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What Factors Influence Sexual Orientation

Decent Essays

What factors influence sexual orientation in men and women?
Throughout history there has been speculation about what influences sexuality in men and woman. Is sexual orientation biological or cultural in nature? There is a common misconception that sexual identity operate in parallel with gender roles( Sell, 2005 as cited in Wilkinson & Roys, 2005, p.65). Scholars have not came to an agreement regarding what actually comprise a person’s sexual orientation, however a sexual orientation has been deemed a cumulative experience and interaction of emotional and sexual feelings towards one or both genders (Wilkinson & Roys, 2005, p.65). The paper provides provides some clues as to what factors influence sexual orientation in men and woman.

Biology
A growing body of evidence the sexuality is due to biology, however this is still a controversy. Currently there is little understanding on the time period sexual orientation is programmed. One theory is that homosexual orientation is caused by atypical levels of hormones in utero (Mustanski, Bailey, & Kaspar, 2002 p 114). Research in the past has indicated that handiness is connected to prenatal androgen levels and studies have shown that there is a higher incidence of left handiness when mother were exposed to testosterone increasing agents (Bynny, Orth & Cohan as cited in Mustanski et al., 2002 p.114). One reason this theory has been suggested is that stress when pregnant is directly correlated to increased testosterone and left

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