- Read a few of our sample essays on your topic
- Develop your own ideas
- Your paper will practically write itself
Is sexual orientation a trait that is learned through life experience or one that is determined genetically?
Sexual orientation is generally one of three main categories: heterosexual, homosexual, or bisexual. A heterosexual person is one who is attracted to members of the opposite sex. A homosexual is someone that is attracted to members of the same sex. And, a bisexual person is one that is attracted to members of both sexes. There are other breakdowns when looking at sexual orientation; some people consider themselves to be transgendered (a woman trapped in a man's body or vice versa). But, in general, heterosexual, homosexual, and bisexual are the three main categories of sexual orientation.
When someone says that something, in this case sexual orientation, is learned, he or she means that certain experiences in a person's life taught that person which gender they should be attracted to. On the other hand when someone says that sexual orientation is biological or genetic, he or she means that sexual preference is determined before you're even born; it is determined by the genes you get from your mother or father, just like eye, hair, and skin color.
The first finding of any evidence that homosexuality may be biological occurred in 1991 when Simon LeVay found neuroanatomic differences between homosexual and heterosexual men (neurolinguistic). There is a part of the anterior hypothalamus (called INAH3) that is three times larger in men than in women. LeVay studied hypothalamic tissue from nineteen gay men (all died from AIDS), sixteen heterosexual men (six died from AIDS), and six women of unknown sexual orientation. He found that INAH3 was two to three times larger in the heterosex
Quotes talked about in this paper
- K.J. Zucker said, "Pherhaps seventy-five percent of feminine boys grow up to be gay men, which is a huge increase over expected rates. That's generally consistent with a biological hypothesis because you have these boys playing atypically at a very early age-three to five-in a way they haven't been socialized to behave. In fact, they're often punished for behaving that way" ...
Terminology mentioned in this research paper
DNA,
Names talked about in this research material
Dean Hamer, Simon LeVay, a research scientist, Thompson, Roger Gorski, Ward Odenwald, J.M. Bailey, K.J. Zucker,
Organizations mentioned in this research material
UCLA,
Health Conditions included in this research material
AIDS,
Keywords mentioned in this research material
sexual orientation, homosexual, biological, heterosexual, homosexual men, neurolinguistic, male homosexuality, sexual preference, environmental factors, biological evidence, homosexual behavior, gene, human nature, flies, AIDS, Simon LeVay, Dean Hamer, anterior hypothalamus, genetic linkage, hypothalamic nuclei, scientific studies, single gene, gonadal hormones, bisexual, testicular atrophy, brain hemispheres, a woman, Laura Allen, the gay, skin color, research scientist, scientific fraud, Emotional Reasoning, disgusting, coincidence, large group, the opposite sex, INAH3, X chromosome, slim, experiences, UCLA, interpretations, the long arm, fruit, main, neuroanatomical, confound, Biases, seventy five,
Save Paperlocate them quickly!
