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Measurement and definition of sexual orientations have increasingly become a central focus in both research design and public policy debates. This paper reviews major methods, and their theoretical underpinnings, for the definition and measurement of sexual orientations, highlighting their limitations and pitfalls, both practical and conceptual. The increasing politicization of this area is discussed and cautioned against. Recommendatilons, both general and geared toward measurement concerns with adolescent populations, are made. A specific measurement strategy, which can be utilized at a number of different levels, is detailed.

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 Grid's 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.

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