Discuss LeVay’s theory of the cause of homosexual behavior and his evidence for this theory
What will be an ideal response?
Answer: Simon LeVay was the first researcher to find clear evidence of a difference in the brains of gay men when compared to a random sample of other men and women. He found differences in a brain region, the hypothalamus, that is connected to sexual arousal, gender identity, and a variety of sexual disorders. In 1991 he studied 18 men who were gay and had died of AIDS, and 16 men who were presumed to be heterosexual, and 6 women. He replicated a previous finding that the third interstitial nucleus of the anterior hypothalamus (INAH-3) was less than half as large in heterosexual women as in heterosexual men. He also found that this region, in gay men, was indistinguishable from that of heterosexual women and was also half the size of heterosexual men. This suggests the possibility that at some point in brain development the INAH-3 of gay men, their hypothalamus developed in a different than in potentially heterosexual men, and that this difference in brain structure is one of the causes of many of the attitudes, perceptions, and sexual orientation of gay men.
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Simon laughed long and hard when he saw his mother slip and fall. Neither his sister nor his father laughed when they saw her fall
Simon has seen both his mother and other people fall before, but didn't laugh then. According to Kelley's covariation model, observers privy to this information are likely to assume that a. the weather makes people behave strangely. b. there must have been something peculiar about this particular incident that made Simon laugh. c. Simon's mother looked ridiculous when she fell. d. Simon doesn't like his mother very much.
The sensitive period during which emotional attachment must occur for optimal development is the
a. first few hours after birth. b. first two weeks of life. c. first four months of life. d. first year of life.