Personal constructs and homosexual stress

Abstract

This study introduced and elaborated a personal construct theory approach to the assessment of the potential for homosexual threat (homosexual stress). The measure, modified from personal construct research on death threat, was tested with 20 male and 20 female undergraduates. Those individuals who were more stressed by homosexuality were those with more negative attitudes toward homosexuality. Further, those individuals with the most negative attitudes toward homosexuals were those who saw homosexuality as invalidating more important constructs. Males who reviewed homosexuality as more stressful tended to construe homosexuality as a more personally meaningful issue; females showed the opposite tendency. The homosexual stress measure was independent of authoritarianism and was no highly related to religious fundamentalism. It is hoped that this new measure will give researchers a method of assessing the potential for homosexual threat that is both more direct and less obvious than existing face-valid questionnaires.