Virginia Commonwealth University

150 self identified lesbian or bisexual participants will be recruited to respond to a battery of questionnaires. The battery will include the BarOn EQ-i:S (a measure of emotional intelligence), Fassinger's LIS (a measure of lesbian identity development), Syzmanski & Chung's LIHS ( a measure of lesbian internalized homophobia), several additional questions pertaining to sexual orientation, and a demographic questionnaire.

This project is being conducted as this researcher's, Kimberly Rowan's, master's thesis for graduate school at Virginia Commonwealth University. The purpose of the proposed thesis is that it is seeking to understand the positive effects of emotional intelligence on well-being within a sexual minority population. This thesis will be proposed in Spring of 2003 and will undergo IRB approval at that point as well, at which point in time the specific number of questions and number of participants needed will be determined. Using an on-line resource will hopefully aid the researcher in tapping into many minority individuals who often remain hidden and thus obtaining a more diverse and representative sample in terms of both personal variables and location.