Preview

Sexual Orientation and Identity

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
967 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Sexual Orientation and Identity
Sexual Orientation and Identity

Sexual orientation and identity are predominant constituents of human personality. In fact, it is impossible to think about personality as independent of sexual characteristics. This is because the personality of an individual is largely determined by gender and sexual orientation, as well as what that individual regards as appropriate behavior in terms of gender.

There are certain sexual aspects that determine an individual’s sexuality. These are:

Sexual identity: This is the pattern of a person’s biological sexual characteristics, such as genitals, hormones, chromosomes, and secondary sex characteristics, such as facial hair and breast development.
Gender identity: This refers to the inherent sense of being male or female. Gender refers to the psychological and emotional traits of maleness and femaleness.
Sexual orientation: This refers to the sex to which a person is attracted. A person may be heterosexual (attracted to the opposite sex), homosexual (attracted to the same sex), or bisexual (attracted to both sexes). Sexual orientation usually coincides with gender identity.
Sexual behavior: This includes reactions and responses in sex-related situations. Whether a person is able to achieve sexual satisfaction from sexual relationships can determine that person’s sexual behavior.

There are several factors that determine gender role development and identity. Most of them fit into two camps of thought – the biological origins (nature) and the environmental origins (nurture).

Biological Origins

Biologically, gender identity is affected by the amount of androgens in the body. This hormonal influence explanation focuses on chemical substances released into the blood stream and that were prevalent during prenatal development.
Evolutionary explanations focus on the natural selection process that over the course of human behavior shapes the traits (through genetics) that are passed on. Some evolutionary
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    SHC 33 Equality and inclusion in health
    • 1302 Words
    • 6 Pages

    SHC 33 Equality and inclusion in health

    · Gender -Gender identity is the gender a child self-identifies with, regardless of whether they have been born physically as male or female. The ideal logy that Boys should be dressed in blue and do activities like climbing trees, and likewise girls wear pink, and play with doll’s, are long gone thankfully. Each child is treated as an individual and in no way should they be stereotyped into male and female character roles.…

    • 1302 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Gender Role
    • 1181 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Gender Role

    Gender role of a man and women is influence by a variety of factors. These factors vary with the region, religion, culture, climate, historical beliefs, living principles and experiences across the globe. These factors are categorize as:…

    • 1181 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Unit 19
    • 2566 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Unit 19

    Sexual orientation – a person’s sexual identity in relation to their gender to which they are attracted to. It is the fact of being heterosexual, homosexual or bisexual…

    • 2566 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Sexual Orientation
    • 856 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Sexual Orientation

    In the same way that gender is a spectrum, sexuality is a spectrum as well. There are four distinct sexualities. Heterosexual, or straight, people are attracted to members of the opposite sex. Bisexuals are attracted to members of both genders. Homosexuals are attracted to people of the same sex. Homosexuals can be called gay, for both genders, or lesbian, for females only. The last sexuality is asexual, in which there is no attraction to either sexes.…

    • 856 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Essay On Gender Identity
    • 451 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Essay On Gender Identity

    Gender identity is an individual's personal, the sense of being male or female. Gender identity starts to begin in most children by the age of 3. Although most societies define gender as male and female, many cultures may define gender as neither male or female. Sex refers to biological differences between male and female. The same sex hormone occur in both male and female, but differ in amounts and in the effects that they have upon different parts of the body for example, chromosomes (female XX, male XY), hormones (oestrogen, testosterone). According to the social cognitive theory of gender, children's gender development occurs through being rewarded and punished for gender-appropriate and gender-inappropriate behaviors. From birth male and…

    • 451 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Gender and Sex Worksheet
    • 380 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Gender and Sex Worksheet

    Yes, I feel that our concepts of gender and sex contribute to our understanding of sexual orientation in many ways.We have a understanding of what each gender is and what they provide, causing us to make a decision on who we want to be with in life. Whether we are Heterosexual: attracted to individuals of the opposite sex,…

    • 380 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Gender Stereotypes Affecting People's Identity
    • 548 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Gender Stereotypes Affecting People's Identity

    Identity is who a person is. Identity is a complexly layered subject that allows people to either distinguish one from others, or generally organize a group of people who have similarities. Identity is made up of a lot of factors, but the most influential factor has to be gender.…

    • 548 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Influence Of Gender Identity
    • 173 Words
    • 1 Page

    The Influence Of Gender Identity

    What is gender identity? Gender identity is the inner sense of one’s own gender, the gender that the person feels they are, even if it doesn’t match the biological gender they carry. (The Human Rights Campaign) Some with a different gender identity than their biological gender, go under the ‘umbrella’ term of transgender. (The Human Rights Campaign) Many others in the world believe that gender…

