The project aims to explore the questions behind people’s sexual orientation identification and the reasons behind it. Some people consider sexuality a subject of choice; others argue that the environment cannot dictate a person what sex attracts them. The latter group proceeds with the argument that sexuality is determined biologically, making it an aspect of one’s identity, which should be protected by the government (Sheldon et al., 2017). To further explore people’s perspectives on the matter, the project’s topic can be phrased as the following research question: does the environment affect people’s sexual orientation?
While exploring the subject of the research, the following dependant and independent variables related to the topic were identified with the help of the GSS database. The dependent variable is sexort, which stands for respondent’s sexual orientation. The question related to this variable is: which of the following best describes you? This variable was chosen due to the fact that it allows determining what environment has surrounded the respondent. The independent variable related to the topic of the project is sexbirth, which stands for the sex assigned at birth. The GSS question for this variable is: What sex were you assigned at birth (for example, on your birth certificate)? The sexbirth variable was chosen since it is necessary to identify respondents’ sexuality and homosexual individuals for the research. There is an essential correlation between the two variables that can facilitate the project’s research. People’s sex identification significantly affects their lives and experiences. For example, the environments surrounding a male and a female can differ critically. As a result, such differences in the environment’s impact can affect people’s identification with sexual orientation.
References
Sheldon, J. P., Pfeffer, C. A., Jayaratne, T. E., Feldbaum, M., & Petty, E. M. (2017). Beliefs about the etiology of homosexuality and about the ramifications of discovering its possible genetic origin. Journal of Homosexuality, 52(3-4), 111-150.