The Desire Disorder in Research on Sexual Orientation in Women: Contributions of Dynamical Systems Theory

Abstract

Over the past decade, numerous studies have documented fundamental differences between the phenomenology of male and female sexual orientation, largely centering on women's capacity for fluidity in their sexual attractions. The past decade has also witnessed fundamental changes in clinical perspectives on "normal" versus "dysfunctional" patterns of female sexual desire, largely centering on women's greater capacity for responsive and context-dependent sexual desires. In both cases, traditional male-based models of sexuality have been found inadequate to describe women's experiences. I argue that this inadequacy stems from a failure of traditional models to appropriately account for the phenomenon of variability over time, which may constitute a fundamental feature of female sexual phenomenology. I maintain that dynamical systems theory provides a useful and generative approach for reconceptualizing female sexual orientation, because dynamical systems models focus specifically on describing and explaining complex patterns of change over time. I review the key properties of dynamical systems models and provide an illustrative model of how this approach might yield new perspectives on female sexual orientation.

Testing the Affiliation Hypothesis of Homoerotic Motivation in Humans: The Effects of Progesterone and Priming

“…Importantly, recent research reveals not only greater continuity in the distributions of sexual orientation in each sex than previously recognized, but also cohort effects explicable in terms of changing cultural norms that shape both action and identity (SavinWilliams & Vrangalova, 2013); relatedly, there is considerable evidence that both the targets of attraction and self-construed identity often vary across time, particularly in women (L.M. Diamond, 2012, Kuhle & Radtke, 2013. Future research will thus clearly need to address the multiple biological, social, and contextual factors shaping human homoerotic motivation.…”

Gender Identity Predicts Autobiographical Memory Phenomenology

“…Gender identity is dynamic across situations and developmental time (Diamond, 2012;Martin & Ruble, 2010). Contexts that highlight gender as important will be more likely to activate gender identity, and therefore, we would expect greater differences because of gender identity in these contexts than in others.…”

“…Gender identity develops in predictable ways in childhood, from gender constancy to more complex schematic representations of gender, and developing individual differences in subscription to stereotyped gender roles and behaviors (refer to Martin & Ruble, 2010 for a review). Adolescence and emerging adulthood are critical developmental periods in this process, as gender identity becomes more complicated (Diamond, 2012;Perry & Pauletti, 2011). At this developmental period, we often see a lessening of self-stereotyping, likely because of two reasons: first, during emerging adulthood, individuals are often focused on professional development, and therefore, life concerns may lead both women and men to focus on autonomy and achievement aspects of their identity, especially in western industrialized cultures (Arnett, 2015;Kroger, 2003).…”

“…Because gender differences in autobiographical recall conform to gender-typical dimensions, gender differences in autobiographical recall may be largely a function of gender identity rather than categorical gender. Paradoxically, although gender identity may help create self-consistency, it is simultaneously dynamic and flexible, changing both across the lifespan and across situational contexts (Deaux & Major, 1987;Diamond, 2012;Halim, Ruble, & Amodio, 2011;Martin & Ruble, 2010). Contexts that highlight gender as an important component of identity lead to greater gender differences (Deaux & Major, 1987;Liben & Bigler, 2002), and these contexts may be local situations or larger developmental periods (Diamond, 2012;Halim et al, 2011).…”

“…Paradoxically, although gender identity may help create self-consistency, it is simultaneously dynamic and flexible, changing both across the lifespan and across situational contexts (Deaux & Major, 1987;Diamond, 2012;Halim, Ruble, & Amodio, 2011;Martin & Ruble, 2010). Contexts that highlight gender as an important component of identity lead to greater gender differences (Deaux & Major, 1987;Liben & Bigler, 2002), and these contexts may be local situations or larger developmental periods (Diamond, 2012;Halim et al, 2011). Thus, in this study, we examined how both gender and gender identity might be related to the phenomenology of autobiographical recall, and we examined this as a function of both local context, by manipulating the type of event being recalled, and developmental context, by including both emerging adults (Arnett, 2007), age 18-29, and young adults, age 30-40, in our sample to enable analyses across this important age range.…”