    • 173 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Chemical Influences and Gender Identity
    • 1428 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Chemical Influences and Gender Identity

    The 1st thing we need to know before we get into the meat of the argument is to provide the reader with a general idea as to which terms I will be using in my argument. What is gender identity? Well, for all intents and purposes, in its broadest sense with to respects to this paper, gender identity is often referred to as the individuals own sense of identifying themselves as male or female. Another term that needs to be defined is, what is sexual preference or orientation? Sexual orientation, or preference is in individuals pattern or behavior and their attraction of these emotionally romantically or sexually or any combination of these to the opposite sex the same sex or both sexes.…

    • 1428 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Best Essays

    Sexual Orientation, Identity, and Behavior
    • 3097 Words
    • 13 Pages

    Sexual Orientation, Identity, and Behavior

    Homosexuality has been a hot topic for the last fifty or so years, as it has been at various times in the past. There are different theories pertaining to the history of homosexuality. Essentialists say it has existed in all times and cultures, while social constructionists believe that it has arisen only in certain places and eras (ancient Greece, for instance) (Bailey 54). Its social acceptability has varied widely as well. The stigma of non-heterosexuality has faded considerably in the twenty-first century. Psychology no longer views homosexuality, bisexuality, and transexuality through a lens of pathology, instead recognizing that lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgenders (collectively referred to as LGBT individuals) have particular issues related to their minority status and the ways in which they are viewed by American society (Garnets and Kimmel, Introduction 2). Formation of an identity that is faithful to the self rather than formed according to societal expectations is now encouraged and recognized as healthy. Nonetheless, many in the heterosexual population are not fully informed about homosexuality and struggle to understand how the needs and outlooks of their LGBT neighbors differ from their own. This paper looks at several aspects of the lives of LGBT individuals, and argues that equal rights for this community have yet to be achieved in this country.…

    • 3097 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Best Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Analyzing the Development of My Own Sexuality and My Thoughts on Sexuality and Gender Identity.
    • 1403 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Analyzing the Development of My Own Sexuality and My Thoughts on Sexuality and Gender Identity.

    Sexuality for a teen can be every confusing and sometimes hard to understand without the proper knowledge. I have learned so much and still feel to this that with my personal experience doesn’t make me an expert or no one for that matter. Gender identity to me is what you make of it and how you identity yourself to the world and how you want them to perceive you as well. In my reading you will explore many different views on gender identity and on sexuality. You will also see the view in someone else eyes. When it comes to my gender identity, and me there are no confusion and misunderstanding at all. I know that I was born a male even with me being a gay male I have no confusion at all. When it comes to gay male they tender to have some type of gender identity misunderstanding when there is no need to at. When it comes to gender identity it varies from person to person. I have learn and I will express that everyone doesn’t know how to love or what it truly means. Some people that once in a relationship that their partners already knows how’s to be love or love someone.…

    • 1403 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Psy 265 Gender Identity Paper
    • 721 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Psy 265 Gender Identity Paper

    Most of the time gender identity is constructed upon the actual chromosomal sex of a person (Nevid, Rathus & Fichner-Rathus, 2005). The variance between assigned gender and gender identity lies inside the psychological dominion. While one may be considered male when born, psychologically he may not relate to being a male at all. Femininity may be something that is much more comfortable than masculinity. This is a situation where the assigned gender is male, but the person identifies themselves more as female.…

    • 721 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Personal Response on Sexuality Identity
    • 1425 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Personal Response on Sexuality Identity

    Our sexual identity starts at birth and evolves as we continue to age. Several factors can influence an individual’s sexual identity. Like several things in one’s life, sexual identity develops as we go through different stages of life. The things that could influence the development of our sexual identity are environmental factors, value systems, gender identity, relationships, and love.…

    • 1425 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Psy 340 Gender Identity Paper
    • 1050 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Psy 340 Gender Identity Paper

    Gender identity seems to have everything to do with genetics, and sex chromosomes (Pinel, 2009). Till this day a policy…

    • 1050 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Res 110 Sexual Orientation Research Paper
    • 2423 Words
    • 10 Pages

    Res 110 Sexual Orientation Research Paper

    Sexual orientation is also a name used to describe an individual's sexual preference or sexual identity. Three major groups can identify preference: heterosexual - people who are sexually attracted to those of the same sex or gender; homosexual – people who are sexually…

    • 2423 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More

Related Topics