Brenda L. Russell

Male Rape Myths The Role of Gender, Violence, and Sexism

This study investigates the structure of Struckman-Johnson and Struckman-Johnsons Male Rape Myth Scale, examines gender differences in rape myth acceptance, and explores the underlying ideologies that facilitate male rape myth acceptance. A three-factor model, with rape myths regarding Trauma, Blame, and Denial as separate subscales, is the best fitting solution. However, the results indicate that additional scale development and validity tests are necessary. In exploratory analyses, men are more accepting of male rape myths than are women. Benevolent sexism toward men and acceptance of interpersonal violence are strong predictors of male rape myth acceptance for both men and women. Thus, the attitudes that facilitate rape myth acceptance against men appear to be similar to those that facilitate rape myth acceptance against women. Suggestions for future scale development are outlined and theoretical implications of the findings are discussed.

Perceptions of Sexual Harassment: The Effects of Gender, Legal Standard, and Ambivalent Sexism

This research tests the possibility that the reasonable woman as compared to the reasonable person test of hostile work environment sexual harassment interacts with hostile and benevolent sexist beliefs and under some conditions triggers protectionist attitudes toward women who complain of sexual harassment, We administered to a sample of undergraduates the ambivalent sexism inventory along with the fact patterns in two harassment cases and asked them to make legally relevant decisions under either the reasonable woman or person standard. We found that those high in hostile sexism, and women, found more evidence of harassment. However, those high in benevolent sexism did not exhibit the hostile sexism effects. Although men were less sensitive to the reasonable woman standard than women, under some conditions the reasonable woman standard enabled both genders to find greater evidence of harassment. The results are discussed from the perspectives of law and psychology.

Strategies and Dispositional Correlates of Sexual Coercion Perpetrated by Women: An Exploratory Investigation.

This research tests whether theoretical constructs typically associated with male perpetrators of sexual coercion are predictive of women who perpetrate sexual coercion. We administered a questionnaire that contained measures of sexual experience, social dominance, ambivalent sexism, sex roles, attitudes toward sexual harassment, and lovestyle approaches toward intimate relationships to a sample of women undergraduates. Results found 18% of women to report engaging in sexually coercive behaviors. Coercive women exhibited higher tolerance of sexual harassment, and were significantly higher in femininity than noncoercive women. Coercive women were also found to embrace a ludic (manipulative, game-playing approach toward love) lovestyle significantly more than noncoercive women, while pragma (a logical approach toward love) was negatively associated with coercion. Lastly, a significant difference was found between coercive and noncoercive women and self-reported victimization. Eighty-one percent of women who reported using coercive strategies in their relationships also reported having been sexually victimized.

Perceptions of sexual coercion in heterosexual dating relationships: The role of aggressor gender and tactics

A large body of research has found a concerning prevalence rate of sexual coercion in heterosexual college student dating relationships; however, little research has examined how college students perceive and interpret these behaviors. In this study we examined the impact of initiator gender and sexually coercive strategy (verbal pressure, purposeful intoxication, physical force, or control/mutual consent) on perceptions of the aggressor, victim, behavior, and relationship quality. Results indicated that men who coerce are viewed as aggressive; women who coerce are viewed as promiscuous. Targets of sexual coercion are not perceived as experiencing high levels of victimization following the incident. These findings suggest that college students do not perceive sexually coercive behaviors to be highly problematic. The results are discussed in terms of gender roles and practical implications for college student relationships.

Sexual Coercion and Victimization of College Men: The Role of Love Styles

The purpose of this research was to investigate the role of love styles, sexual coercion, and victimization among men. Men were classified in two categories: perpetrator (either inexperienced, consensual, or coercive) and victim (never victimized, verbally victimized, physically victimized, or both verbally and physically victimized). Love styles were indicative of both perpetrators and victims of sexual coercion. Men who reported engaging in coercive strategies were more likely to endorse Ludus (game-playing love) love style, and less likely to endorse Agape (unconditional love) love style than noncoercive men. Men who reported love styles of Storge (a friendship-first attitude toward love) and Pragma (a selective, practical approach toward love) were more likely to report being victims of sexually coercive behaviors. Those men who reported being sexually victimized were also more likely to report using coercive strategies. The results can further our understanding of male victimization and usage of sexually coercive strategies.

