DOES AN INDIVIDUAL'S LOVE STYLE HAVE AN EFFECT ON THE WAY HE/SHE PERCEIVES AGGRESSION IN A SEXUALLY COERCIVE RELATIONSHIP?
Open Access
Author:
Anderson, Brittney Marie
Area of Honors:
Applied Psychology (Berks/Lehigh)
Degree:
Bachelor of Arts
Document Type:
Thesis
Thesis Supervisors:
Dr. Sandy Feinstein, Thesis Supervisor Brenda L Russell, Thesis Supervisor Dr. Sandy Feinstein, Thesis Honors Advisor
Keywords:
love styles rape sexual coercion
Abstract:
The purpose of this research was to investigate the role of love style Mania in relation to perceptions of sexually coercive behaviors perpetrated by a man or a woman. It was hypothesized that individuals high in Mania would perceive a sexually coercive attack toward a target as ‘romantic’ and rate the quality of the relationship between target and perpetrator higher than those low in Mania. A 2 (perpetrator gender) X 3 (coercive strategy to obtain sex; verbal, alcohol, or physical abuse) X 2 (high-low Mania) MANOVA was computed using perceived romanticism of the coercive behavior and overall relationship quality as the dependent variables. Results found coercive behavior was considered significantly more romantic when it was initiated by a female aggressor compared to a male aggressor. A coercive strategy by Mania interaction also revealed that participants high in Mania rated the physical coercion interaction significantly more romantic compared to verbal coercion and alcohol coercion used to obtain sex. In contrast, when alcohol was used as a coercive tactic those high in Mania found the behavior significantly less romantic than those low in Mania.
