Richard Hirschman

Toward a theory of sexual aggression: A quadripartite model.

Sexually aggressive behavior against adult females is an increasingly serious societal problem. The need for a unified theoretical model is addressed by integrating the elements of existing models into a quadripartite model in which the heterogeneity of sexual aggressors is accounted for by the prominence of potential etiological factors. The components of the model--physiological sexual arousal, cognitions that justify sexual aggression, affective dyscontrol, and personality problems--function as motivational precursors that increase the probability of sexually aggressive behavior. The relative prominence of these precursors within different sexually aggressive populations is used to define major subtypes.

Sexual Aggression against Children A Conceptual Perspective of Etiology

Male sexual aggression against children is a serious and alarmingly common social problem. Treatments for the perpetrators have been only moderately successful. Perhaps a reason for this has been the absence of a unified model of etiology and treatment that includes the most salient motivational factors unique to various subtypes of perpetrators. Such a model would have to be sufficiently flexible to account for the various sexually aggressive modes of expression without being unnecessarily complex or simplistic if it is to be clinically useful. Specifically with respect to sexual aggression against children, a quadripartite model is proposed that includes physiological sexual arousal, cognitions that justify sexual aggression, negative affective states, and personality problems as motivational precursors that increase the probability of sexually aggressive behavior. The relative prominence of these precursors is used as a guideline for assessing and treating particular subtypes of perpetrators. Failure to consider the primary motivational precursor during the initial stages of treatment also may account for the limited success of current treatments.

Attributions of victim responsibility, pleasure, and trauma in male rape

The purpose of this study was to examine the following: (a) the relationship between the sexual orientation of a male rape victim and participants’ attributions of the victims degree of responsibility, pleasure, and trauma associated with the assault, and (b) differences between male and female participants in their attributions of these variables. Participants were 396 college students. Participants read a brief report describing a male‐on‐male sexual assault. The victims sexual orientation was described as either heterosexual or homosexual. After reading the report, participants completed a questionnaire assessing their attributions regarding the victims responsibility for the assault, and the amount of pleasure and trauma the victim experienced from the assault. Participants attributed more responsibility, more pleasure, and less trauma to a homosexual victim than to a heterosexual victim. Male participants attributed more responsibility and pleasure to a male rape victim than did female participants.

The relationship between men's sexual aggression inside and outside the laboratory

The purpose of this study was to develop a laboratory analogue of sexually aggressive behavior. Subjects viewed neutral, sexual-violent, and violent-sexual film vignettes and chose a vignette to show to a female confederate. Among highly sexually aggressive men (n = 25) according to the Coercive Sexuality Scale (CSS; Rapaport & Burkhart, 1984), 24% showed the sexual-violent vignette and 28% showed the violent-sexual vignette. Among men who did not report being sexually aggressive on the CSS (n = 13), none showed the sexual-violent vignette and only one showed the violent-sexual vignette. The between-group difference in vignette showing was statistically significant (p < .024). Subjects who showed the sexually aggressive vignettes reported that the female confederate was upset (p < .0001) and uncomfortable (p < .0001) in viewing these vignettes more than the subjects did who showed the neutral vignette. These results support the validity of this film-showing procedure as a laboratory analogue of sexually aggressive behavior.

Effects of paced respiration on anxiety reduction in a clinical population

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of paced respiration on autonomic and self-report indices of affect within a clinical population. Thirty-six alcohol-dependent inpatients scoring high in trait anxiety were randomly assigned to either a pacing or attention control group. The paced subjects received 10 minutes of slow-breathing training during the first experimental session, while control subjects simply counted the pacing tones. In a second session, paced subjects were asked to breathe at the same lowered rate (10 cycles per minute) on their own, while the remaining subjects were instructed to relax. Prior to and following each session, self-ratings of tension level and state anxiety were collected. As expected, paced subjects evidenced greater reductions in self-rated tension, state anxiety, and skin conductance levels compared to the control subjects. It was concluded that respiratory pacing is an easily learned self-control strategy and potentially may be a useful therapeutic tool.

