David B. Sugarman

The Revised Conflict Tactics Scales (CTS2) Development and Preliminary Psychometric Data

This article describes a revised Conflict Tactics Scales (the CTS2) to measure psychological and physical attacks on a partner in a marital, cohabiting, or dating relationship; and also use of negotiation. The CTS2 has (a) additional items to enhance content validity and reliability; (b) revised wording to increase clarity and specificity; (c) better differentiation between minor and severe levels of each scale; (d) new scales to measure sexual coercion and physical injury; and (e) a new format to simplify administration and reduce response sets. Reliability ranges from .79 to .95. There is preliminary evidence of construct validity.

An analysis of risk markers in husband to wife violence: The current state of knowledge

The present review involves the evaluation of 97 potential risk markers of husband to wife violence. Using 52 case-comparison studies as the source of data, markers were divided into four categories: consistent risk, inconsistent risk, consistent nonrisk, and risk markers with insufficient data. Based on this classification, it appears that a number of widely held hypotheses about husband to wife violence have little empirical support. Only witnessing violence in the wife’s family of origin was consistently associated with being victimized by violence. Furthermore, it seems that characteristics associated with either the husband-offender or the couple have greater utility for assessing the risk of husband to wife violence than characteristics of the wife-victim. Findings are discussed in terms of the methodological and theoretical implications of current research on this form of adult domestic violence.

A risk marker analysis of assaulted wives

In the wife assault literature, a number of risk markers have been identified. Using the data of the female respondents to the National Family Violence Survey (n = 699), a multivariate analysis was performed to examine which risk factors best differentiated between women involved in nonviolent relationships, verbally aggressive relationships, relationships exhibiting minor physical aggression and severely violent relationships. High levels of marital conflict and lower socioeconomic status emerged as the primary predictors of an increased likelihood of wife assault. Research implications are discussed.

Intimate Violence and Social Desirability A Meta-Analytic Review

Using meta-analytic procedures, the relationship between self-reporting of involvement in marital and courtship violence, and level of socially desirable responding was investigated. Eighteen effect-size estimates were located and, overall, displayed a low to moderate effect on reporting involvement in partner violence (mean r = -.179). No significant differences emerged with respect to the sex of the respondent; however, reports of perpetrating intimate violence were more strongly correlated with social desirability scores than were reports of being victimized. Implications of these findings are reviewed.

Reactions to AIDS Victims: Ambiguity Breeds Contempt

The present study investigated the causes of negative reactions towards AIDS victims. Fifty-eight subjects rated the personal responsibility and interactional desirability of eight hypothetical disease victims who varied on their sexual preference (homosexual/heterosexual) and on their diagnosis (AIDS/serum hepatitis/Legionnaires disease/genital herpes). While the homosexual victims were rated more personally responsible for their disease and AIDS victims were rated the least interactionally desirable, no support was found for a victim derogation (Lerner, 1966, 1970) interpretation of these phenomena. The results are interpreted as suggesting instead that the reaction against AIDS victims reflects a fear of the unknown causes of the disease, coupled with a general prejudice against homosexuals.

Respiratory effects of spinal immobillzatlon

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effect of whole-body spinal immobilization on respiration. METHODS This was a randomized, crossover laboratory study with 39 human volunteer subjects (20 males; 19 females) ranging in age from 7 to 85 years. Respiratory function was measured three times: at baseline (seated or lying), immobilized with a Philadelphia collar on a hard wooden backboard, and on a Scandinavian vacuum mattress with a vacuum collar. The comfort levels of each of the two methods were assessed on a forced Likert scale. RESULTS Both immobilization methods restricted respiration, 15% on the average. The effects were similar under the two immobilization conditions, although the FEV1 was lower on the vacuum mattress. Respiratory restriction was more pronounced at the extremes of age. The vacuum mattress was significantly more comfortable. CONCLUSION This study confirmed the previously reported respiratory restriction caused by spinal immobilization. Vacuum mattresses are more comfortable than wooden backboards.

Indicators of gender equality for American states and regions

The indicators described in this paper are measures of status equality (as compared to measures of status attainment). Status equality was operationalized by expressing the status attainment scores for women as a percentage of the scores for men. Indicators of equality in the economic, political, and legal spheres of life were computed for each of the 50 U.S. states. The indicators were combined to create an overall Gender Equality Index and a subscale for each of the three spheres. Analyses of internal consistency reliability and construct validity are presented. Large state-to-state and regional differences were found for all three spheres. In respect to the overall Gender Equality Index the scores ranged from a low of 19 (i.e. 19% of what is needed for equality with men) to a high of only 60%.

Attributions of Personality Based on Physical Appearance, Speech, and Handwriting

The effect of facial appearance, speech style, and handwriting on personality attributions was examined. The source consistency hypothesis predicted that an actor will receive consistent attributions across all three types of information. The differential information hypothesis predicted that different personality dimensions are used to differentiate the actors within each type of information. In a 3 X 6 multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) design, each judge rated a single actor/information combination on scales of social evaluation, intellectual evaluation, activity, potency, emotionality, and sociability. Photographs of actors were differentiated primarily in terms of positive social and intellectual evaluation; the speech of actors was differentiated primarily along an activity dimension; and the writing of the actors was differentiated primarily along a potency dimension. This study supported the differential information hypothesis and suggested that these three types of information about an actor may lead judges to use different personality dimensions. Person perception studies have shown that observers readily make attributions about the personality traits, abilities, and emotions of other persons based on limited information. Three types of information have been extensively studied: facial appearance, expressive noncontent characteristics of speech (such as pitch, tone, and tempo), and handwriting. Numerous studies have reported that facial features and expression influence attributions about the attractiveness, pleasantness, intellectual and social skills, and mental health of the target person (Adams, 1977; Berscheid & Walster, 1974; Bull & Stevens, 1979; Dion, Ber

Origin and solution attributions of responsibility for wife abuse: effects of outcome severity, prior history, and sex of subject

The purpose of the present study was to determine the effect of sex differences and seriousness of the abuse situation on observers’ attributions of responsibility for origin and solution to both partners in a couple. Male and female undergraduate students (N = 354) read a vignette about a wife abuse incident. The results supported the victim activation hypothesis, with wives being held more responsible for the solution than for the origin of the problem. In contrast, husbands were held more responsible for the origin than for the solution to the problem. Overall, there were sex differences for attributions of responsibility to the husband but not for those to the wife. Women were more likely than men to attribute origin and solution responsibility to the husband. There was no clear support for the effects of the seriousness of the abuse situation. Husbands were attributed more control over the problem’s solution than were wives.

Impact of Expert Testimony on the Believability of Repressed Memories

Research suggests that people question the believability of trial testimony based on an alleged victim’s previously repressed memories. Participants read one of six scenarios depicting the trial of a man accused of sexually assaulting a young girl. The alleged victim either reported the assault immediately (child witness) or waited 20 years to report it (adult witness). In the adult witness condition, the woman’s memory for the event had either been repressed until recently or had always been available, and expert testimony was offered on behalf of the defense, the prosecution, both, or neither. Regression analyses revealed that women perceived the accuser’s testimony as more believable and the defendant’s testimony as less believable than men did. Similarly, the belief in the accuser’s testimony decreased and the belief in the defendant’s testimony increased when the accuser was an adult in contrast to a child, and when the defense offered expert testimony in contrast to its absence. In addition, guilty verdicts were associated with higher levels of accuser believability, lower levels of defendant believability and testimony based on repressed memories in contrast to testimony based on memories that were never repressed.