Gay and lesbian essay! (understudied relationships)

Hey,

This is a big ask, but I'm self teaching the relationships subsection, and was wondering if somebody who is experienced in it can give my essay on understudied relationships a quick once over?

The specification says that questions can only ask you for research on understudied relationships, and cannot ask for specifically studies/theories.

I did it using info from the dog book but not sure it was very well selected (there were 3 sections on formation, maintence and dissolution of relationships, and I picked formation to talk about). Will rep the person who can help!

In particular I'm not sure if the A01/A02 balance is right.

Discuss research (theories and or studies) into understudied relationships (24 marks).

I will look at the formation of gay and lesbian relationships, in particular dating patterns and partner preferences.
In western cultures men and women grow up with different attitudes towards sex and emotional commitment. As a result men are more likely to believe that it is justifiable to have sex without further emotional commitment. The gay subculture has therefore been frequently associated with a 'sex first' attitude to relationship, and the establishment of specialized areas where they can meet eg. gay bars. Unlike men, women are socialized into being more reactive than pro-active which means both women feel uncomfortable making the first move.

Kitzinger and Coyle found that one partner may have to take the assertive role and ask the other out, or they may meet through friends. However, research in this area is limited as it is socially sensitive, and may involve direct social consequences but with little agreement and much bias.

The difficulty in conducting representative research in this area is mirrored by the difficulty in which gays and lesbians have in finding partners. Silverstein found that gaybars provide a good opportunity for casual sex, but rarely lead to long term relationships. Increasingly, there are also sex clubs for lesbians, but these too focus on casual anonymous sex. Psychologists may also advertise in gay/lesbian magazines, or go to neigbourhoods which are largely gay/lesbian. However, this permits access to only certain kinds of gays/lesbians. Our knowledge of the attitudes and behaviours of gays/lesbians may therefore only represent rather urban more openly homosexual individuals, ignoring the older/ more introvert gays/lesbians who may be in long term relationships.

Lonely hearts ads in newspapers can be a revealing source of information about what men and women offer to potential same sex partners and what they expect in return. Gay men appear to desire physical attributes as well as status symbols that go with the male role in western culture such as masculine career. (Davidson). Lesbians on the other hand are more likely to focus on personality characteristics.

Such preferences may be supported by the evolutionary theory wich says that interpersonal attraction is related to factors that increase reproduction. Dunbar & Waynforth found that gay men offered resources about half as often as heterosexual men, and that lesbians emphasized physical attractiveness about half as often as often as heterosexual women. We can expect preferences to differ because reproduction is not an issue.

However content analysis, like many of the other methods used in this area, only permits access to certain kinds of gays and lesbians. The more introverted may not take such a direct approac to find a date, thus may be under-represented.

Thanks in advance!

x

ETA: I know it's very basic and the grammar may be dodgy, but ignore that, just need to know if I've got the basic jist of it :smile: