Personality of Polish gay men and women

Abstract

Background Sexuality is a part of one’s identity and personality that is shaped under the influence of biological and environmental factors and interactions with society. The results of research conducted so far and concerning the personality traits of gay men and women are not consistent, and only a small number of them concern the Polish population. Hence the objective of the present research was to provide personality profiles of men and women with different sexual orientations. Participants and procedure The participants (N = 346) included 84 gay women, 82 gay men, 95 heterosexual women and 85 heterosexual men. The following measures were used: a survey developed by the author, the Kinsey Scale, the EPQ-R (Eysenck Personality Questionnaire Revised) adapted by Brzozowski and Drwal (1995), and the Sixteen-factor Personality Questionnaire of Cattell adapted by Nowakowska (1970). Results The results support the hypothesis that gay women and heterosexual men share similar personality traits, while gay men have more diverse traits, similar to the traits typical for heterosexual women and men. In particular, personalities of gay men are described by such traits as progressive attitude, independence, or willingness to take risks, which means traits linked to factor Q1. The highest values of that factor are observable in the case of gay men, as compared to gay women, and also in comparison with heterosexual men and women. Conclusions Sexual orientation is responsible for differences in personality traits of the studied group to a greater extent than their biological sex.

Keywords

• gays
• lesbian
• personality traits