THE INFLUENCE OF RAPE MYTH ACCEPTANCE AND SEXUALLY COERCIVE BEHAVIORS SUCH AS ACQUAINTANCE RAPE ON

HIGHER EDUCATED INDIVIDUALS                              

A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Thesis Project Requirements for the Master of Science

in Clinical Psychology, Marriage and Family Therapy Degree at Notre Dame de Namur University

                                   

Submitted by Nancy I. Mejia Nov. 20, 2012

Approval Signatures

I certify that I have read this thesis and that, in my opinion, it meets thesis requirements for the

Master of Science in Clinical Psychology, Marriage and Family Therapy Degree.

______________________________ Nusha Askari. Ph.D Thesis Director, Clinical Psychology & Gerontology Department Notre Dame de Namur University

I also certify that I have read this thesis and that, in my opinion, it meets the thesis requirement

for the Master of Science in Clinical Psychology, Marriage and Family Therapy Degree.

______________________________ Helen Marlo, Ph.D Program Director, MSCP Second Reader Notre Dame de Namur University

This thesis has been approved for submission to the College of the Arts and Sciences at Notre

Dame de Namur University.

______________________________ John Lemmon, Ph.D Dean, College of Arts and Sciences Notre Dame de Namur University

Abstract

The bulk of research on acquaintance rape has focused on higher educated students. Studies revealed a positive relationship between sexually coercive behaviors and rape-supportive attitudes or rape myth acceptance. Despite much research, sexually coercive behaviors have not subsided, especially on college and university campuses. The current study investigated these factors but also tried to determine the level of awareness on acquaintance rape between males and females. Higher educated individuals (n= 152) were asked to participate in a 7-point Likert scale survey, which consisted of the Sexual Beliefs & Behavior Scale (SBBS), the Mejia’s Awareness on Acquaintance Rape (MAAR), and the Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance (IRMAS) scale. The first hypothesis that males would have less significant level of awareness, compared to females on what constitutes acquaintance rape was supported. The second hypothesis was also supported with results revealing a correlation between sexually coercive behaviors based on scores from the SBBS and rape-supportive attitudes based on scores from the MAAR and IRMA scales. The current study not only reiterated the importance of education to further awareness surrounding sexually coercive behaviors such as rape, particularly acquaintance rape, but also investigated the factors that may contribute sexually coercive behaviors.

                                                   

Table of Contents Title Page…………………………………………………………………………………………i Approval Signatures……………………………………………………………………………....ii Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………………...iii Table of Contents………………………………………………………………………………..iiii

I. Introduction………………………………………………………………………………..5 II. Theoretical and empirical rational……………...…………………………………………9 Questions of interest……………...…………………………………………………….....9 Hypotheses……………………………………………………………………………….13 III. Method…………………………………………………………………………………...15

Participants and design…………………………………………………………………..15 Materials and apparatus………………………………………………………………….15 Procedure………………………………………………………………………………...17

IV. Results……………………………………………………………………………………18 V. Discussion………………………………………………………………………………..19 Strengths of the current study……………………………………………………………26

Limitations of the current study………………………………………………….............27 Suggestions for future research………………………………………………………..…28 Implications………………………………………………………………………………30 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………….30

VI. References………………………………………………………………………………..34

VII. Appendix Captions……………………………………………………………….……...38 Appendix A………………………………………………………………………………39 Appendix B…………………………………………………………...………………….40 Appendix C………………………………………………………………………………41 Appendix D………………………………………………………………………………44 Appendix E………………………………………………………………………………47 Appendix F………………………………………………………………………………50 Appendix G………………………………………………………………………………53 Appendix H………………………………………………………………………………54 Appendix I……………………………………………………………………………….56 Appendix J……………………………………………………………………………….57

VII. Author Notes…………………………………………………………………………59

5 The Influence of Rape Myth Acceptance and Sexually Coercive Behaviors

Such As Acquaintance Rape on Higher Educated Individuals

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (2010), sexual assault rates have gone down

in recent years, and rape rates most notably have been stable since 1996, but these statistics are

only based on incidences reported to law enforcement. Kilpatrick and Ruggiero (2003),

conducted a wide survey in the state of California, which was funded by the National Violence

Against Women Prevention Research Center to investigate the magnitude and the nature of the

rape problem at the state level. The results of Kilpatrick and Ruggiero’s research found that an

estimated two million adult women in her lifetime, which is one out of every six in California

has been the victim of rape, and most do not report the assault to the police. These are

conservative estimates that do not include alcohol-or drug-facilitated rape, incapacitated rape,

statutory rape, as well as acquaintance rape (Kilpatrick & Ruggiero, 2003). The crime of sexual

assault, rape in particular, is one of the most under-reported crimes.

There are different types of rape that are under the crime of sexual assault. One in

particular that society is most familiar with, a sexual penetration that is forced upon the victim, a

woman or a man who does not know the attacker constitutes the general consensus for ‘real

rape.’ “Stranger rape” is the most widely known form of rape. Another form of rape that people

may not be aware of is defined as a forced sexual act by the perpetrator upon an unwilling

victim, who is either unconscious, or highly intoxicated by substances, to the point of conscious

impairment. The Federal Criminal Code defines this type of rape as an aggravated sexual abuse

by others (Kilpatrick & Ruggiero, 2003). The term-incapacitated rape was also used to describe

alcohol or drug facilitated rape, while the victim was unconscious or impaired (Kilpatrick &

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Ruggiero, 2003). Another form of rape is statutory rape, where a perpetrator commits any type

of non-forcible sex act (any kind of penetration) upon a minor or an underage child. These types

of rape are considered to be the ‘norm’ of what constitutes ‘real rape.’

