Talk:Asexuality/new Etiology section July 2010 draft

(The following is a draft of the Etiology section only. It is proposed as a new section. This does not imply the editing of any other portion of the article.)

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Research
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Etiology
Etiology in this context is without implication of disease, disorder, or abnormality.

Research on the etiology of sexual orientation when applied to asexuality has the definitional problem that sexual orientation is not consistently defined by all research investigators as including asexuality.

Sexual orientation being "enduring" and resistant to change ("[s]exual orientation has proved to be generally impervious to interventions intended to change it") and asexuality being a sexual orientation, asexuality is enduring and resistant to change.

While heterosexuality, homosexuality, and bisexuality are determined prenatally or in the early years of preadolescent life, it is not known when asexuality is determined. "It is unclear whether these characteristics [viz., "lacking interest in or desire for sex"] are thought to be lifelong, or if they may be acquired."

Nonmeasurement in some areas of sexual orientation is accepted by the American Psychological Association, the American Psychiatric Association, and the National Association of Social Workers: "[S]imply to document that a phenomenon occurs, case studies and nonprobability samples are often adequate. . . . Some groups are sufficiently few in number - relative to the entire population - that locating them with probability sampling is extremely expensive or practically impossible. In the latter cases, the use of nonprobability samples is often appropriate." In determining etiologies, when asexuals are a small percentage of a large society, asexuals with a given etiology will compose an even smaller percentage, so that etiological information is available only from some individuals, generally not randomly selected.

Community
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