Letter to the publisher, Models of sexual identity: between nature and culture

Abstract

The purpose of this Letter is to contribute to the debate on the construct of sexual identity, highlighting the existence of more than one model of sexual identity and, therefore, not only of different explanations on the formation of sexual identity itself but, more generally, the dynamics and the development of the wider dimensions of human sexuality. It will be pre-sented and discussed two models of sexual identity: the first, which we call the biopsy-chosocial-identity, distinguishes between biolo-gical constructs of sexual identity and psycho-logical constructs within the totality of a per-son; the second, namely the behavioural iden-tity, defines sexual identity as the result of on-togenetic sexual behavior of the individual in-cluding the dimensions of gender identity, gen-der roles and orientation through which one builds his/her own sexual self-image.