Sexual arousal and arousability to pedophilic stimuli in a community sample of normal men

Self-reported and physiological sexual arousal to adult and pedophilic stimuli were examined among 80 men drawn from a community sample of volunteers. Over ¼ of the current subjects self-reported pedophilic interest or exhibited penile arousal to pedophilic stimuli that equalled or exceeded arousal to adult stimuli. The hypothesis that arousal to pedophilic stimuli is a function of general sexual arousability factors was supported in that pedophilic and adult heterosexual arousal were positively correlated, particularly in the physiological data. Subjects who were highly arousable, insofar as they were unable to voluntarily and completely inhibit their sexual arousal, were more sexually aroused by all stimuli than were subjects who were able to inhibit their sexual arousal. Thus, arousal to pedophilic stimuli does not necessarily correspond with pedophilic behavior.

Ignoring a woman's dislike of sexual material: Sexually impositional behavior in the laboratory

The purpose of the current studies was to determine if participants would ignore a womans dislike of sexual material in a laboratory setting. Two experiments (N = 130) were conducted in which participants were asked to show, under the guise of a distraction task, neutral, erotic, or nonerotic distracting slides to a female confederate who was depicted as strongly disliking erotic material. More men than women showed erotic slides to the female confederate who was described as disliking erotic material. Fewer men and more women showed autopsy slides when the female confederate was depicted as disliking erotic material than when she was depicted as feeling neutral about erotic material. These results provide preliminary support for this laboratory paradigm as an analogue of sexually impositional behavior.

A LABORATORY ANALOGUE FOR THE STUDY OF PEER SEXUAL HARASSMENT

The purpose of this study was to develop a laboratory analogue for the study of peer sexual harassment, and to examine person and situational factors associated with male on female peer sexual harassment. One hundred twenty-two male participants were given the opportunity to tell jokes to a female confederate from a joke list that included sexually offensive jokes, as well as other types of jokes. Participants were exposed to either a sexist laboratory environment or a neutral laboratory environment during the study. Eighty percent of participants told at least one sexually offensive joke to a female confederate. Higher scores on a measure of adversarial sexual beliefs were associated with telling a greater number of sexually offensive jokes. The results suggest that the joke-telling analogue may be a useful means for laboratory explorations of person and situational factors associated with peer sexual harassment.

Relative Effects of Bogus Physiological Feedback and Control Stimuli on Autonomic and Self Report Indicants of Emotional Attribution

The present investigation examined the relative effects of an auditory feedback stimulus as a bogus physiological indicant and as a sound stimulus per se, on physiological and verbal report measures of emotional attribution. Thirty-six male subjects, divided into high and low resting arousal and high and low anxiety, viewed 10 slides of pinups while hearing continuous auditory tones. Results showed that an increase in tone rate elicited greater self reports of slide pleasantness than a no change in tone rate. In addition, there were no differential effects of bogus feed back and sound control on electrodermal activity or on self reports of pleasantness. The need for appropriate control groups in bogus physiologi cal feedback paradigms was discussed.

Effects of Paced Respiration on Affective Responses During Dental Stress

There has been considerable interest in developing physiological control procedures, e.g., biofeedback, to reduce dental stress. Surprisingly, respiratory control has not been used, although it is easily implemented and it is a component of more comprehensive techniques which are used to induce relaxation (D. A. Bernstein and T. D. Borkovec, Progressive Relaxation Training, 1973). The present study was designed to assess the effects of respiratory control on dental stress. The subjects in this study were 50 undergraduate females who had scores above the mean of nine and below 17 on the Corah Dental Anxiety Scale (N. Corah, J Dent Res 48:596, 1969). The dental stimulus was a videotape depicting a class I amalgam restorative procedure consisting of nine 60-second segments, e.g., injection, drilling, and hand instrumentation. It was recorded in a dental operatory using a technique developed by Corah (J Dent Res 48:444, 1969). (A more detailed description of the dental presentation and its stressful effects on dentally anxious subjects may be found in R. Hirschman et al., J Dent Res 59: 1064, 1980. Prior to viewing the dental presentation, 30 subjects (ten per group) were trained for five min to pace their respiration at eight (slow pace), 16 (normal pace), or 24 (fast pace) cycles per min by means of a two-light display. They were told to begin smooth and even inhalation in response to the appearance of one of the lights and exhalation in response to the appearance of the other light. Ten additional subjects were trained for five min only to track the light display (attention control). The remaining ten subjects were told to relax for five min (no training control). During the subsequent dental presentation, all subjects rated each previous segment on a 15 point scale. One represented extreme unpleasantness and 15 represented extreme pleasantness. In addition, respiratory rate,