The most controversial and highly studied type of rape is ‘acquaintance rape.’ There are

many myths attached to this type of rape and it is often discredited, due to these myths.

Acquaintance rape is defined as a forced sexual act (any kind of penetration) upon a victim, by a

person that she or he may have just met or has known. Students publicize most acquaintance

rapes as happening on campuses or off-campuses. Thus, the bulk of research has been focused on

students. Moreover, Sampson (2002), with the cooperation of the Office of Community Oriented

Policing Services of the U.S. Department of Justice, found that college women are more at risk

for rape and other forms of sexual assault than women the same age but not in college.

Furthermore, “women aged sixteen to twenty-four experience rape at rates four times higher than

the assault rate of all women thus, making the college and high school years the most

vulnerable” (Sampson, 2002, p.2).

The common reason to enter a tertiary education is to enhance knowledge. Thus, society

believes that college graduates are able to achieve more than the common man. People signify

this achievement as producing someone who is or will be highly looked upon and is considered

to be more civilized in manner. But discipline, hard work, and educational knowledge

unfortunately do not prevent misconduct, nor do they prevent educated individuals from

committing or experiencing sexual assault. The current study, takes a look into well-funded

institutions that have garnered worldwide praise and recognition, but unfortunately have not been

able to avoid sexual violence in their campuses. Stanford University is renowned for their

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academics. But in the past four years, there has been a spike in the number of reported sexual

assaults. From 2007 to 2010, there have been a total of 53 reported incidents of sexual assault (B.

Larson, personal communication, November 18, 2011). Nearly all of the sex offenses for each of

the years were committed by non-strangers, which meant fellow students committed the

offenses. The spike of reported sexual assaults can be attributed to the outreach efforts of

various departments of the University, which is to encourage the reporting of sexual offenses

(Sullivan, 2011, http://news.stanford. edu/news/2011/september/annual-safety-report- 092911.

html). But in 2010 alone, there were 21 reported forcible sexual assaults that included 13

completed rapes, four fondlings, and four “other” forcible offenses (2011 Safety, Security & Fire

Report Almanac). Forcible sexual assault is defined as, “any sexual act directed against another

person, forcibly or against that person’s will, including rape, forcible sodomy, sexual assault

with an object and forcible fondling” (Sullivan, K.J., 2011). In 1990, the U.S. Code of Federal

Regulations implemented the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus

Crime Statistics Act (Clery Report/Act), which requires all colleges and universities that

participate in federal financial funding aid programs to disclose information about crime on their

campus and near its vicinity. According to individual Clery Reports, within the last three years,

Ivy league campuses reveal the following: University of Pennsylvania had a total of 31 forcible

and non-forcible sex offenses (2011 Annual Security & Fire Safety Report), 36 forcible rapes

were reported on the grounds of Harvard University (2011-2012 Clery Act Report), Brown

University had 23 forcible sex-offenses (2011 Annual Security Report), Columbia University

had a total of 39 incidents of forcible sex-offenses (Columbia University Public Safety), while

Yale University had been investigated since last year in violation of the Clery Act, presumably

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had more than 30 forcible rape reports (www.thedaily beast.com/galleries/2010/09/13/most-

dangerous-colleges-2010.html). Another renowned school, University of California - Berkeley,

had 41 reported sex-offenses within the last three years (2010 Annual Report & Crime Statistics).

The first impression upon reading these statistics on reported sexual assaults is daunting and may

even stir up deep concern and emotion that if these incidences can happen inside these

prestigious institutes, potentially committed by educated individuals, what else can happen to

people in less prestigious places and by less educated people? Does education have a significant

role in the perpetration of a sexual assault?

In less financially funded campuses, shocking incidences such as the brutal gang rape and

beating of a 15 year old girl in 2009 at the sprawling campus of Richmond High School

California, can be considered an atrocious act. This case was especially shocking since there

were 20 people suspected of either watching the incident or participating in the vicious rape that

lasted for more than two hours. In 2007, in an off-campus party, a 17-year-old girl whose blood

alcohol was three times the limit was allegedly gang raped by eight De Anza College baseball

players inside the house of one of the suspects, while three female members of the De Anza

College female soccer team helped to stop the incident and were named the prime witnesses.

They stated in their interview on ABC News 20/20, “If three witnesses aren’t enough, why is

rape even a crime?” (Roberts, 2004). All the sexual assaults just described were either committed

on campuses, in different places such as the students’ homes and were mostly committed by

students that have been acquainted with the victims.

In response to the prevalence of acquaintance rape, a rule was passed under the Higher

Education Reauthorization Act of 1992, whereby colleges receiving federal funds must now have

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a written policy on sexual assault (Warshaw, 1988). The policy requires that federally-funded

institutions provide policy statements that describe steps that their officials will conduct once a

student is charged with a sexual assault by another student (Warshaw, 1988). Unfortunately,

justice for the victims of such morally reprehensible acts is not easily found. The rule for a

written policy on sexual assault has provided some impetus for change in support of the victim,

while also sending a signal to the perpetrators that their behavior will not be tolerated. Sadly, the

final outcome of the charges against a student for sexual assault does not always provide the

warranted punishment, such as the outcome on the De Anza Rape case, where the victim was

vilified, blamed, criticized for what she did, or who she is, rather than condemning the

perpetrators for their atrocious behavior (Warshaw, 1988). The questions that beg to be asked

are: 1) whether people are aware of what constitutes acquaintance rape and recognize that these

acts of sexual assault are a crime, 2) and do stereotypical beliefs exacerbate rape acceptance?

These questions are the focus of the current study.

