James D. Weinrich

Validity of the Quality of Well-being Scale for Persons With Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection

To evaluate the validity of the Quality of Well-Being Scale (QWB) for studies of patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) disease, 514 men were studied who were divided among four categories: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Group A (N = 272), CDC-B (N = 81), CDC-C (N = 47), and uninfected male controls (N = 114). The QWB and a variety of medical, neuropsychological, and biochemical measures were administered to all participants. When QWB scores were broken down by HIV grouping, the CDC-C group was significantly lower (.614) than the CDC-B (.679), CDC-A (.754), or control group (.801). The difference between Groups CDC-C and CDC-A was about.14 units of well-being, which suggests that individuals lose one-seventh equivalents of 1 well year of life for each year they are in Group CDC-C in comparison to the asymptomatic group (Group CDC-A). In comparison to the controls, this would equal a 1-year of life loss for each seven infected individuals. The QWB was shown to be significantly associated with CD4+ lymphocytes (p <.001), clinician ratings of neuropsychological impairment (p <.04), neurologists ratings of dysfunction (p <.001), and all subscales of the Profile of Mood States. Baseline QWB scores were significant prospective predictors of death over a median follow-up time of 30 months. Multivariate models demonstrated high covariation between predictors of QWB. It was concluded that the QWB is a significant correlate of biological, neuropsychological, neurological, psychiatric, and mortality outcomes for male HIV-infected patients.

The periodic table model of the gender transpositions: Part I. A theory based on masculinization and defeminization of the brain

Students of human sexuality have long tried to make sense of atypical masculinity, femininity, sexual object choice, gender identity, or clothing choice. In Part I of this paper, we propose a theory to organize and to make sensible most of the major facts about these gender transpositions—a periodic table model of the gender transpositions. People have neural substrates that have been subjected to particular combinations of two distinct biobehavioral processes: masculinization and defeminization. In our theory, we hypothesize that individuals exhibit behaviors reflecting particular degrees of masculinization and/or defeminization, at least probabilistically. Therefore, each sexological group is characterized by a distinct distribution of its members centered about one particular combination of the two. Many other facts about the gender transpositions, as well as about aspects of gender roles in typical men and women, then flow from the theory. We also consider the possible mechanisms of brain masculinizat...

A factor analysis of the Klein sexual orientation grid in two disparate samples

Many researchers interested in sexual orientation can be separated into two camps: The “lumpers,” who try to reduce sexual classifications to as small a number of categories as possible, and the “splitters,” who try to show differences among groups and individuals that make classification schemes increasingly difficult and/or intricate. We report factor analyses of the Klein Grid (a questionnaire with 21 sexual orientation items) to see how many factors emerge in two samples of strikingly different origins. In both samples, the first factor to emerge loaded substantially on all of the Klein Grids 21 items. This factor accounted for a majority of the variance. In both samples, a second, correlated factor emerged which indexed a separation between most of the items and those having to do with social and/or emotional preferences. In both samples, a third correlated factor also emerged, but this factor differed between the two populations: one refined the social/emotional distinction and the other distinguished ideal behavior from past and current behavior. We conclude on the basis of our analysis that both the lumpers and the splitters are correct.

The periodic table model of the gender transpositions: Part II. Limerent and lusty sexual attractions and the nature of bisexuality

I propose a theory that puts the notion of two sexual attractions into a precise, testable form, and then I mesh it with the periodic table model of the gender transpositions described previously (Pillard & Weinrich, 1987). I define a limerent sexual attraction, active in eroticizing the physical and personality characteristics of a particular Limerent Object, and a lusty sexual attraction, active in producing erotic arousal when encountering a new Lusty Object. Three hypotheses then account for much of what we know about sexual orientation: (a) Limerence and lustiness are experienced by both men and women-but there is an average difference in the ease with which each can be elicited in a particular sex. Limerence is experienced by most women in our culture as an autonomously arising desire, whereas lustiness, when it occurs, is experienced mostly as a reaction to particular stimuli. Lustiness is experienced by most men in our culture as an autonomously arising desire, whereas limerence, when it occurs, is experienced mostly in reaction to particular stimuli. (b) In some people the limerent attraction can be indifferent (or nearly so) to the sex or gender of the Limerent Object. (c) The lusty attraction is rarely indifferent to the sex or gender of the Lusty Object. Individuals may vary in their readiness to respond to the two kinds of attraction. Some of this variability can be understood in the light of the periodic table model described previously, and some of it can be understood in the light of cultural conditioning and socialization. The result is a theory that deduces many of the major facts about sexual orientation from only a small number of hypotheses.

Bi-Gay, Bi-Straight, and Bi-Bi: Three Bisexual Subgroups Identified Using Cluster Analysis of the Klein Sexual Orientation Grid

Abstract Are heterosexuals, bisexuals, and homosexuals arbitrary divisions on a continuum of sexual orientation, or is it useful to divide people into discrete categories? Our cluster analysis of the Klein Sexual Orientation Grid (KSOG) addresses this important question. In two Internet-recruited samples (women, n = 786; men, n = 1,017) we chose a five-cluster classification (Heterosexual, Bi-Heterosexual, Bi-Bisexual, Bi-Homosexual/Lesbian, and Homosexual/Lesbian) and tabulated means and standard errors for KSOG items by cluster membership. Sometimes expected and sometimes surprising, our interpretations shed light on some aspects of bisexuality.

