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The potential
for what is known as "social desirability bias"
in self-reported outcomes is most obvious in studies
of group approaches to conversion therapy. In
one group approach, Hadden finds that 37% of 32
research subjects reported that they had shifted
to heterosexuality.11
But these results must be viewed with skepticism,
since therapy groups implicitly encourage individuals
to report that they meet the group's standards,
even when this is not true.
Misclassification is another widespread
flaw in these studies that will inflate reported
success rates. Researchers are likely to misclassify
bisexual people as homosexual, which makes it
more likely that clients will pursue heterosexual
behavior even without treatment. A finding that
bisexual men can be taught to strengthen their
heterosexual behavior is not equivalent to changing
sexual orientation. The earliest study attempting
to show reversal of homosexual orientation through
long-term psychoanalytic intervention reported
a 27% success rate in "heterosexual shift."12
But only 18% of those research subjects were exclusively
homosexual to begin with. Fifty percent of the
successfully treated men were more appropriately
labeled bisexual.
Other studies that report higher
success rates share this classification problem.
For instance, Mayerson and Lief report that half
of their 19 subjects were engaging in heterosexual
behavior 4.5 years post-treatment.13
These subjects were actually bisexual going into
treatment, however Exclusively homosexual subjects
reported little or no change in that study. Another
psychoanalytic study reported virtually no increase
in heterosexual behavior in a group of homosexual
men.14 One of
the studies used most often to demonstrate that
homosexuals can be "changed" was conducted by
Masters and Johnson.15
This study also included a number of subjects
who were not primarily or exclusively homosexual
in their stated orientation, however.
Finally, follow-up of those subjects who meet
the subjective criteria for "successful change"
in sexual orientation is either poor or nonexistent
in conversion therapy studies.16
Ê Adequate follow-up is likely to uncover cases
of reversion to homosexual behavior, which would
further reduce the therapyâs success rate.Ê Birk
described a combination-approach group format
for treating homosexuality and claimed that 38%
of his subjects achieved ãsolid heterosexual shifts.ä17
Ê Nonetheless, he acknowledged that these shifts
represented ãan adaptation to life, not a metamorphosis,ä
and that homosexual fantasies and activity are
ongoing, even for the ãhappily marriedä individual.18
Ê Similarly, a religiously-oriented conversion
therapy program described by Pattison and Pattison
reveals that more than 90% continued to have homosexual
fantasies and behavior after treatment. 19
Ê
More comprehensive examinations of conversion
therapy studies have been published elsewhere.20
Ê Those reviews show that no study claiming success
for conversion therapy meets the research standards
that would support such a claim.
Finally, it should be noted that almost all
published research on conversion therapy deals
with male homosexuals, not lesbians.Ê Presumably,
this reflects a general devaluation of women in
clinical research agendas, as well as a greater
tolerance on the part of some heterosexual males
for lesbians than for gay men.Ê Nevertheless,
conversion therapists continue to apply their
findings to women, even though their own studies
do not support that extension.
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2, 3, 4
NOTES:
11. Hadden, S. ãTreatment of Male Homosexuals in
Groups,äÊ International
Journal of Group Psychotherapy, Vol. 16, 1966.
12. Bieber, I., Dain, H., Dince, P., Drellich, M.,
Grand, H., Gundlach, R., Kremer, M., Rifkin, A.,
Wilbur, C., & Bieber, T. (Society
of Medical Psychoanalysts). Homosexuality: A
Psychoanalytic Study. New
York: Basic Books, 1962.
13. Mayerson P., & Lief, H. ãPsychotherapy of Homosexuals:
A Follow-up Study of Nineteen Cases.äÊ In J. Marmor
(Ed.), Sexual Inversion. New
York: Basic Books, 1965.
14. Curran, D. & Parr, D. ãHomosexuality: An Analysis
of 100 Male Cases,äÊ British
Medical Journal, Vol. 1, 1957.
15. Masters,
W. & Johnson, V. Homosexuality in Perspective.
Boston: Little, Brown, 1979.
16. Haldeman, 1994 (note
4).
17. Birk, L. ãThe Myth of Classical Homosexuality:
Views of a Behavioral Psychotherapist.äÊ In J. Marmor
(Ed.), Homosexual behavior: A modern reappraisal.
New York: Basic
Books, 1980.
18. Birk, p. 367.
19. Pattison, E., & Pattison, M. ãâEx-gaysâ: Religiously
Mediated Change in Homosexuals. American
Journal of Psychiatry, Vol. 137, 1980.
20. Haldeman, 1994 (note
4).Ê Stein, T. ãA Critique of Approaches to
Changing Sexual Orientation.ä In R. Cabaj & T. Stein
(Eds.), Textbook of homosexuality and mental health.
Washington D.C.: American
Psychiatric Press, 1996.Ê Murphy, T. ãRedirecting
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