Homosexuality and Psychopathology in Nonpatient Males*

A primary assumption running through the clinical literature is that homosexuality is always an indication of emotional maladjustment, personality disorder, aberrant self-esteem, and/or other serious psychopathology.¹, ² Despite recent evidence to the contrary from the biological and social sciences³ and also from some behavioral researchers,⁴, ⁵ this homosexuality-psychopathology equation still rules the day among both clinical researchers and practitioners. However, Churchill⁶ points out that most studies up until now have dealt in stereotypes and have involved only mentally disturbed subjects in therapy or under incarceration. These studies have inappropriately generalized the psychopathology found in these individuals to the whole homosexual population. He states that what is needed now, in order to get a more representative appraisal and profile of the homosexual population, are studies using empirical psychological tests with a large sample of nonpatient subjects, including not only those who are exclusively homosexual and heterosexual, but also those who express varying degrees of homosexual behavior and preference along with heterosexual desires (this latter group not having been considered in the plethora of past research).

The purpose of the present study was to further experimentally investigate the assumed relationship between homosexuality and psychopathology. It used a reliable and valid psychological measure of personality adjustment and focused on college-educated, nonpatient males expressing varying degrees of homosexual behavior and preference. The hypotheses tested were: (1) Groups of nonpatient subjects involved in varying degrees of homosexual preference (Groups 1-6) will not differ significantly in levels of psychopathology from a group of matched heterosexuals (Group 0), as revealed by total group mean scores across a battery of eight personality adjustment and psychopathology scales on a standard psychological measure; (2) These same groups