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Welcome to the nexus of ethics, psychology, morality, technology, health care, and philosophy
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Upcoming Article: Is Coming Out Always a 'Good Thing'?
*Social Psychological and Personality Science* has scheduled an article for publication in a future issue of the journal: "Is Coming Out Always a 'Good Thing'? Exploring the Relations of Autonomy Support, Outness, and Wellness for Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Individuals."
The authors are Nicole Legate, Richard M. Ryan, and Netta Weinstein.
Disclosing a lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) identity to others, or ''coming out,'' has been shown in past research to be associated with mental health benefits (e.g., Ragins, 2004).
Yet, in a world that can be unaccepting of nonheterosexual orientations, coming out also involves risk. LGB individuals may anticipate stigmatization, negative judgments, or rejection feelings that deter them from self-disclosing their sexual identity.
Recent legislation like Don't Ask Don't Tell provides a clear example of this risk: those who came out as LGB in the military were discharged from service. Indeed, some research suggests that coming out can result in other negative consequences such as costs to well-being (D'Augelli, 2006).
It is thus the case that many LGB individuals are selective, varying from context to context in how much they disclose their sexual identity to others.
In the present article, we explore this within-person variability in disclosure using a self-determination theory framework (SDT; Deci & Ryan, 1985, 2000; Ryan & Deci, 2000). SDT (Ryan & Deci, 2000) is a theory of personality and motivation that concerns how social contexts impact motivation and well-being.
According to SDT, social contexts vary in their levels of autonomy support, defined as interpersonal acceptance and support for authentic self-expression (Lynch, La Guardia, & Ryan, 2009; Ryan, La Guardia, Solky-Butzel, Chirkov, & Kim, 2005).
In environments high in autonomy support, people feel accepted for who they are, are free to act and express themselves, and are more open to rely on others. In contrast, in controlling environments, people feel pressured to appear, behave, or perform a certain way (Deci & Ryan, 1985), and they exhibit less openness and more defensiveness (Hodgins et al., 2010).
It is thus likely that autonomy supportive environments reduce perceived risks for coming out, whereas in environments perceived as controlling individuals may be less likely to express a potentially stigmatized part of themselves that could incur censure.
In addition, we argue that the autonomy supportiveness of an environment influences the well-being experienced in that environment as a result of disclosure. Specifically, we expect that LGB individuals who disclose in environments low in autonomy support will not experience the typical boost to wellness from coming out reported in the literature.
Here's how the article ends:
"This research has implications for practitioners providing treatment to LGB individuals because it suggests that people experience greater wellness when they come out in certain contexts, but certainly not all contexts. This research also has implications for workplaces. Providing autonomy support is beneficial for all employees (Baard et al., 2004), but may be especially important for LGB employees' wellness and productivity. Future research should look at disclosing in workplaces that foster self-expression versus controlling work environments and compare wellness and productivity of employees of different sexual orientations. More generally the findings may speak to factors that can facilitate greater openness and wellness in individuals who face stigma, as well as to the costs of controlling social contexts and the self-concealment they often foster."
Thanks to Ken Pope for this information.