csua.org/u/a5o -> www.apa.org/releases/homophob.html
New Study Links Homophobia with Homosexual Arousal August 1996 Press Release WASHINGTON -- Psychoanalytic theory holds that homophobia -- the fear, an xiety, anger, discomfort and aversion that some ostensibly heterosexual people hold for gay individuals -- is the result of repressed homosexual urges that the person is either unaware of or denies. A study appearing in the August 1996 issue of the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, publish ed by the American Psychological Association (APA), provides new empiric al evidence that is consistent with that theory. Researchers at the University of Georgia conducted an experiment involvin g 35 homophobic men and 29 nonhomophobic men as measured by the Index of Homophobia scale. All the participants selected for the study described themselves as exclusively heterosexual both in terms of sexual arousal and experience. Each participant was exposed to sexually explicit erotic stimuli consisti ng of heterosexual, male homosexual and lesbian videotapes (but not nece ssarily in that order). Their degree of sexual arousal was measured by p enile plethysmography, which precisely measures and records male tumesce nce. Men in both groups were aroused by about the same degree by the video dep icting heterosexual sexual behavior and by the video showing two women e ngaged in sexual behavior.
Similarly, while 24% of the nonhomophobic men showed de finite tumescence while watching the homosexual video, 54% of the homoph obic men did. When asked to give their own subjective assessment of the degree to which they were aroused by watching each of the three videos, men in both gro ups gave answers that tracked fairly closely with the results of the obj ective physiological measurement, with one exception: the homophobic men significantly underestimated their degree of arousal by the male homose xual video. Do these findings mean, then, that homophobia in men is a reaction to rep ressed homosexual urges, as psychoanalysis theorizes? While their findin gs are consistent with that theory, the authors note that there is anoth er, competing theoretical explanation: anxiety. According to this theory , viewing the male homosexual videotape may have caused negative emotion s (such as anxiety) in the homophobic men, but not in the nonhomophobic men.
is a function of the threat condition rather than s exual arousal per se. The American Psychological Association (APA), in Washington,DC, is the la rgest scientific and professional organization representing psychology i n the United States and is the world's largest association of psychologi sts. APA's membership includes more than 142,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 49 subfi elds of psychology and affiliations with 58 state and Canadian provincia l associations, APA works to advance psychology as a science, as a profe ssion and as a means of promoting human welfare.
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