Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Two studies examined college students' perceptions of the intensity of a woman's refusal behaviors in a date-rape situation. In Experiment 1, male and female college students were exposed to 15-second segments of an audiotape of a dramatized date rape in a random, context-free sequence. In Experiment 2, the vignette segments were presented in a natural story-line sequence. Using a magnitude-scaling procedure, participants in both studies rated the intensity of the woman's desire for the man to stop making sexual advances, after each tape segment. Intensity ratings in neither experiment varied in a monotonic manner with tape segment. Analyses also revealed similar ratings of refusal intensity across studies. Moreover, males and females did not differ in perceptions of refusal intensity. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Abbey, A. (1987). Misperceptions of friendly behavior as sexual interest: A survey of naturally occurring incidents. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 11, 173-194.

Abbey, A. , Cozzarelli, C. , McLaughlin, K. , & Harnish, R. J. (1987). The effects of clothing and dyad sex composition on perceptions of sexual intent: Do women and men evaluate these cues differently. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 17, 108-126.

Bateman, P. (1991). The context of date rape. In B. Levy (Ed.), Dating violence: Young women in danger (pp. 94-99). Seattle: Seal.

Ellis, L. (1989). Theories of rape: Inquiries into the causes of sexual aggression. New York: Hemisphere.

Federal Bureau of Investigation . (1986). Uniform crime reports. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice.

Holcomb, D. B. , Holcomb, L. C. , Sondag, K. A. , & Williams, N. C. (1991). Attitudes about date rape: Gender differences among college students. College Students Journal, 25, 434-439.

Kanin, E. J. (1984). Date rape: Unofficial criminals and victims. Victimology, 9, 95-108.

Koss, M. P. , Dinero, T. , Seibel, C. , & Cox, S. (1988). Stranger and acquaintance rape: Are there differences in the victim's experience? Psychology of Women Quarterly, 12, 1-24.

Koss, M. P. , Gidycz, C. A. , & Wisniewski, N. (1987). The scope of rape: Incidence and prevalence of sexual aggression and victimization in a national sample of students in higher education. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 55, 162-170.

10.

Kowalski, R. M. (1992). Nonverbal behaviors and perceptions of sexual intentions: Effects of sexual connotativeness, verbal response, and rape outcome. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 13, 427-445.

11.

Lodge, M. (1981). Magnitude scaling: Quantitative measurement of opinions. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

12.

Malamuth, N. M. , & Check, J.V.P. (1980). Sexual arousal to rape and consenting depictions: The importance of the woman's arousal. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 89, 763-766.

13.

Marx, B. P. , & Gross, A. M. (1995). Date rape: An analysis of two contextual variables. Behavior Modification, 19, 451-463.

14.

Muehlenhard, C. L. (1988). Misinterpreted dating behaviors and the risk of date rape. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 6, 20-37.

15.

Muehlenhard, C. L. , Linton, M. A. , Felts, A. S. , & Andrews, S. L. (1985, June). Men's attitudes toward the justifiability of date rape: Intervening variables and possible solutions. Paper presented at the annual midcontinental meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sex, Chicago, IL.

16.

Muehlenhard, C. L. , & McCoy, M. L. (1991). Double standard/double bind: The sexual double standard and women's communication about sex. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 15, 447-461.

17.

Muehlenhard, C. L. , & Rogers, C. S. (1993, August). Narrative descriptions of “token resistance to sex.” Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, Toronto, Canada.

18.

Shotland, R. L. , & Craig, J. M. (1988). Can men and women differentiate between friendly and sexually interested behavior? Social Psychology Quarterly, 51, 66-73.

19.

Van Wie, V. , Marx, B. P. , & Gross, A. M. (1995). Females' perception of date rape: An examination of two contextual variables. Violence Against Women, 1, 351-365.

20.

Yegidis, B. L. (1986). Date rape and other forced sexual encounters among college students. Journal of Sex Education and Therapy, 12, 51-54.

Magnitude Scaling of Intensity of Sexual Refusal Behaviors in a Date Rape

Abstract

Get full access to this article

References