Men's ambivalence toward women: Implications for evaluations of rape victims.
Item
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Title
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Men's ambivalence toward women: Implications for evaluations of rape victims.
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Identifier
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AAI9020783
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identifier
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9020783
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Creator
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Martin, Andrea Jill.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Irwin Katz
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Date
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1990
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Psychology, Social | Psychology, Personality | Psychology, General
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Abstract
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This study explored the effects of men's attitudes toward women on their evaluations of female rape victims. It was hypothesized that male attitudes toward women would be ambivalent having both positive as well as negative components, resulting in more extreme evaluations of women, either more positive or more negative, depending upon the woman. To test the hypothesis, two scales were developed which assessed attitudes toward women in the domain of social issues and interpersonal relationships. These scales were internally consistent, functioned independently, and differentiated among known groups. They were given to male undergraduates who subsequently read one of four descriptions of a crime: low blame rape; high blame rape; low blame robbery; and high blame robbery. In the low blame conditions the victim was minimally responsible for her victimization while in the high blame conditions the victim's behavior apparently precipitated the crime. It was predicted that subjects' ambivalence (relatively high scores on both the positive and negative attitude scales) would be related to (a) low attributed victim blame and high victim empathy in the low blame rape condition and (b) high victim blame and low victim empathy in the high blame rape condition, but (c) would not be related to attributed victim blame or victim empathy in the robbery conditions. The separate positive and negative attitude scores were not expected to be related to ratings of culpability or empathy. Finally, neither ambivalence nor the separate pro and anti scores were expected to be correlated with criminal blame in any of the conditions. Contrary to the hypotheses it was found that the higher the ambivalence score, the more men blamed the low blame rape victim. Additionally, ambivalence was not correlated with either victim blame or empathy in the high blame rape condition. Lastly, it was found that under some conditions the pro scale was more predictive of attitudes while under other conditions the anti score had more predictive power. Explanations for these results include the salience of just world beliefs in the low blame rape condition and differential definitions and perceptions of rape in the high blame rape condition.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
