Date of Award
Summer 8-16-2023
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department/Program
Forensic Psychology
Language
English
First Advisor or Mentor
Rebecca Weiss
Second Reader
Elizabeth Jeglic
Third Advisor
Philip Yanos
Abstract
Despite the American Psychiatric Association’s removal of homosexuality from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in 1973 and ego-dystonic homosexuality in 1987, nonheteronormative sexual orientations remain stigmatized and underrepresented in scientific literature. To estimate the prevalence of LGBTQIA+ topics in popular psychological research, the author queried more than 20,000 articles from 1987 to 2022 in the two most cited journals in each of four major domains (cognitive, clinical, developmental and social). In addition, the author randomly queried 20% of all empirical articles published from 1987 to 2021 in the top eight empirical journals to understand how often sexuality is included in participant descriptions. Lastly, to better understand who writes, edits, and approves LGBTQIA+ related articles, the authors contacted gatekeepers (i.e., editor in chief, associate editors, and first authors) to understand their identity in relation to the LGBTQIA+ community. Of all publications in the study timeframe (n=22,509), the eight most impactful journals published studies directly related to topic of sexuality at a rate of 0.44% (n = 100). The prevalence of research has not significantly increased over time in highest ranked journals or significantly varied within any of the four domains of psychology. Of the 5,373 randomly sampled articles, 2.5% (n=132) of articles included sexuality in the sample descriptions. Of the 78 participants who responded to the survey, the majority of authors (70.4%, n=38/54) and editors 87.5% (n=21/24) identified as heterosexual/straight. The authors concluded that despite gains, sexuality remains underexamined in psychological literature. Increasing representation in gatekeepers may be one way to address the paucity of research.
Recommended Citation
Fingerhut, Mackenzie L., "Publishing Inequality in LGBTQIA+ Research in Psychology: A Content Analysis" (2023). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/jj_etds/296