A Critical Review of The “2021 Apa [American Psychological Association] Resolution on Sexual Orientation Change Efforts.”

Abstract

We examined the “APA [American Psychological Association] RESOLUTION on Sexual Orientation Change Efforts” (APA, 2021) and while doing so have noted several problems. The APA (2021) resolution report is largely flawed in terms of theory, logic, and science. It relies almost exclusively on sexual minority theory when many other theories might be useful. It relies upon seriously flawed logic, treating SOCE as unchanged and unimproved over the past six decades. In addition, it relies upon very weak and limited science, overlooking recent reports on SOCE outcomes, not considering effect sizes for SOCE treatments, treating correlational results as causal, and often overlooking ways of testing more complex models of SOCE. The same limitations apply to much of the material reported in APA’s book edited by Haldeman (2022a), therefore not deserving a separate review. As such, we concluded that readers of the APA (2021) resolution report or Haldeman (2022a) for that matter, would walk away with unequivocal, one-sided, and misguided information about the topic of SOCE and therefore a condensed fact-checked critical analysis is presented.