According to Warshaw (1988), acquaintance rape is still being framed as a college-

focused, middle-class issue. Although the extent of research on acquaintance rape is conducted

on college students, “good community-based investigation also exists, showing that campuses

are no worse than society at large for the risk of acquaintance rape (Warshaw, 1988, p. xii).”

Despite this statement by Warshaw, the fact remains that there are more studies that focus on

campuses, particularly students from the ages of 16 – 25. The most cited, publicized, and

criticized clinical research on the scope of rape was conducted by Koss, Gidyez, and Wisniewski

in 1987. They administered the Sexual Experiences Survey to a national sample of 6,159 women

and men enrolled in 32 institutions “representative of the diversity of higher education settings

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across the United States” (Koss et al., p.162). Koss et al. stated that many of the studies have

focused on students because, “they are a high-risk group for rape since they are in the same age

range as the bulk of rape victims and offenders” (p.163). The scientific reason for studying this

group can be attributed to the victimization rate that the National Crime Victimization Survey

(NCVS) frequently conduct. Based on their data from 2007, the number one high-risk group for

rape is between the ages of 20-24, while the second high -risk group are between the ages of 16-

19 and the third high-risk group are between the ages of 25-34 (Bureau of Justice Statistics,

2010). The number one high-risk group from Koss et al’s research in 1987 was between the ages

of 16-19, which indicated a slight change on the percentage of age on the high-risk group for

rape. Koss et al. also administered a self-report instrument, which was designed to reflect various

degrees of sexually coercive behaviors and victimization. The findings from their research

revealed that one in four college women had experienced some form of rape or attempted rape

and that 84 percent of the raped women knew their attacker. While 57 percent of the rapes

happened on dates, only five percent reported the incident to the police. Furthermore, 38 percent

of the women who had been raped were from the ages of 14 to 17 years old at the time of the

assault (Warshaw, 1988), confirming the NCVS survey of high-risk group.

The myths about acquaintance rape have not waned nor gone away, rather, in this present

age, there is still an alarming rate of acceptance towards these myths. Myths such as ‘rape is

committed by crazy people,’ ‘a woman who gets raped deserves the consequence, since she

agreed to go inside the man’s house/car,’ ‘it is not rape if the woman is not a virgin’ (please see

Appendix A) are only but a few of the stereotypical beliefs that provide an atmosphere for victim

blame. According to Burt (1980), prejudicial stereotypes or false beliefs about rape create a

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hostile climate for rape victims. Moreover, it is assumed that rape-supportive attitudes may

influence men’s perceptions and facilitate sexually coercive behaviors, which the bulk of popular

literature on rape has addressed. Ellis (1989) stated that “social learning theorists believe that

rape is learned through a four-part process,” which is known as the Social Learning Theory of

Rape (as cited in Smith, 2002. http://jrscience.wcp.muohio.edu/humannature02/ FinalArticles /

quotRapeMythquot Acceptanc.html). The four-part process consists of (a) the modeling effect,

whereby men imitate the violence that they see in their environment or in the media against

women, (b) the sex-violence linkage effect, when men learn to associate sex and violence by

watching violent pornographic and slasher materials, (c) the desensitization effect, when society

is desensitized to the painful experiences of rape victims, and (d) “rape myth” effect, whereby

stereotypical and prejudicial beliefs maintain the atmosphere of rape acceptance, victim blame

and encourages sexual violence (Smith, 2002). This four-part process is a learned behavior

according to social learning theorists. The process is learned mostly from the media especially in

regards to violent pornography and slasher films (Smith, 2002). It is a common practice in

present society to blame the victim of sexual violence for precipitating her own victimization

(Moor, 2010), more so when such rape myths are still prevalent in the minds of the public.

According to Hinck and Thomas’ (1999), based on their research on rape myth acceptance in

college students, rape myths have also been linked to an individual’s definition of rape. “The

more an individual adheres to rape myths as ‘truth,’ the more restrictive the definition of rape

(p.815).” Hinck and Thomas emphasized that this may help explain why a majority of the men

who received high scores on their surveys tend to view a coercive behavior as non-existent and

thus, do not consider a coercive behavior as a form of rape. Furthermore, White, Koss & Kazdin

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(2011) reiterated the concept of ‘distorted perceptions.’ Citing several studies suggesting, “males

that are likely to rape may have perceptual biases that lead to specific misperceptions of

women’s communications (p.128).”

The notion that strangers or deviants are the ones that commit rape or sexual offenses are

fallacies that many people believe as “real rape.” In the last decade, there have been more

sympathetic ears towards the plight of victims of acquaintance rape, but many do not take this

type of sexual assault seriously. Despite the mounting research and studies, there are still a vast

number of people who deny the reality of acquaintance rape. According to Warshaw (1988), the

rape-deniers, men and women alike, who are suspicious and have disdain for statistical facts,

choose to ignore the results of these studies that reveal that most victims who are raped are raped

by those they know. There is a saying by Calhoun and Townsley (1991) that “attributions of

cause are merely explanations given for the occurrence of an event” (as cited in Workman &

Freeburg, 1999, p.262). The event such as rape can likely be perceived as an attribution of cause

to the victim, either due to her dress or how she appears, or her failure to say no to going inside

the man’s place of residence (Workman & Freeburg, 1999). This implies that the “victim had

some control over the likelihood of occurrence of rape (p.262),” which seems to be the prevalent

practice of ‘blaming the victim.’ This is called Attribution Theory, which is a cause and effect

assumption. Given that the vast body of research on acquaintance and date rape are on college

students, and some implication on the attribution theory from the Social Learning Theory on

Rape perspective, which have shown a correlation between rape myth acceptance and adherence

to sexual coercive behaviors, thus, to further evaluate on the findings of these previous studies,

the questions of interest of this research paper are: 1) awareness of what constitutes acquaintance

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rape, which is a crime of sexual assault and 2) if prejudicial stereotypical beliefs help support

sexual violence.

