Product Description
What is the nature of sexual orientation and how does it develop? Ideas about erotic attraction have evolved with our society, reflecting changing concepts of masculinity, femininity, morality, and individual identity. Though the line between homosexuality and heterosexuality used to be sharply drawn, Kinsey's original research threw this practice into question, suggesting these labels stand as two poles on a continuum of human behavior. In this second volume of the Kinsey Institute Series, editors David P. McWhirter, June Machover Reinisch, and Stephanie A. Sanders have collected the work of distinguished researchers and clinicians in many fields who seek to understand what we have learned about the factors influencing sexual orientation, and what approaches and research tools are most appropriate in its investigation. Drawing on their experience and expertise, these contributors provide answers from many viewpoints--historical, biological, developmental, cultural, psychoanalytic, and even primate behavior. In particular, they examine what shapes and changes sexual orientation across cultures, lifespan, and species. This volume reflects research being done on many fronts to extend Kinsey's formulation of sexuality and investigate it more fully. Providing a critical presentation of traditional views as well as recent theory,
Homosexuality/Heterosexuality is written for a readership of professionals and lay people, and will be useful as both a reliable fund of information and a source of innovative ideas on the study of human sexual behavior.
About the Author
About the editors
David P. McWhirter has worked extensively in the area of human sexuality. Presently an Associate Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, he is also Medical Director and Chief of Staff at the San Diego County Psychiatric Hospital, San Diego, California. With many years of experience in private practice, he is an authority on the therapeutic management of sexual and relationship problems. June Machover Reinisch, Director of The Kinsey Institute of Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction, is General Editor of the Kinsey Institute Series. A Professor in the Department of Psychology, College of Arts and Sciences, Indiana University at Bloomington, she is also Professor of Clinical Psychology at Indiana University's School of Medicine. Dr. Reinisch will coedit the next Kinsey Institute Series volume,
Adolescence and Puberty: Sexual Development and Adjustment. Stephanie Ann Sanders is Assistant Director of the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction, Indiana University. She has carried out research in psychology and biopsychology, and most recently coedited the first volume in the Kinsey Institute Series,
Masculinity/Femininity: Basic Perspectives, with June Machover Reinisch and Leonard A. Rosenblum.