Early sexual experiences: the role of Internet access and sexually explicit material.

The current study investigated whether viewing X-rated movies, Internet access in the home, and gender of the participant would differ between age of first initiation for oral sex, age of first initiation for sexual intercourse, and number of sexual partners. An online sample of 437 participants with an average age of 29.46 participated in the study. Each participant completed a survey that assessed early sexual behaviors and Internet and X-rated material exposure. Results discovered males with Internet access during the ages of 12 to 17 reported significantly younger ages for first oral sex compared to males without Internet access. In addition, male and female participants with Internet access, between the ages 12 to 17, reported younger ages for first sexual intercourse compared to participants without Internet access. Study limitations and implications are discussed.

Faculty-Student Collaborations: Ethics and Satisfaction in Authorship Credit

In the academic world, a researchers number of publications can carry huge professional and financial rewards. This truth has led to many unethical authorship assignments throughout the world of publishing, including within faculty-student collaborations. Although the American Psychological Association (APA) passed a revised code of ethics in 1992 with special rules pertaining to such collaborative efforts, it is widely acknowledged that unethical assignments of authorship credit continue to occur regularly. This study found that of the 604 APA-member respondents, 165 (27.3%) felt they had been involved in an unethical or unfair authorship assignment. Furthermore, nontenured faculty members and women were statistically more likely to be involved in an unethical or unfair assignment of authorship credit than tenured faculty members or men.

Attitudes Toward Battered Women Who Kill Defendant Typicality and Judgments of Culpability

Battered woman’s syndrome has become highly controversial, particularly when used as a defense in cases of homicide. According to legal scholars and social scientists, the characteristics associated with the syndrome constitute a standard that jurors use to evaluate battered women. This study evaluated the hypothesis that jurors use prototypical standards of battered women to reach conclusions about defendants in these cases. Results supported the hypotheses that verdicts are directly influenced by typicality and response history (passive vs. active) of the defendant. Defendants portrayed as atypical with an active response history received more guilty verdicts and were less credible. Conversely, typical defendants with passive response histories were most likely to receive verdicts of not guilty and found to be more credible. Traditional gender effects showed men were more likely than women to render guilty verdicts in all conditions.

Smiling in School Yearbook Photos: Gender Differences from Kindergarten to Adulthood

To explore the hypothesis that girls and women smile more frequently than boys and men, 16,514 photographs of students (kindergarten to college) from school yearbooks were studied, as were photos of faculty and staff members. The predicted gender difference in smiling was small and nonsignificant until Grade 4, when a statistically significant difference was first obtained. The gender difference reached its peak in grade 9 (effect size =.275) and remained relatively constant through adulthood. Systematic study of yearbook photos from one high school during the period 1968–1993 revealed no change in the gender difference over time. Discussion focused on the emergence of the smiling difference during preadolescence and the theoretical implications of such a finding.

Gender differences in evaluating social-sexual conduct in the workplace.

Qualitative interviews exploring gender differences in perceptions of sexual harassment were conducted with 100 full-time St. Louis area employees. Women more than men reported that telling dirty/sexual jokes was a non-harassing behavior, qualified behaviors as harassing when they happened in the workplace, and considered behaviors as non-harassing when the mans intentions were not harmful. Men more than women reported that requesting a date was a non-harassing behavior, qualified behaviors as harassing when the woman did not welcome the behavior, and considered behaviors as non-harassing when they did not violate workplace norms. Logistic regression analysis predicted the respondent gender with 86% accuracy. Finally, concept mapping suggested that when women think about harassers they are concerned with power and social aptitude, while men seem to be more concerned about the responsibility and psychological adjustment of perpetrators of sexual harassment. When women think about victims of harassment they are concerned with a womans assertiveness and work effectiveness, while men are more concerned with the psychological state of the woman and how provocative she is when they think about victims of sexual harassment.