Having awareness is defined as being able to feel, to perceive, to be conscious of or sense

certain aspects or events, but not necessarily knowing or understanding. This definition was

tested in a study conducted by Lonsway and Kothari (2000), whereby they evaluated the impact

of First Year Campus Acquaintance Rape Education (FYCARE) workshop on participants. This

was a mandatory program for first year undergraduates (Lonsway & Kothari, 2000) that

hopefully would bring awareness to acquaintance rape. A questionnaire was conducted

immediately after attending the workshop that was designed to elicit less-support for cultural

myths and less rape-supportive judgments. The investigators hypothesized that the participants

who had previously attended FYCARE would reveal more ‘positive outcomes’ than those who

had not yet attended their scheduled workshop (Lonsway & Kothari, 2000). Positive outcomes

signify the participants as having greater knowledge, which indicates more awareness of sexual

assault, and “less endorsement of cultural rape myths, and judgments in a hypothetical

acquaintance rape scenario that are more favorable to the victim and punitive toward the

perpetrator (Lonsway & Kothari, 2000, p. 233).” The results of the study substantiated the

hypothesis, revealing that the participants did have greater sexual assault ‘knowledge,’ that

indicated less support for cultural rape myths and less rape-supportive judgments in a

hypothetical scenario compared to those who did not yet attend a FYCARE workshop. This

illustrates that rape education with repeated exposure can be successful in reducing the level of

rape-supportive ideology as well as attitude change (Lonsway & Kothari, 2000). Furthermore,

cognitive change by means of education workshops, participating in survey questionnaires or

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attending intervention programs can have positive outcomes that are necessary in understanding

what cognitive change would look after undergoing these programs (Drieschner & Lange, 1999).

Taking into account all of the research above, this paper investigated whether males and

females recognize what sexual violence pertains to with regard to acquaintance rape and the

issue that lies within cultural myths or rape-supportive attitudes that may influence sexually

coercive behaviors, which result in sexual assaults. For this study, there were two hypotheses:

first, that males will have significantly less awareness on what constitutes acquaintance rape as

compared to females, as measured by their total score on Mejia’s Awareness on Acquaintance

Rape Scale (MAAR) and of one relevant question on the Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale

(IRMAS). This measure will be herewith mentioned as the combined MAAR-IRMAS. The

results for the first hypothesis were expected to reveal that compared to females, males would

have less awareness of sexually coercive behaviors such as acquaintance rape. The second

hypothesis stated there would be a positive correlation between sexually coercive behaviors, as

measured by the participants’ total score from the Sexual Belief and Behavior Scale (SBBS) and

rape-supportive attitudes, as measured by their total score on the MAAR and IRMA scale. Thus,

the higher the total score garnered from the modified SBBS, which would reveal sexually

coercive (Burt, 1980) and interpersonal violent behaviors, the higher their total score would be

on the MAAR and IRMA scale, which would reveal rape-supportive attitudes. To partially

replicate the research conducted by Koss et al.(1987), Burt (1980), and Payne, Lonsway and

Fitzgerald (1999), the chosen participants for this study were higher educated individuals.

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Method

Participants and design

The participants for this study were a sample of 152 students. The participants were

recruited through Internet sources such as emails, Craigslist and word of mouth. Participants

included 76 females and 76 males, and ages ranged from 18 to 40. Fifty one percent (n = 77) of

the participants were affiliated to a Christian faith, 18.42% (n = 28) reported no affiliation,

10.5% (n = 16) were categorized as ‘other,’7.9% (n =12) were Jews, 5.9% (n = 9) reported to be

either an Atheist or Agnostic, while 6.6% (n = 10) were Buddhist or Muslim respectively.

The participants were informed that they were participating in a study that would assess their

beliefs, attitudes, and awareness of cultural myths that may influence sexually coercive

behaviors.

For the first hypothesis, the research design that was used was a quasi-experimental

between-subject design. The quasi-independent variable was gender, and the dependent variable,

was the combined score from the MAAR-IRMAS. For the second hypothesis, two variables of

interest were scores from the scale of MAAR and IRMAS, and the SSBS score.

Materials and apparatus

For the first hypothesis, the researcher used a self-created measurement scale entitled

Mejia’s Awareness on Acquaintance Rape (MAAR – please see Appendix B). The MAAR scale

was created to test for awareness or perception of acquaintance rape. The MAAR scale was

answered on a 7-point Likert scale: 1 being Strongly Disagree, 2 being Disagree, 3 being

Somewhat Disagree, 4 being Neutral, 5 being Somewhat Agree, 6 being Agree, and 7 being

Strongly Agree. A higher total score indicated a higher probability to support the hypothesis, that

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males would have significantly less awareness on what constitutes acquaintance rape compared

to females whereas, the lower the measured total score would indicate a lower probability that

males would have less significant difference in awareness of what constitutes acquaintance rape

compared to females. Additionally, one item from the IRMAS was also used in conjunction with

the MAAR. The IRMAS is a scale that assesses acceptance of rape mythology, adherence to

stereotyping and an indication that the rape victims are somehow responsible for their

victimization. The IRMAS was used to test for the first hypothesis because of its close

association with the definition of acquaintance rape, which is the question “In reality, women are

almost never raped by their boyfriends.” This question from the IRMAS was also scored on a 7-

point Likert scale and combined with the MAAR scale (the combined MAAR-IRMAS) to test

for the first hypothesis.

