Dissertations and Theses @ UNI
Availability
Open Access Thesis
Keywords
Acquaintance rape; Rape;
Abstract
The purpose of the present study was to determine if gender differences exist in assigning blame following a sexual assault. Based on the review of the literature it was hypothesized that women would be more predisposed than men to self-blame following a sexual assault. It was also hypothesized that, overall , those who possessed low rape myth acceptance would be less likely to see the victim as blame worthy and more likely to see the perpetrator as to blame for the sexual assault. Those with high rape myth acceptance would be more likely to see the victim as blame worthy and less likely to see the perpetrator as to blame for the sexual assault. The subjects were 395 undergraduate college students (231 females; 164 males) enrolled in Introductory Psychology courses at the University of Northern Iowa. Each subject read an acquaintance rape scenario designed by L'Armand and Pepitone (1982) and modified by the present researcher. Following the scenario each subject filled out a questionnaire regarding the scenario developed by Bulman and Wortman (1977) and modified by the present researcher. Finally each subject completed a Rape Myth Acceptance questionnaire designed by Burt (1980). The results of the study did not support the hypothesis that women were more likely to self-blame following a sexual assault. The results did support the hypothesis that those with low rape myth acceptance were less likely to see the victim as blame worthy and more likely to see the perpetrator as blame worthy. If the person had high rape myth acceptance they were more likely to assign more blame to the victim and assigned less blame to the perpetrator.
Year of Submission
1992
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
Department of Psychology
First Advisor
Beverly Kopper
Second Advisor
Jane Wong
Third Advisor
Augustine Osman
Date Original
1992
Object Description
1 PDF file (60 leaves)
Copyright
©1992 Lisa Ann Janssens
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Janssens, Lisa Ann, "Rape Myths and Attitudes" (1992). Dissertations and Theses @ UNI. 3044.
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/etd/3044
Comments
If you are the rightful copyright holder of this thesis and wish to have it removed from the Open Access Collection, please submit a request to [email protected] and include clear identification of the work, preferably with URL.