Research on lesbianism: selected effects of time, geographic location, and data collection technique

It is the intention of this article both to be descriptive of elements of the lesbian life style that appear to be consistent over time and to examine the results of using widely different data collection techniques attempting to differentiate such behaviors. In addition, the study from which the data are derived examined areas of change and social movement among selected areas of personal commitment or interaction. Research in the area of covert behavior is extremely difficult. Certain types of covert behavior preclude traditional survey and sampling procedures, making parameter estimates for the general population, as well as precluding the use of inferential statistics for data analysis. The masking of the deviant self is perhaps most pronounced where the covert activity in question is illegal (Klockars, 1974). Given this, a comparison of the impact of different research techniques on the quality of data generated in the study of deviant behavior would appear to be important. The data were collected from three separate groups involving three data collection times spread over a 10-year period, involving three geographic locations, and involving two different data collection techniques. A total of 394 lesbians were interviewed or responded to a questionnaire distributed with the cooperation of a large, well-known homophile organization. An analysis was made, and both significant and nonsignificant differences in sample types are discussed. It should be noted that these data represent a small segment of the data generated by the study. The parts of them presented were chosen because they address pertinent theoretical and methodological questions in the area of researching covert behavior.