Sexual Identity and Self-concept

This study investigated the relationship among gender, social sex roles, and sexual orientation as components of sexual identity, and the relationship of these components to the overall self-concept. It was found that each component was individually important in the relationship of sexual identity to self-concept. The interaction between sex and sexual orientation suggested that different combinations of the female, male, heterosexual, and homosexual components had different relationships to self-concept. Women had higher scores than men on moral-ethical and family self-concepts. Homosexual persons as a group had self-concepts in the normal range, though they showed a greater number of minor deviations across several areas of self-concept than did their heterosexual counterparts. The homosexual sample endorsed more sex roles typical of the opposite sex than did the heterosexual sample, but the two groups did not differ in frequency of same-sex roles. Sex roles were related to self-concept in men but not in women. Among men, masculine and androgynous sex roles were associated with positive self-concept while feminine and undifferentiated sex roles were associated with less positive self-concepts. This supports the model of sex roles in which femininity and masculinity are conceived of and measured as separate dimensions.