Adjective Check List Scores of Homosexual Men

Summary Adjective Check List (ACL) scores were compared for 44 homosexual and 111 heterosexual males who were not involved with either psychotherapy or the law. Significant differences were found on 12 of 24 scales, most but not all “favoring” the heterosexuals, and on 78 of 300 individual adjectives, which comprise an unvalidated “homosexuality” scale. The ACL Heterosexuality scale did not differentiate the groups, but Heilbrun's Masculinity-Feminity scale did do so. The ACL was criticized for excessively high interscale correlations and for low validity coefficients with the major criterion. It was concluded that the homosexuals had more problems in self-acceptance and in relating to others, but that only a small minority differed from the heterosexuals sufficiently to be considered neurotic.