Homosexuality and heterosexism: Views from academics in the helping professions

This study describes and analyses attitudes towards homosexuality among fac ulty in departments of three helping professions: social work, psychology a nd education. The sample consists of 235 faculty members in the five main u niversities in Israel. Out of 849 questionnaires that were sent to all facu lty members of the relevant departments of social work, psychology and educ ation, 103 were completed and returned from social work, 56 from psychology and 76 from education, representing a 27.7 per cent total response rate. T he instrument used was the Index of Homophobia (IHP) (Hudson and Ricketts, 1980) in addition to professional background and demographic information. F indings show that, overall, members of academic departments of the helping professions present 'low-grade homophobic' attitudes (Hudson and Ricketts, 1980). Statistically significant differences surfaced among the three depar tments, with faculty members in schools of education emerging as most homop hobic, followed by social work and psychology. Several explanations are put forward in an attempt to account for such differences, including the theor etical framework of marginality, the variables traditionally associated wit h homophobia, and professional training.