Sexual identity, object choice, and life styles among women

After all of the interviews were completed, a comprehensive set of categories was generated from the interview transcripts so that aspects of both the process and content of the interviews could be organized and analyzed. The categories were arranged under the following general topic areas:

1. Demographic and Interview Process Categories (including psychological adjustment categories)

2. Work Categories

3. Relationship Categories

4. Children/Motherhood/Parenthood Categories

5. Family of Origin Categories

6. Sex-Role Categories

7. Sexual Object-Choice Categories

8. Miscellaneous Categories (including religion, friends, activities, being alone, and critical lifetime events)

Each transcript was scored on the basis of this category system and the data derived from these transcripts were easily prepared for computer processing and analysis. An independent rater was trained in the category system and subsequently scored three transcripts chosen at random, achieving a high rate of interobserver reliability. Frequency tables were generated and chi square tests were individu ally computed for all categories.

Few significant differences between lesbian and heterosexual subjects were found in the eight general topic areas except in the area of sexual object choice. This suggests that the major difference in life styles between the heterosexual and lesbian women of this sample is their sexual-object preference. Both lesbian and heterosexual life styles among the women in this study were reflective of the general life style options available for women within the American cultural context. There was also evidence to suggest that many of these women, both heterosexual and lesbian, were feeling the effects of--and adapting to--recent transitions in sex-role behavior in this culture.