James W. Selby

Social Perception of the Victim's Causal Role in Rape: An Exploratory Examination of Four Factors

An exploratory examination of the social perception of a rape victim was conducted. Sex of respondent, victims history of rape, number of rapes in the area, and victim acquaintance with the rapist were investigated by having subjects respond to a standardized videotape of an interview with a presumed victim. Results revealed two consistent findings: Males viewed the victim as contributing to the rape to a greater degree than females. The victim was seen as provoking the episode to a greater degree when she had been raped before than when she had not been raped before. Several interactions were also obtained.

Sex Differences in the Social Perception of Rape Victims

Two investigations were conducted to examine sex differ ences in the way rape victims are perceived. In the first study, 25 statements pertaining to rape were administered to a group of 111 female and 70 male undergraduates. Factor analysis of item ratings identified two factors: perceived causality and perceived severity of consequences. Comparisons of the items loading on each of the two factors revealed consistent sex differences in per ceived causality and no significant differences in perceived sev erity of consequences. In the second study, a role-played video tape interview between a presumed rape victim and a police officer was shown to 23 male and 24 female undergraduates. Subjects rated the victim on a series of scales thematically similar to the state ments used in the first study. Sex differences, consistent with the first study were found, with males viewing the victim as play ing a greater causal role in the rape episode than females.

Attributing Responsibility to the Victim of Rape: Influence of Information Regarding Past Sexual Experience

Information regarding a rape victims past sexual behaviors was presented to college students in specially constructed newspaper stories describing testimony at the trial. In two conditions the sexual experience information was explicit, indicating an active or an inactive past. In three other conditions no explicit information was presented, but the reason was varied: The victim refused to testify, the judge refused to allow testimony, or no mention was made of sexual experience. The results indicate that the victim who refuses to discuss her sexual experience is perceived as sexually active, and as more responsible for the rape than in other conditions. When the judge prohibits testimony, the victim is held less responsible for the rape than the sexually inactive and no-information victims. The findings are discussed in reference to attribution theory predictions and recent interest in laws regarding rape.

Suicidal Death: Social Reactions to Bereaved Survivors

The present investigation examined the reactions of persons to specific individuals who have actually experienced suicidal bereavement. Persons who knew another who had experienced bereavement following a suicidal death were interviewed and their responses were compared with those of persons who knew others bereaved as a result of accident and as a result of natural causes. The impact of the cause of death suggests that suicide is perceived as a more difficult type of death with which to cope; interactions wit survivors of suicidal death are seen as somewhat more stressful. The cause of death may have less of an impact on reactions to the bereaved than research has suggested when the focus is on responses of persons who actually know the survivors.

Voluntary Childlessness, Involuntary Childlessness, and Having Children: A Study of Social Perceptions.

Investigation of the way husbands and wives were perceived if they were described as having 2 children voluntarily having no children or having no children involuntarily. A social perception paradigm was employed in which a folder was developed containing information about a couple applying for a bank loan in order to purchase a car. 3 versions were constructed differing only with respect to whether the couple was described as having 2 children voluntarily childless or involuntarily childless. After reading 1 version of the folder participants were asked to respond to a series of scales measuring liking perceived psychological disturbance adjectives describing general psychological characteristics and perceived likelihood of getting a divorce within the next 10 years for each of the spouses. Husbands were perceived as more psychologically healthy when they had children than when they had no children regardless of the reason. Wives were liked less and viewed more negatively on general personality descriptors when they were described as voluntarily childless than when they were involuntarily childless. Participants were 76 male and 37 female university students from the southeastern U.S. (Authors modified)

The rules of bereavement: Are suicidal deaths different?

The present article describes two studies designed to identify some of the rules that may govern interactions with bereaved persons and whether those rules are different for suicidal deaths, as compared with death by accident or natural causes. In the first study, with university students, 28 rules were identified. The pattern of results suggests that the rules for suicide are more constraining; that is, judgments about the existence of social rules tend to be more inclusive and extreme, in a “should not do” direction, when the death is suicidal. In the second study, with adult citizens, 13 possible rules were examined. The pattern of results confirmed the findings obtained in the first study — that interacting with the survivors of a suicidal death was seen as a more constraining situation with a predominance of proscriptive rules. It was suggested that while individuals may feel greater compassion for the survivors of suicide, they may avoid the situation for fear of violating one of the proscriptive rules.

The aftermath of childhood suicide: Influences on the perception of the parent

The present study investigated the responses of 148 adult citizens of a city in the southeastern United States to specially prepared newspaper accounts of a childs death. Results indicated that when the childs death was suicidal parents were viewed in a more negative way than when the childs death was a result of illness. In addition, the presence of environmental pressures which reduced potentially negative perceptions of parents when the childs death was due to a disease, did not have a similar impact when the childs death was suicidal. The findings suggested that parents of the child suicide are likely to encounter attitudes which are relatively more negative in general. In addition, factors which may mitigate negative judgments of parents in other types of death may not operate when the death is a suicide.

Reactions to the family of the suicide

The present study investigated reactions to the survivors of a family members suicide. One hundred and twenty seven adults, members of a large urban Protestant church, responded to a newspaper account of a suicide in which the following factors were systematically varied: sex of the suicide, causal locus of the suicide, and whether the cause was prior or immediate to the suicide. The design was a 2 (sex of respondent) x 2 (sex of suicide) x 2 (locus of cause internal or external to the individual) x 2 (temporally remote cause or immediate cause). Results indicated a slight tendency for males to be somewhat more socially accepting of the surviving spouse of a suicide. There was also a significant interaction between sex of respondent x sex of the suicide, such that respondents indicated they would feel less tension in talking with the surviving family of a suicide of the same sex.

Suicidal Death of a Spouse: The Social Perception of the Survivor.

The present study investigated the reactions of others to the surviving spouse of an individual who commits suicide. A group of 120 adult citizens responded to a typeset obituary notice that described the cause of death as either suicide, motor vehicle accident, or leukemia. Results indicated that the surviving spouse of a suicide was perceived differently in several ways. Compared to those spouses of accident and leukemia victims, the spouse of a suicide was viewed as being more to blame for the death, as having had a greater chance of preventing the death, and as being more ashamed of the death. Survivors of spouses whose deaths resulted from suicide face a stressful event that may be made even more difficult by the perceptions others may have of them.

Perceptions of the rape incident: Physicians and volunteer counselors

The present study investigated attitudes toward rape in a group of physicians and a group of volunteer rape-crisis counselors. A series of 25 statements derived from the literature on rape was administered to a group of physicians and to a group of rapecrisis counselors. The 25 statements were factor analyzed based on responses from an independent sample. Two main factors emerged: one represented perceived causality of the rape incident and the other represented perceived consequences of the rape incident. Comparison of the physicians and volunteers on items loading on the two factors indicated that there was a slight tendency for the volunteers to see rape as having more serious consequences than did physicians.