind of the Yin and the Yang of the same question. To understand what causes gay people to become gay is also to understand what causes straight people to be straight. You...