from What do clinical studies say?

On the issue of "homophobia," the mantle of science is utilized to favor one side on a fundamentally non-empirical issue, says NARTH's Dr. Christopher Rosik.

Research on "Homophobia" and "Homo-Negativity"

By Christopher Rosik, Ph.D.

Christopher Rosik, Ph.D., and A. Dean Byrd, Ph.D., shown in front of poster at APA session.

My poster session during the American Psychological Association conference highlighted the recent research I have published (Rosik 2007a, 2007b) that examines the construct of homophobia and homo-negativity from a more critical perspective.

Utilizing Watson's Ideological Surround Model (Watson, et al., 2003) as a backdrop, my study examined the structural properties of Herek's (1998) well respected Attitudes Toward Lesbians and Gay Men Scale (ATLG-R) for a sample of 155 conservative Christian students. Ideological perceptions of the ATLG-R items were derived from a smaller (N =36) sample of students similar in demographic make up and religious devotion. These students evaluated whether or not the ATLG-R scale items were consistent (pro-religious) or inconsistent (anti-religious) with their religious tradition.

Factor analytic and ideological surround analyses indicated that the ATLG-R was disproportionately comprised of items perceived to be anti-religious, with the primary "Condemnation-Tolerance" component consisting exclusively of such items, the majority of which related directly to respondents' beliefs about the morality and naturalness of homosexuality.

Furthermore, respondents' degree of self-identification as Christian (i.e., agreement with the statement, "I am a Christian"), when factor analyzed as an additional item in the ATLG-R, loaded singularly and to a greater degree than over half of the items on the "Condemnation-Tolerance" component. This suggested that the so-called "condemnation" identified by the ATLG-R was central to the religious self-perception of these conservative Christian students.

Three multiple regression analyses then revealed that the associations between homo-negative attitudes and respondents' intrinsic religiousness, religious practice, and beliefs about the authority of the Bible were predicted only by the "Condemnation-Tolerance" component after accounting for gender, age and the remaining components of the ATLG-R. These findings suggest the possibility of an ideologically-based circularity in the relationship between conservative religion and the construct of homophobia as measured by the ATLG-R. Thus, for these respondents the ATLG-R may function as an empirically packaged method of disparaging their religiously-based values concerning homosexuality. It appears that the mantle of science is being utilized covertly to favor one side on an ideologically prescriptive, fundamentally non-empirical issue, i.e., the morality and naturalness of same sex behavior.

I concluded that it is crucial for mental health professionals to cultivate greater sensitivity in the use of the terms homophobia and homo-negativity in relation to religious conservatives.

References

Herek, G. M. (1998). Attitudes Toward Lesbians and Gay Men Scale. In Davis, C.M. (Ed.), Handbook of Sexuality-Related Measures (pp. 392-394). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Rosik, C. H. (2007a). Ideological concerns in the operationalization of homophobia, Part I: An analysis of Herek's ATLG-R Scale. Journal of Psychology and Theology, 35, 132-144.

Rosik, C. H. (2007b). Ideological concerns in the operationalization of homophobia, Part II: The need for interpretive sensitivity with conservatively religious persons. Journal of Psychology and Theology, 35, 145-152.

Watson, P. J., Sawyer, P., Morris, R. J., Carpenter, M. L., Jimenez, R. S., Jonas, K. A., et. al (2003). Reanalysis within a Christian ideological surround: Relationships of intrinsic religious orientation with fundamentalism and right-wing authoritarianism. Journal of Psychology and Theology, 33, 315-328.