Shortcomings
Klein, while recognizing that the grid explored many more dimensions of sexual orientation than previous scales, acknowledged that it omitted the following aspects of sexual orientation:
- Age of partner
- Love and friendship were not differentiated in the emotional preference variable
- Sexual attraction does not distinguish between sexual desire and limerence
- Unclear about the meaning of frequency in sexual activity, whether referring to number of partners or number of occurrences
- Sex roles as well as masculine and feminine roles are not included
While Klein held the belief that including more dimensions of sexual orientation was better, Weinrich et al. (1993) found that all of the dimensions of the KSOG seemed to be measuring the same construct. The study conducted a factor analysis of the KSOG to see how many factors emerge in two different samples. In both groups, the first factor to emerge loaded substantially on all of the grid's 21 items, indicating that this factor accounted for a majority of the variance. They further found that a second factor emerged containing time dimensions of social and emotional preferences suggesting that those dimensions may have also been measuring something other than sexual orientation. Therefore, despite the scale being helpful in promoting the concept of sexual orientation as being multidimensional and dynamic, the additional dimensions measured do not necessarily reveal any more of an accurate description of one's overall sexual orientation than the Kinsey Scale.
A third concern with the KSOG is that different dimensions of sexual orientation may not identify all people of a certain orientation in the same way. Measures of sexual attraction, sexual activity, and sexual identity measures identify different (though often overlapping) populations. Laumann et al. (1994) found that of the 8.6% of women reporting some same gender sexuality, 88% reported same gender sexual attraction, 41% reported some same gender sexual behaviour and 16% reported a lesbian or gay identity. Thus, it is not clear what exactly the scale may be measuring as depending on which aspect is taken into consideration, sexual orientation may or not be revealed. See also:Sexual orientation distinguished from sexual identity and behaviour
Read more about this topic: Klein Sexual Orientation Grid
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