For the second hypothesis, three different measurement scales were utilized. The first

scale is the modified self-report questionnaire entitled Sexual Belief and Behavior Scale (SBBS,

please see Appendix C). The scale was comprised of five different measurement scales that were

interspersed in the survey, which are the following: Burt’s (1980) Adversarial Sex Beliefs

(ASB), designed to reflect relationships that are fundamentally exploitative as well as

negativism, Burt’s (1980) Acceptance of Interpersonal Violence (AIV), designed to reflect

endorsement of force, coercion, particularly against women, Burt’s (1980) Sex Role Stereotyping

(SRS), designed to reflect beliefs of traditional expected roles, Burt’s (1980) Sexual

Conservatism, designed to reflect restrictions on the appropriateness of sexual partners, sexual

acts and focuses on sexual behaviors, and finally Koss et al’s (1987) Sexual Experience Survey

(SES) was designed to reflect various degrees of sexual aggression and victimization. A 7-point

17

Likert scale was also used to score the SBBS scale. The second scale used for hypothesis two

was the 45-item complete version scale of the Payne et al. (1999) Illinois Rape Myth Scale

(IRMAS, please see Appendix D), and was also scored using a 7-point Likert scale.

Furthermore, the MAAR scale was also used to test the second hypothesis. A request to obtain

permission to use all six of the following scales mentioned above was submitted and obtained

prior to usage (please see Appendix E).

Procedure

Once the proposal was completed and approved by the thesis advisor and second reader,

it was then submitted to the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at Notre Dame de Namur

University. The IRB is the governing body that must approve the proposal before the research

study is conducted; and safeguards the welfare and the rights of human research participants.

Once the IRB granted permission, the research study was conducted. The gathering of necessary

data, such as compiling measurement scales to test the hypotheses for this study, as well as

programming and creating the online database for participants who were taking the survey

online, were also conducted, as well as a request to obtain the copyright of the six measurement

scales for this study, which was needed prior to usage of data sampling. The first step in

conducting the recruitment of participants was done by sending letters of consent to the

respective deans of the seven different campuses (please see Appendix F) around the Bay Area.

After obtaining the letters of consent and the permission of the deans, the plan of recruitment

was to go to the campuses and request students to participate by going online to conduct the

survey. Recruitment on campuses was cancelled due to time constraints. Further recruitment was

conducted via email and word of mouth (please see Appendix G), while testing was administered

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through www.surveymonkey.com. Before the survey was administered, all participants were

provided with consent forms (please see Appendix H). To maintain confidentiality, the names

and identities of the participants were not obtained on the survey. Participants were required to

confirm their age on the consent form, younger than 18 years old was not permitted. Once

consent was obtained, demographic information was taken (age, gender, religious affiliation,

ethnicity and level of education - please see Appendix I) before commencing the survey. After

participants completed the survey, they were given a debriefing statement (please see Appendix

J) with information about the survey, contact information of the researcher, and advice to attend

counseling in the event they experienced any psychological reaction to the survey. Participants

were also informed that they could print out the consent forms and whosoever provided an email

address would be sent a follow-up email with the final results and analysis. The data collection

was conducted for three weeks.

Results

There were an equal number of male and female participants (n=152) who completed the survey.

To test the first hypothesis that males would have significantly less awareness than females on

what constitutes acquaintance rape as measured by their total score taken from the combined

MAAR-IRMAS, a between subjects t-test was performed, with t(150) = 3.39, p = .001, p < .05.

A significant difference was found between males (M=28.6, SD=8.35) and females (M=23.6,

SD=9.61) on the combined MAAR-IRMAS.

To test the second hypothesis that there would be a positive correlation between sexually

coercive behaviors as measured by the participants’ total score from the SBBS and rape-

supportive attitudes as measured by their total score on the MAAR and IRMAS, a Pearson

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correlation was conducted, with r(150) = .91, p = .001, p < 05. This indicates a strong positive

correlation between SBBS scores and the added MAAR and IRMAS scores. Participants who

exhibited high sexually coercive behaviors (SBBS) (M = 103.6, SD = 26.3) also exhibited high

rape-supportive attitudes (MAAR and IRMAS) (M =184.2, SD = 57.5). All results were collated

and entered into the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) to be analyzed.

Discussion

The purpose of this study was to investigate awareness on acquaintance rape among

higher educated individuals. Higher educated individuals are of particular interest to this study,

even though they have been overrepresented in statistics concerning sexual victimization and

perpetration, but also because of their developmental stage from continued education that renders

them especially susceptible to “cultural mythology regarding gender, sexuality and violence

(Payne et al., 1999, p. 61).” Moreover, a heightened focus was on sexually coercive incidents

committed by males upon females, which are more common than female perpetrators. The

results for the first hypothesis showed a positive indication that males exhibited less awareness

on what constitutes acquaintance rape as compared to females. The results for the second

hypothesis also showed a strong positive correlation between sexually coercive behaviors and

rape-supportive attitudes. The correlation indicates that when sexual beliefs and behaviors are

high, rape myth acceptance is also high, and that when sexual beliefs and behaviors are low, rape

myth acceptance is also low. Previous studies have resulted with the same outcome in regards to

the correlation between sexual coercive behaviors and adherence to rape myths. The following

are several key factors that are identified as indicators for sexual assault.

