Eros DeSouza

Bullying and Sexual Harassment Among Brazilian High School Students

Bullying and sexual harassment at school have received recent attention in developed countries; however, they have been neglected in Latin America. Thus, the authors investigated these phenomena among 400 Brazilian high school students from two high schools (one private and one public). Analyses using t-tests showed that boys bullied and sexually harassed their peers more often than girls did. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that boys and girls who scored high on general misconduct bullied their peers more often than those who scored low on general misconduct. Boys who believed they would be punished by their teachers for bullying and who scored low on benevolent sexism bullied more often than boys who believed they would not be punished by their teachers and who scored high on benevolent sexism. Moreover, bullying predicted peer sexual harassment for boys and girls. Recommendations to prevent bullying and sexual harassment are offered.

Contrapower sexual harassment: A survey of students and faculty members

We conducted two studies to shed light on contrapower sexual harassment in an academic setting. In the first study, we surveyed a random sample of 158 college students (83.4% White) concerning their potentially sexually harassing behaviors toward professors, sexist attitudes toward women, and proclivities to harass sexually. Almost one third of the students reported having sexually harassed a professor at least once. Male students were more likely than female students to be the perpetrators. In the second study, all tenured and tenure-track faculty were mailed a survey; 209 professors (88.9% White) completed the survey concerning their experiences with sexual harassment from students as well as their coping responses, definitions of sexual harassment, and reactions to hypothetical scenarios. Over one half of the professors reported having been at least once sexually harassed by students. Although male and female professors experienced similar rates of sexual harassment from students, the psychological outcome was worse for women than for men. Male and female professors defined sexual harassment similarly. However, when more contextual information was provided in the hypothetical scenarios, several gender differences emerged. In addition, men and women used both internal and external coping responses to different types of sexual harassment. Sexual harassment as both a tool and a result of male dominance in society is discussed.

Reactions to refusals of sexual advances among U.S. and Brazilian men and women

This study examined cultural variation and gender differences in the perception of female sexual intent when women said no to sexual advances. American (n = 205) and Brazilian (n = 200) undergraduates responded to one of two scenarios describing a female s consistent or inconsistent resistance. Most students were white (88% and 95% of Americans and Brazilians, respectively), single (96% of Americans and 100% of Brazilians), in their early twenties, and 50% were men and 50% women. The data showed that Americans and Brazilians have different conceptualizations of how a heterosexual encounter may develop, given the preliminary pattern of consistent or inconsistent resistance. Brazilians have a strong consensual-sexual-intercourse schema, while Americans (especially in the context of consistent resistance) have a strong date-rape schema. The relevance of these findings for (mis)communication between men and women is discussed.

A comparison of in-class and online quizzes on student exam performance

THIS STUDY evaluated the use of Web-based assessment in the instruction of students enrolled in a Theories of Personality class. During 1999, we compared 297 undergraduates who took online quizzes with 291 undergraduates who took traditional paper-and-pencil quizzes. All online quizzes were generated and maintained by the class instructor using Mallard (an asynchronous Web-based assessment program), which allowed students to choose when, where, and how long to work on their quizzes. Mallard students performed significantly better on achievement criteria (four inclass exams) than non-Mallard students. Survey data indicated that most students reported being “very satisfied” with Mallard. These findings followed similar trends in other forms of computer-assisted instruction. Future research and potential pedagogical applications of Web-based assessment are discussed. Despite the initial time investment required to generate online quizzes with Mallard, student and instructor experiences with the program suggest that it is a promising technology for enhancing instruction in higher education.

Desenvolvimento humano e violência de gênero: uma integração bioecológica

The purpose of the present study was to examine the etiology of gender violence using the Bioecological Theory of Human Development. Such approach considers gender violence as a multidimensional phenomenon grounded in an interrelationship among several factors. Thus, this model is an heuristic tool that organizes several factors into four levels: personal (biological and psychological characteristics), processing (interpersonal interaction), contextual (social support network, community, and culture), and temporal (intra-, inter-, and trans-generational). The authors suggest that the proposed model is a useful tool for guiding future research studies and interventions.