Effects of recalled childhood gender nonconformity on adult genitoerotic role and AIDS exposure

The connections between childhood gender nonconformity (assessed by the Freund Feminine Gender Identity Scale, or FGI) and adult genitoerotic role (assessed by a sex history) were examined. The core sample was a group of 106 men who had sex with other men before 1980 and who are currently enrolled in two longitudinal studies of AIDS. Although other workers have cautioned against assuming a priori that childhood gender role is inherently related to adult preferences for particular sexual acts, our data suggest that there is at least a statistical association between these two concepts. In particular, the FGI (and many of its factors and items) are significantly associated with preferences for receptive anal intercourse and, less clearly, with oral-anal contact — but not with oral-genital intercourse or insertive anal intercourse. Suggestions for AIDS prevention and safe-sex awareness are made on the basis of these findings. The data also suggest that in sex research involving homosexual men, the correct genitoerotic role distinction is not insertive vs. receptive behaviors, or even insertive vs. receptive anal intercourse, but receptive anal intercourse vs. all other behaviors.

IS GENDER DYSPHORIA DYSPHORIC? ELEVATED DEPRESSION AND ANXIETY IN GENDER DYSPHORIC AND NONDYSPHORIC HOMOSEXUAL AND BISEXUAL MEN IN AN HIV SAMPLE

Few if any studies before the AIDS epidemic suggested that male homosexuals may on average have higher levels of depression than male heterosexuals. However, several samples of homosexual and bisexual men in HIV studies suggest that depression and anxiety are high in these populations, and that this psychiatric morbidity began before the AIDS epidemic. We tested the hypothesis that high childhood gender nonconformity (CGN) is associated with depression and anxiety, and so might account for differences in these variables among samples of homosexuals. A total of 254 homosexual or bisexual male subjects were assessed for depression, anxiety, and associated symptoms using various self-report and interview measures, as well as for CGN (using the Freund Feminine Gender Identity scale, FGI). For comparison purposes only, we also evaluated the subjects for the DSM-III diagnosis of Ego-Dystonic Homosexuality. Highly gender nonconforming men (high FGI scores) were more likely to have current symptoms of anxiety and depression by self-report, and to have had a lifetime history of depression by clinical interview. This association was more often due to FGI items dealing with childhood than adulthood. When the FGI was broken into subscales by a prior factor analysis, stepwise regression suggested that the subscale measuring core gender identity nonconformity (so-called “gender dysphoria”) was more reliably associated with depression and anxiety than were the factors measuring nonconformity in the areas of masculine and feminine gender roles, or genitoerotic (sexual) roles. This subscale was also the only FGI measure correlating with Ego-Dystonic Homosexuality. AIDS (CDC stage and HIV serostatus) and age did not account for these findings. We conclude that the often-reported higher levels of depression, anxiety, and associated symptoms among homosexual and bisexual men in AIDS studies are more common in the subgroup of such men who are gender dysphoric. Theoretical and clinical implications of these data are discussed.

Personality and Lipid Level Differences Associated with Homosexual and Bisexual Identity in Men

Self-identified homosexual (n =30), bisexual (n =29), and heterosexual (n =31) men were compared on measures of gender-typical behavior, sex role, ego strength, and lipid levels. Homosexual men differed significantly from the heterosexual men on the gender-typical behavior and feminine sex-role measure (both in adulthood and in childhood), and several trends and significant differences were found on the biochemical measures of lipid levels (especially when 7 obese men were removed from the analyses). As a rule, the bisexual men were different from the heterosexual men on the above measures, but were indistinguishable from the homosexual men. Bisexuals differed from both of the other two groups, however, by scoring lower on the ego strength scale and by reporting themselves to be more often troubled, lonely, and depressed. We caution that the lipid analyses were made on single blood samples and require an extended replication; however, we report the data because of their possible theoretical interest and because they replicate work of 20 years ago.

Cluster Analysis of the Klein Sexual Orientation Grid in Clinical and Nonclinical Samples: When Bisexuality Is Not Bisexuality

A cluster analysis of the Klein Sexual Orientation Grid (KSOG) in three samples (Internet-recruited men and women; HIV study men) resulted in objectively determined 4- or 5-cluster classifications (such as “bi-heterosexual” or “bi-bisexual”). Group means and standard deviations on the KSOGs 21 items revealed that overtly erotic items (sexual fantasies, sexual behavior, sexual attraction) and self-identification items were more uniform within groups than social items (emotional preference, socialize with, lifestyle) were. The bisexual cluster in the HIV sample was distinctly different from all of the bisexual main sample clusters. Attempts to generalize from this clinical bisexual group to a larger population would be doomed to failure. This underscores the importance of recruiting nonclinical samples if one wants insight into the nature of bisexuality in the population at large. Our data empirically confirm many previous nonempirical warnings against clinical samples in studies of sexual orientation.

Homogeneous Gynephiles and Heterogeneous Androphiles: A Factor Analysis of Differences and Similarities in Attractions to the Sexes as a Function of Sexual Orientation.

Attractions to body parts and sexual acts were factor analyzed by sexual orientation of the attracted person. Gynephilic (female-attracted) mens and womens attractions to women (body parts and acts) were remarkably similar, but androphilic (male-attracted) mens and womens attractions to mens bodies were remarkably different—a distinction between boyish versus mature masculinity being particularly evident among bisexual men. Lesbian intragroup variability was high. Certain bisexual subgroups showed modestly elevated sexual adventurousness, but were neither consistently intermediate between homosexuals and heterosexuals nor consistently similar to them. Among men, nonsexual body parts and nonsexual acts explained somewhat more variance than explicitly erotic variables did. For women, the biggest differences pertained to specifically erotic differences, not affectionate or bodily stimuli. This is the first empirical study to report what it is about women and men that forms the basis for attractions to them, and the first to identify significant subgroups among men who are attracted to men.