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Perceptual Awareness

Although there have been a lot of research studies on acquaintance rape, there has not

been much focus on level of awareness on what constitutes acquaintance rape, perhaps because it

is relatively difficult to address such a perception. Moreover, it is quite difficult to assess

perception or awareness through means of only a survey questionnaire. It may be that the males

who exhibited less awareness of what constitutes acquaintance rape had rape-supported attitudes

and sexually coercive behaviors, perhaps due to lack of perceptual awareness. It is said that our

actions follow our perceptions and according to the Sense-Datum philosopher Chisholm (1950),

our perceptual awareness is a ‘conscious subjective sensory experience.’ “What the subject is

aware of is the object of experience, the object of experience is that which is given to the senses

(as cited in Crane, 2011. http://plato.stanford.edu/ archives/spr 2011/entries/ perception-

problem). Therefore, perceptual awareness is present while we are conscious, unless there is a

neurological disorder that prevents the brain from receiving or transmitting sensory receptors that

carry impulses to the brain. But awareness or lack thereof, have often been the excuse or claim of

perpetrators of sexual assault. Furthermore, perception or awareness is often misconstrued based

on the question that is presented, which may have different meanings to different people. For

instance, Scully and Morolla (1982), found that although many of the male participants in their

study used physical force and may have injured their victims, they saw their behavior as

“congruent with consensual sexual activity” (as cited in Koss et al., 1987, p. 169). They further

revealed that some men may have accurately “failed to perceive the degree of force and

coerciveness that was involved in a particular sexual encounter, or misperceived or

misinterpreted correctly a woman’s non-consent and resistance (p. 169).” According to White,

21

Koss and Kazdin (2011), in their book Violence against women and children, there are four

categories that have emerged to be considered as concurrent risk factors that cause men to rape.

One of those risk factors to be considered is the cognitive-perceptual-proclivities that distort

communication in relationships. In the case of acquaintance rape, ‘distorted perceptions’ is what

White et al. (2011) have described that “occurs in sexually coercive behaviors within a social

context that requires the active selection and processing of information (p.128).” Moreover,

research studies such as Drieschner and Lange (1999) have suggested that men who are likely to

rape have perceptual biases, which “lead to specific misperceptions of women’s communications

(p.128)” and that these perceptions are clustered into three hypothetical classes (as cited in White

et al. 2011): “the tendency to over perceive friendly behavior as seductive and assertive behavior

as hostile; a positivity bias that in ambiguous situations transforms negative, dismissive

communications into encouragement; and a general set to mistrust women’s communications

and perceive them as hostile (p. 128). Several studies have supported these hypotheses,

where results have shown that sexually coercive men and men who adhere to sex role stereotypes

have misconstrued and over perceived the sexual intent in the women’s behaviors. For instance,

the study by Farris, Treat, Viken and McFall (2008), provided a comprehensive review of the

relationship between sexual misperception and sexual coercion, an explanation of the “gender

differences in perception of women’s sexual intent (p.48),” as well as situational risk-factors that

may increase sexual misperception to occur. Understanding the causality that leads to sexual

violence has many different trajectories. Based on the interviews with sexually aggressive men,

Kanin (1969) suggested that these men are “hyper-sensitive to cues of sexual interest, including

those that were not intended to be perceived as interest (as cited in Farris et al. 2008, p.49).”

22

Another study conducted by Abbey et al. (1995, 200), consistently found that compared with

women, men “rated women targets as conveying more sexual intent (as cited in Farris et al.

(2011), p. 50).” Moreover, “males are unable to distinguish females friendly behavior from their

seductive behavior and that it is difficult to distinguish friendly cues from sexual cues (Farris et

al. 2011, p.53).” The motivation of the men to react with aggression, stems from frustration and

confusion due to misperception that the women were pursuing a sexual encounter but then

changes their mind and eventually turns them down, which lead the men to believe that the

women were leading them on. This misperception extends more so with men who have high

scores on hostile masculinity, believing that women are disingenuous and untrustworthy and

thus, may not seriously accept women’s refusal (Jacques-Tiura, Abbey, Parkhill, 2007). These

men do not recognize that their misperception has provided them with a false sense of

entitlement. Furthermore, Abbey et al. (1982) postulated that the results of men who were more

prone in perceiving sexual intent where it actually does not exist, may be due to men’s’ general

tendency in perceiving their environment in a more sexualized term or over-sexualize social

norms or social learning (Farris et al. 2011, p.52). Do men have lower decisional threshold for

labeling a behavior as sexual interest? There are some suggestions by researchers that there is a

gender effect, whereby men are insensitive towards women’s sexual intent cues.

Sex-role Stereotyping

Another component that must be evaluated is that sex-role stereotyping may also play an

integral role in how an individual perceives acquaintance or date rape. Moor’s (2010) research

revealed that victim blaming is much more rampant among men than among women, but in the

current study, results revealed that victim blame was found in both the sexes. Previous research

23

has indicated the relationship between victim blaming and rape-myth acceptance, which was also

found in the current study. The research by Coller and Resick (1987) found women in the high

sex-role stereotyping group, “had higher score on blaming the victim more for her victimization,

felt the victim led the perpetrator on, and attributed more responsibility to the victim for her

situation (as cited in Hinck & Thomas, 1999, p. 815).”

Alcohol

Society is well informed about the adverse reaction of mind and body due to consumption

of alcohol. There are too many studies to count that have expounded on how alcohol plays a role

on cognitive impairment and produces disinhibiting effects. According to Steele and Josephs

(1990), higher cognitive processes such as interpreting complex, subtle or ambiguous cues are

misinterpreted and interfered by alcohol consumption (as cited in Abbey, Zawacki, Clinton &

Buck, 2001). Moreover, Abbey and colleagues (1998) found in their study an indirect link

between sexual assault perpetration and the effects of alcohol on men’s misperception on

women’s sexual intentions (Abbey et al., 2001). Many studies have found that the majority of

sexual assaults such as acquaintance rape and date rape occur at parties and events that

encourage alcohol consumption that are often committed by college men. In addition, they found

that the more the males had frequently misperceived the sexual intentions of females, the more

frequently the males committed sexual assault. A large number of the college men believe that

because the women “led them on,” it is acceptable to force sex, since they were provoked to do

so (Abbey et al., 1998; Koss et al., 1987). Moreover, results from Abbey et al’s study suggest

that out of 343 males, 35% of the males consumed alcohol and committed sexual assault.

