1998/01/01 by John DeLamater, Janet Shibley Hyde · 2 citations
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior #Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation #Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology #Essentialism #Sociobiology #Social constructionism #Epistemology #Sociology #Psychology #Social psychology #Philosophy
paper · doi:10.1080/00224499809551913
openalex publication_date 1998/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
According to classical essentialism, there are underlying true forms or essences, there is discontinuity between different forms rather than continuous variation, and these true forms are constant over time. Modern essentialism consists of a belief that certain phenomena are natural, inevitable, and biologically determined. We consider sociobiology, evolutionary psychology, genetic research, brain research, and endocrine research as examples of essentialist approaches, focusing particularly on how these research approaches treat sexual orientation and sexual attraction. Social constructionism, in contrast, rests on the belief that reality is socially constructed and emphasizes language as an important means by which we interpret experience. We briefly review social constructionist research on sexual orientation and sexual attraction. Finally, we review examples of conjoint or interactionist research, uniting biological and social influences. We conclude that, although there may be theories and research that conjoin biological and social influences, there can be no true conjoining of essentialism and social constructionism.