Research Methods for the Typological Study of Gender Disorders in Males

Abstract

Adult male gender patients present with such diverse signs and symptoms that one cannot assume that they are all suffering from the same disorder or that they will all respond optimally to the same method of clinical management. Therefore, whether the ultimate goal is to investigate the causes of gender disorders or to establish the optimal treatment strategies for different types of patients, the researcher must first partition his or her sample of gender-disturbed males into a manageable number of descriptively homogeneous groups. Several authors have advanced typological schemes for doing this (e.g., Benjamin, 1966, 1967; Bentler, 1976; Buhrich & McConaghy, 1978, 1979; Meyer, 1974; Person & Ovesey, 1974a, 1974b; Stoller, 1971), and a taxonomy that is bound to be influential may be found in the DSM-III (American Psychiatric Association, 1980). These typologies are grossly similar (probably because there is widespread agreement on the descriptive dimensions of greatest importance), although authors differ somewhat in the labels they attach to the various discriminable syndromes and even more in their etiological hypotheses for the different types. (See Table 1, Chapter 1 and related discussion for a comparison of representative typologies.)