Furthermore, a study conducted by Muehlenhard and Linton (1987) have also found that the

24

males “feel more entitled to force sexual intercourse” on women they are acquainted to, and have

“misperceived” their friendly cues as sexual intentions, while intoxicated (Abbey et al., 2001).

Rape Myths and Sexually Coercive Behaviors

In the 1970’s, sociologists such as Schwendinger and Schwendinger (1974) and feminists

such as Brownmiller (1975), first introduced the concept of rape myths (as cited in Payne et al.,

1999). They “described a complex set of cultural beliefs thought to support and perpetuate male

sexual violence against women (p. 27).” They further theorized that “cultural mythology

surrounding rapes also served to perpetuate male sexual aggression against women (p.28).”

Sexual assault perpetration is linked to several underlying factors such as personality

characteristics (e.g., impulsivity, low empathy) as well as past experiences (e.g., childhood

sexual abuse, delinquency). According to Burt (1980), “rape is the logical psychological

extension of a dominant submissive, competitive, sex-role stereotyped culture, while sex role

stereotyping is the precondition for targeting women as potential victims, acceptance of

interpersonal violence may be the manner in which a person’s attitudes about assault are revealed

(p. 229).” Burt (1980) found that participants’ acceptance of interpersonal violence was the

strongest predictor of men’s rape myth acceptance. Burt (1980) further emphasized that in order

to begin to prevent rapes in this society; there must be a “theoretical understanding of rape

attitudes and assaultive behaviors (p.229).” Burt’s Rape Myth Acceptance scale as well as the

revised Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance scale has provided a means of measuring these attitudes.

The current study also investigated the probability that accepting rape myth ideologies is one of

the underlying factors in sexually coercive behaviors. White, Donat and Humphrey (1996), also

examined attitudes underlying sexual coercion among acquaintances. Their research primarily

25

studied the affective, cognitive and behavioral components of attitudes toward rape, and found

that “affectively based attitudes, but not cognitively based attitudes, were correlated with level of

self-reported sexual coercion (p.8).” White et al. stated, “Self-reported sexually coercive men are

more accepting of traditional sex roles, interpersonal violence, adversarial relationships and rape

myth acceptance.” Many studies, such as the Hinck and Thomas (1999) research found that

individuals’ acceptance of rape myths and rape-supportive attitudes were correlated with

increased sex role stereotyping, “stronger adherence to adversarial sexual beliefs and greater

acceptance of interpersonal violence within relationships (Hinck & Thomas, 1999, p. 815).”

They further elaborated on how rape myths have also been linked to an individual’s definition of

rape.

A closer look on the MAAR and IRMA Scales

Large amounts of research have supported the relationship between sexually coercive

behaviors and rape supportive attitudes. For example, Payne et al. (1999), not only yielded

results, which revealed a general myth component, but also introduced the development

procedures for the IRMA scale. The IRMAS produced good psychometric properties that

indicated higher mean scores for males compared to females but also revealed that individuals

with higher scores on the IRMAS were more likely to a) “hold more traditional sex role

stereotypes, b) endorse the notion that the relation of the sexes is adversarial in nature, c) express

hostile attitudes toward women, and d) be relatively accepting of both interpersonal violence and

violence more generally (Payne et al., 1999, p. 55).” White et al’s (1996) study examined the

cognitive, affective and behavioral intentions of college participants. One of the measurement

scales used was the Burt’s (1980) Rape Myth Acceptance Scale, as it was “the most widely used

26

attitudes-toward-rape scale (p.29),” but for the current study, the researcher chose IRMAS rather

than Burt’s Rape Myth Acceptance Scale because wording and clarity of the items and colloquial

phrases have been updated. Moreover, IRMAS has some items devoted to the characteristics of

the rapist (Payne et al. 1999). The measurement also emphasizes rape supportive attitudes, which

are considered to be more of masculine-ideological-beliefs that are hypothesized to support

sexually coercive behaviors (Farris et al. 2011). The current study utilized two measurement

scales for the first hypothesis; the first measurement scale (MAAR), had seven items on a seven

point Likert scale. The researcher decided to create the Mejia’s Awareness on Acquaintance

Rape due to the lack of success in finding relevant questions from surveys from previous studies,

targeting awareness or perception of acquaintance rape. Moreover, the seven questions presented

on MAAR are salient for distinguishing whether or not the participant accepts the rationale of the

situation or question presented upon them. Providing a seven point Likert scale was also relevant

in measuring the intensity of the feelings or intent of the participants. The researcher believes

that the robust results garnered were due to the structure of the MAAR scale, that expounded the

saliency of the questions presented, combined with the seven point Likert scale. Even 16 years

after White et al. (1996) conducted their research, similar results were also found in the current

study. Although for the current study, gender was not a variable of interest for the second

hypothesis, as in the study of White et al; rather, the focus for the second hypothesis was on the

overall score on the SBBS compared to the added scores of the MAAR scale and IRMA scale,

which conferred the relationship between rape myth acceptance and sexually coercive behaviors.

27

Limitations

Despite the robust results that the hypotheses achieved, the current study had a few

limitations; the MAAR scale still lacked content validity. Therefore, the MAAR scale should be

utilized further to test if the MAAR questionnaire is a representative sample of the questions

presented. Another limitation is that the participants were not recruited through the seven

campuses that the researcher was hoping to receive permission to recruit from. Recruiting

participants from the campuses guarantees that the participants are higher educated. Whereas,

random recruitment via Internet sites such as Craigslist, Facebook and through emails do not

guarantee the face value of the participants in being truthful if they have or had higher education.

