THE GAY, LESBIAN, AND BISEXUAL PSYCHOLOGY FACULTY EXPERIENCE - A CONCEPT MAP

Self-identified gay, lesbian, and bisexual (GLB) graduate faculty (N = 39) in psychology-related fields responded with multiple phrases to a phenomenological probe, asking ''What it's like to be a gay/lesbian/b isexual faculty member.'' A research team qualitatively reduced the re sponses to 61 representative items, and returned them to respondents w ho (a) sorted items according to which ones went together and (b) rate d items according to how well they described the respondent's own expe rience. The result was a 2-dimensional concept map, suggesting that th e experience may be understood as having both positive and negative as pects and being both internally and externally mediated. Respondents t ypically indicated that the positive experiences associated with being a GLB faculty member were more salient for them than were the negativ e experiences.