Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

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Extant caregiving research indicates family caring as being a female gendered task and the family caregiver as a related, heterosexual, female. On the other hand, research examining caregiving by the LGBT population is focused on partner caregiving or parenting. Taken together, the experiences of lesbian family caregivers remain unexamined by both caregiving research and LGBT psychological research. To redress this omission four empirical studies were undertaken. Study One was a Foucauldian genealogy, which aimed to establish how the current construction of the informal carer concept came into being. The analysis highlighted how the current carer concept influences research leading to some carers being considered more valid than others. Study Two examined the elder caregiving experiences of lesbian women (n = 10) using grounded theory methodology. Issues pertaining to lesbian identity, privacy and living as an “out” lesbian were raised. Study Three explored the anticipated future caregiving involvement with aging families of young lesbian women (n = 20) using thematic analysis. The young women anticipated future, unproblematic, connectedness with their families, as well as future lesbian created families of their own. Study Four examined how a general population (n = 324) perceived lesbian family caregiving using a vignette questionnaire with 8 conditions. Overall an effect of modern homonegativity was found. In sum, the lesbian caregiver experience is elided due to the dominant heteronormative family discourse that dictates the focus of caregiver research. Examining the lesbian caregiver experience indicates unique issues for lesbian carers around the loss of lesbian identity, loss of lesbian social networks, and difficulties in lesbian identity performance within the home. Younger women anticipated providing family elder care, but did not envisage sexual orientation related problems. While general perceptions of lesbian caregiving are mediated by modern homonegativity that work to deny the lesbian carer agency.

Benefitting from social changes in the last few decades, single Taiwanese women seem to have gained greater sexual autonomy and freer lifestyle choices. Single lesbians can now more easily pass as heterosexual; however, this is not an easy choice once they form a relationship. Despite increased freedoms, it is difficult for lesbian erotic relationships to be acknowledged in patriarchal families. I argue for an understanding of lesbian relationships that takes account of families of origin and lesbians’ negotiation of the wider social context of Taiwanese Confucian patriarchy. Drawing on a qualitative study of 15 lesbian couples, with data from couple interviews and individual interview for each (i.e. 45 interviews in total), this research explores how lesbians form their relationships and develop their notion of family. Participants were aged between 28 and 40 and most had attended higher education. At the time of the interviews, the length of relationships averaged at seven years and varied from six months to sixteen years. Most couples were living together while two were temporarily in long distance relationships. Individual interviews focused on personal sexual stories, how lesbians developed their sexual identities in various social settings and the ways they negotiated their sexuality with their families of origin. Couple interviews then focused on relationship histories, the ways they committed to and conducted their relationships. Four main areas of analysis emerged from accounts: how lesbians recognised same sex attraction, how that differed from identifying as lesbian and the ways they built up communities and group norms; negotiating sexuality in their families of origin and their relations with their partner’s families of origin; lesbian couples’ relationship practices and their varying experiences of commitment; lesbian couples’ domestic arrangements, including differing degrees of equality that they achieved and how gender role-playing influenced these decisions. By highlighting the specific issues in Taiwan, I argue that it is possible for lesbians to make their lives outside patriarchal families and this is understandable only in their situational contexts.

Using a grounded theory approach (Strauss & Corbin, 1990), I explored the strategies that eight lesbians used in dealing with heterosexism, or the belief that a heterosexual orientation is superior to a homosexual or bisexual one. Participants were between the ages of 25 and 40, and had reached a comfortable acceptance of their sexual identity. In a l l cases, the women's ways of responding to and counteracting heterosexism appear to have become more effective over time. Collaboration with the women enabled me to present three models of "lesbian transformations in dealing with heterosexism," each of which builds on features from the preceding one. In addition, the information offered by participants has illuminated the nature of heterosexism, its impact on lesbians' lives, and some of the factors that make the experience of heterosexist oppression different for individual lesbians. Finally, the interview material helped me to draw implications with regard to counselling lesbians and training counsellors. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

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For years, researchers, clinicians, and those working with victims/survivors of domestic abuse have overlooked the issue of same-sex partner aggression among lesbians and bisexual women. Through in-depth interviews with 19 women who identify themselves as either lesbian or bisexual, information was documented in this study demonstrating the severity of issues of power and control among some same-sex partners, as well as some if the dynamics that are unique to same-sex abusive relationships. Patterns of abuse within same-sex relationships often mirror those that are so commonly associated with partner aggression among heterosexual couples, and therefore demonstrate not only the need for further research on the topic of same-sex partner abuse, but also the urgency to provide more assistance to the victims/survivors of domestic violence.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1983. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 166-173).

El objetivo del presente estudio fue describir y analizar las representaciones sociales de un grupo de psicólogos y psicólogas (N=12) sobre las personas gays y lesbianas, con la finalidad de analizar si éstas incluyen en su conformación las contribuciones realizadas por los estudios de género en torno al cuestionamiento de la patologización de estas poblaciones, la complejidad de la conformación de la identidad de género y orientación sexual y los aportes actuales que desde la psicología y psicoanálisis se han realizado en torno a estos temas. Con este propósito, se realiza, bajo un enfoque cualitativo, entrevistas semiestructuradas a psicólogos y psicólogas para conocer las representaciones elaboradas sobre las personas gays y lesbianas. Los resultados se dividen en cinco unidades de análisis: Representaciones sociales sobre las personas gays, representaciones sociales sobre las personas lesbianas, representaciones sociales sobre la situación social de las personas gays y lesbianas, representaciones sociales de la identidad de género y de la orientación sexual y representaciones sociales sobre a práctica psicológica con personas gays y lesbianas. Se evidencian descripciones y explicaciones heteronormativas sobre el hombre gay, las que pueden incluir elementos de hostilidad hacia esta figura. Este fenómeno se repite en las representaciones sobre las mujeres lesbianas, aunque el énfasis está más puesto en la invisibilización de éstas. En ambos casos, es resaltante la censura, hostilidad y patologización ante la presencia del hombre femenino y la lesbiana masculina. Los y las entrevistadas no incoporan un cuestionamiento hacia estas concepciones, ni incluyen aportes de los estudios de género o disciplinas psicológicas para tener una comprensión y formulación menos estereotipada y patológica. Los resultados se discuten a la luz de los aportes de la teoría de género para comprender la construcción de subjetividades no heteronormativas. Palabras clave: representaciones sociales, gay, lesbiana, orientación sexual, identidad de género, performatividad, patologización, heteronormatividad. / Tesis