Reactions to Sexual Harassment Charges Between North Americans and Brazilians

This investigation examined the impact of genderand culture on reactions to sexual harassment charges.Specifically, we explored the degree of the punishmentrecommended in response to allegations of sexual harassment in an academic context. NorthAmerican (n = 330, average age = 20.57 years, 90%Caucasian) and Brazilian (n = 214, average age = 21.62years, 95% Caucasian) undergraduates read a fictitiousnewspaper article that described an alleged case of sexualharassment involving a male instructor and a femaleundergraduate. The alleged perpetrators power, hisprofessed romantic interest in the target, and the salience of discrimination concerns weremanipulated. Participants rated the degree to which hisactions were punishable. Overall, women and NorthAmericans advocated more punishment to the allegedharasser than men and Brazilians, respectively.Conditions that increase or reduce the punishment ratingsare discussed.

Frequency Rates and Correlates of Contrapower Harassment in Higher Education

The current study investigated incivility, sexual harassment, and racial-ethnic harassment simultaneously when the targets were faculty members and the perpetrators were students (i.e., academic contrapower harassment; ACH). The sample constituted 257 faculty members (90% were White and 53% were women) from a medium-sized state university in the Midwestern United States. They completed an anonymous survey, including an openended question about a critical ACH incident. The findings revealed that 72% of the total sample had experienced some type of mistreatment from students during the past 2 years. The author hypothesized gender differences in frequency rates for overall ACH, incivility, and sexual harassment; however, there were none. Hence, this hypothesis was not supported. The author also hypothesized that incivility would predict sexual and ethnic harassment. This hypothesis was generally supported. Furthermore, he hypothesized that demographic, work-related, and tolerance for faculty—student romance would predict ACH and its subscales. The findings generally supported this hypothesis, with somewhat different predictors by gender. He also hypothesized that harassed faculty, especially women, would experience worse job-related outcomes than never harassed faculty. Neither gender nor the interaction was significant, but the main effect for harassment was, with harassed faculty members experiencing worse job-related outcomes than nonharassed faculty members. Thus this hypothesis was partially supported. Practical implications are discussed.

Women's and Men's Reactions to Man-to-Man Sexual Harassment: Does the Sexual Orientation of the Victim Matter?

We manipulated the sexual orientation of the victim in a hypothetical case to address 3 key questions: Is it harassment, does the case need to be investigated further, and is the harassers behavior punishable? Our sample comprised 433 undergraduates (91.5% of whom were White). We hypothesized that women would rate the case as more sexually harassing, as needing further investigation, and as more punishable than men would. We also hypothesized that the sexual orientation of the victim would affect perceptions of the case; specifically, students would significantly rate the incident as more harassing, as needing further investigation, and would recommend more punishment when the victim was homosexual rather than heterosexual. We hypothesized that female respondents would perceive more categories of inappropriate behaviors perpetrated by men on other men as constituting sexual harassment than would male respondents. Furthermore, we hypothesized that lewd comments and enforcement of the traditional masculine gender role would predict responses to the 3 key questions asked about the case. With the exception of recommending greater punishment when the victim was homosexual rather than heterosexual, all hypotheses were supported.

International Perspectives on Sexual Harassment of College Students

Abstract:  The incidence, psychological dimensions, reporting, and impact of sexual harassment of college students throughout the world are reviewed. Special attention is paid to methodological constraints in conducting cross‐cultural research in sexual harassment, including difficulty in securing research participants, different methodologies to collect incidence data, use of retrospective data, and varying, definitions of sexual harassment. Recommendations for implementing intervention programs are offered. The strategies suggested deal with the social causes that maintain the harassment, including renegotiating the balance of power between men and women.

Social Exclusion in Everyday Life

Humans have a strong need for stable social relationships and much of their daily thoughts, feelings, and behaviors focus on satisfying this need. Various negative social experiences can communicate real (or perceived) threats to social relationships; many of these experiences are subtle, ambiguous, and sometimes unintentional. When threatened, individuals experience both negative psychological and physical outcomes, including feelings of pain and decreased psychological need satisfaction (i.e., belonging, control, meaningful existence, and self-esteem). In this chapter we consider various experiences that communicate relational devaluation under the general label of social exclusion, broadly defined as the experience of being kept apart from others physically or emotionally. We then group these social experiences in two subcategories: rejection (defined as direct negative attention suggesting one is not wanted) and ostracism (primarily characterized by the experience of being ignored). We ultimately propose that even if one is not being directly ignored, any type of social exclusion may increase feelings of being ignored, and suggest these perceptions may account for why many social exclusion experiences have similar negative psychological outcomes. Finally, we use these arguments as a starting point for suggesting future theory and research development among scholars interested in social exclusion.