Sexual Motivation And Sexual Orientation Essays Examples

Identify some biological or genetic factors that influence sexual orientation behavior

Twins and families reared together
Various research identical twins have been carried out to determine if genes have an influence on sexual orientation behavior (Diamond, 2011). According to Diamond In one of the researches on monozygotic and dizygotic male twin pairs it was found out that at least one of the co-twins admitted to homosexual behavior. Additionally, it was found out that if one of the monozygotic twins was homosexually oriented his brother was also homosexually oriented. On the other hand the dizygotic brothers were not too different from the general male population relative to sexual preference. According to diamond homosexual orientation is strongly associated with genetic links rather than parental influences (Diamond, 2011).

Twins reared apart

Another research was conducted on twins reared apart to evaluate the relative role of environment and genetics in behavior. The findings implicates that the genetics is a stronger factor in male influencing sexual orientation than in female (Diamond, 2011). Additionally, it was found out that among the two male pairs, one pair was partially concordant, and the other pair was concordant for homosexuality in which initially one member of each pair at infancy stage was homosexually active. On the other hand for female pairs, none was concordant in sexual orientation.

Brain functioning

Another research found out that homosexual men scored lower on the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale than did heterosexual men but comparable to heterosexual women due to differences in spatial ability (Diamond, 2011). Furthermore, Heterosexual men were significantly better at tasks of spatial ability than were homosexual men or women.

 Identify some psychological and social/cultural factors that may also influence sexual orientation.

Transsexuals and Cross-sex rearing
If an XY individual is brought up as a boy, the transsexual feels to be a girl and he will wishes to develop into a woman. The opposite is also true if an XX individual is brought up as a girl. If children are raised up by transsexual parents they will not develop as transsexuals and if children are brought up by homosexual they will not develop as homosexually. On the other hand, if individual is reared as a female with female hormones treatment and psychotherapy, that individual will never accept the female status (Halpern, 2013). The opposite is also true to XX individual.

Explain whether you view sexual orientation as primarily biologically based or psycho-socially based. 

In my conclusion sexual orientation is widely found as primarily biologically based. It is evidence by the research on twins reared separately, twins reared together, upbringing and cross-sex rearing where all the findings based on these areas were attributed to genetic makeup of an individual.

References

Milton Diamond Ph.D. (2011). Pacific Center for Sex and Society - Biological Aspects of Sexual Orientation and Identity. Retrieved from http://www.hawaii.edu/PCSS/biblio/articles/1961to1999/1995-biological-aspects.html
Halpern, D. F. (2013). Sex differences in cognitive abilities. Psychology press.