Changing the rape-supportive attitudes of traditional and nontraditional males and females

153 Pages·1994·3.4 MB·English

by  Rosenthal, Eric

CHANGING THE RAPE-SUPPORTIVE ATTITUDES OF
TRADITIONAL AND NONTRADITIONAL MALES AND FEMALES
By
ERIC ROSENTHAL
A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT
OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
1994
The following is dedicated to my wife, Melissa Bracha
Rosenthal, whose sweet love has made my doctoral training
the best time of my life, and to my mother, Lee Stern, who
taught me the meaning of heart and perseverance.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank Greg Neimeyer for being an
excellent committee chair and for guiding me through
graduate school. I would also like to thank Marty
Heesacker, who put more than his share of effort into this
project. Much appreciation also goes to Shae Kosch, James
Shepperd, and Rus Bauer, who each helped to make this
dissertation better in some way. Finally, I could not have
run my experiment without the able assistance of Russ
Sabella and Teri Hitchcock.
Ill
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii
LIST OF TABLES vii
ABSTRACT viii
CHAPTERS
1 INTRODUCTION 1
Definitions of Rape 2
Prevalence of Rape
4
Consequences of Rape
6
Rapist Pathology
7
Target Individuals
9
Traditionality 10
Women 12
Measures of Intervention Success 14
Rape Myth Acceptance and Related Beliefs.... 15
Responses to Vignettes 16
Attempted Interventions 18
2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE 21
Rapist and Victim Belief in Rape Myths 22
Myths and Their Prevalence 23
Myths and Relation to Rape Behavior 25
Rapist and Victim Blame of the Victim 31
Perception of the Situation as an Incidence of
Rape 35
Sex-Role Stereotyping/Traditionality of Rapist
and Victim 42
Factors Perceived as Justifying Rape 53
Interventions/Psychoeducation 56
Rationale and Hypotheses of the Present Study... 69
3 METHODS 72
Participants 72
Instruments 73
IV
Traditionality 73
Rape Myth Acceptance 73
Date Rape Vignette 74
Postintervention Attitudes 75
Sexual Experience 76
Phone Appeal 76
Design and Procedures 77
Intervention and Immediate Posttest 77
Control and limmediate Posttest 79
Follow-Up Posttest 79
4 RESULTS 80
Overview 80
Hypothesis 1 83
Hypothesis 2 84
Rape-Related Posttest Attitudes 84
Phone Appeal Responses 86
Repeated Measures 86
Hypothesis 3 87
Rape-Related Posttest Attitudes 87
Phone Appeal Responses 88
Rape Myth Acceptance as Mediator of Main
Effects 88
Hypothesis 4 90
History of Sexual Aggression or
Victimization as Mediator of Main Effects. 90
Additional Findings: Sex 91
Rape-Related Posttest Attitudes 91
Phone Appeal Responses 91
Additional Findings: Repeated Measures of
Traditionality 93
5 DISCUSSION 94
Effects of Intervention 94
Effects of Traditionality 99
Effects of Sex 100
Traditionality and Behavior 102
Traditionality and Myth Acceptance 104
6 CONCLUSION 105
APPENDICES
A PRESCREENING QUESTIONNAIRE 109
B INTERVENTION TRANSCRIPT 112
C VIGNETTE AND RESPONSES 124
D POSTTEST QUESTIONNAIRE 126
E DEBRIEFING 131
F TELEPHONE SCRIPT 132
G TELEPHONE RESPONSE SHEET 134
REFERENCES 135
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 141
VI
LIST OF TABLES
Table Page
1 Correlation Coefficients/P-Values for Dependent
Variables 81
2 Dependent Variable Means and Standard
Deviations Treatment 85
:
3 Means and Standard Deviations for Repeated
Measure Rape Myth Acceptance 87
:
4 Dependent Variable Means: Traditionality 89
5 Dependent Variable Means and Standard
Deviations Sex 92
:
6 Means and Standard Deviations for Repeated
Measure: Traditionality 93
Vll
Abstract of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School
of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy
CHANGING THE RAPE-SUPPORTIVE ATTITUDES OF
TRADITIONAL AND NONTRADITIONAL MALES AND FEMALES
By
Eric Rosenthal
August 1994
Chairman: Dr. Greg Neimeyer
Cochairman: Dr. Martin Heesacker
Major Department Psychology
:
Date rape is a serious problem on college campuses and
often leads to more severe psychological consequences than
stranger rape. A possible variable linked to date rape has
been identified as the degree to which both males and
females possess traditional, sex-role stereotyping
attitudes. Although several attempts have been made to
change rape-related attitudes and behaviors, none have
focused their interventions on highly traditional
individuals. The present study takes this next step, using
a psychoeducational intervention that had been successful
with less traditional individuals. Two hundred and forty-
five male and female undergraduates were classified on the
basis of their traditionality and either received the
intervention or served as no-treatment controls. Results
Vlll
revealed that, on five of seven attitudinal measures,
participants who received the intervention expressed less
rape-supportive attitudes than did control participants.
The same pattern was true for females versus males on three
of the measures. Similarly, on all attitudinal measures,
less traditional participants expressed less rape-supportive
attitudes than did more traditional participants. In
addition, participants' responses to a subsequent phone
appeal, purportedly unrelated to the experiment, regarding
women's safety projects were in part less rape-supportive
for experimental versus control and female versus male
participants. However, this pattern was not found for less
traditional versus more traditional participants. Finally,
support was gained for the notion that traditionality is a
very powerful predictor of a person's degree of rape-
supportive attitudes. Implications of these findings for
future rape-prevention efforts are discussed.
IX
.
CHAPTER
1
INTRODUCTION
Few words in the English language yield as many
negative emotional connotations as rape. For centuries,
people have been greatly affected by the idea of a fellow
human being sexually victimized. Nevertheless, only
recently has the phenomenon of rape been subjected to
scientific scrutiny in efforts to understand and reduce
its prevalence (Ellis, 1989)
.
Despite an abundance of both basic and applied research,
rape still occurs at alarming rates (Koss, 1992; Ellis, 1989)
Even more unsettling is growing evidence that a significant
portion of rapes involve individuals who are acquainted in
some way, and often occur during a dating situation (Koss,
1992) Alarmingly, many observers, rapists, and victims do
.
not consider the latter to be as serious as rapes involving
strangers, often failing to classify such offenses as rape
(Bridges, 1991; Kanin, 1984). This misperception has been
implicated as contributing to the incidence and prevalence of
such crimes (Koralewski & Conger, 1992; Muehlenhard & Linton,
1987; Muehlenhard & MacNaughton, 1988)
Although several efforts have been made to understand
why people underestimate the severity of date and