Age factor should not be limited from only 18 to 40 but rather ages from 13 to 60 should be

taken into consideration to reach a wider age population. Moreover, relying only on survey

questionnaires is questionable, due to biased reporting of self-presentation. Preferably, providing

a variation of different types of surveys such as open-ended measurements, closed-ended

scenarios that access hostile masculinity should also be included.

Implications and Suggestions for future research

Although much has been studied on attitudes about rape, studies concerning acquaintance

rape awareness have not yet been fully explored. An interesting research path would be to add

the perceptions of less educated individuals across the ages, from adolescence to old age.

Another suggestion to consider is comparing the less educated versus the highly educated on

their perception of acquaintance rape and overall awareness of sexual assault, which might show

that there is something about higher education that links to awareness of acquaintance rape.

Another suggestion is to expand the diversity of the participants by recruiting in different

28

locations, not only in different States but also in different countries thus, acquiring a more

heterogeneous group of participants. A final research suggestion would be to address the ‘rape

intent’ of perpetrators by bringing the survey to incarcerated individuals prosecuted for rape

versus a control group of participants who are not incarcerated. A study such as that would

expand on research by Scully and Morolla (1984) who looked at a population of incarcerated

men who were convicted of rape. Their study revealed that 69 percent of the respondents’

perception of their crimes was not rape but an act of compulsion that was situationally

appropriate. The perpetrators denied that they committed rape, but rather justified their acts by

claiming that the victim was not only a willing participant, but also enjoyed it (Scully and

Morolla, 1984). These results correspond with previous studies mentioned earlier that found that

many of the male participants in their study saw their behavior as “congruent with consensual

sexual activity” (as cited in Koss et al., 1987, p. 169), and that these men may have “failed to

perceive the degree of force and coerciveness that was involved in a particular sexual encounter”

(Koss et al., 1987, p. 169), assuming that a misperception or misinterpretation of the victim’s

non-consent and resistance were not immediately recognized as a sexually coercive behavior that

lead to a sexual assault. This further substantiates the research conducted by Hinck and Thomas

(1999) who found individuals adhering to rape myths as ‘truth,’ were more restrictive to the

definition of rape. They theorized that this type of thinking process might explain why a majority

of the men who received high scores on the surveys tend to view a coercive behavior as non-

existent and thus, do not consider a coercive behavior as a form of rape. Therefore, further

analysis on the ‘rape intent’ of the incarcerated rapists may provide a more compelling

explanation on how the mind set of sexual perpetrators’ differ or may align with non-

29

incarcerated individuals. Another suggestion is a pre-test and post-test design in conjunction with

an intervention in order to accurately determine the difference in attitude change as well as

cognitive change, and to evaluate the longevity of the changes. Such as the research by Lonsway

and Kothari (2000), have shown that having prior rape education programs, through means of

attending intervention workshops or answering survey questionnaires are successful in reducing

the level of rape-supportive ideology, especially if the intervention is conducted repeatedly.

“Changing attitudes toward rape has the potential to reduce the incidence of rape on college

campuses, although the reported incidence of rape may increase as awareness increases (Jensen,

1993, p.57) and according to Fishbein (1967), influencing attitudes is a step toward changing

behavior (as cited in Jensen, 1993).” The pre-test could be in a form of a questionnaire survey

before any prevention education, and then a follow-up post-test should be conducted after six

months to a year from the first administration. Another suggestion is to address prevention of

sexual assault on Junior High School campuses. Any awareness starts with education and

exposure. Currently, programs surrounding rape are found in the higher educational institutions

and beyond. Rape awareness programs, with incorporation of the results of this current study,

should also be implemented in other different community locations to increase exposure, namely

middle school and high schools. For instance, if school counselors are aware that both males and

females exhibit excessive amount of sexually coercive behaviors due to the influence of rape

myth acceptance, then they can begin to educate adolescent boys and girls about these myths.

Furthermore, educating the young about sexual assault and explaining the definitions of

acquaintance rape by having a sexual assault prevention month every year would assist in

increasing awareness.

30

More research is needed to further study the different types of perpetrators of sexual

assault, most notably those who adhere to acquaintance rape. Results from these studies provide

important implications for sexual assault prevention programs. Providing prevention programs

that target the male population from 13 to 40 year olds and from all walks of life, should

emphasize that even when a female agrees to kiss or might even acquiesce to touching and

petting, this still does not constitute in agreeing to have sex. Hopefully, through proper training

and repeated exposure of prevention education will improve males’ awareness of acquaintance

rape. On a larger scale, the researcher believes that the media should play a more pivotal role in

alleviating sexually coercive behaviors such as acquaintance rape and rape myth acceptance.

Although the government has designated the month of April as sexual assault awareness month

(SAAM), the media should instill more effort by being more conscientious in how women are

being portrayed and depicted. Sex and violence have always been the selling factor for movies

and television shows. However, to show support for the month of SAAM, the government should

require that pornographic, sexual or very provocative materials depicting gender biases and

sexual exploitation of men and women be discouraged. Through this effort, there would be a

more massive awareness in society at large and thus, the younger generation would have better

examples to follow and a better understanding about certain beliefs that encourage sexually

coercive behaviors.

Conclusion

Addressing controversial topics such as acquaintance rape in higher education institutions

are highly necessary to facilitate the public’s awareness concerning acquaintance rape. Because

previous studies have shown that acquaintance rape is still not yet accepted as an official form of

31

sexual assault, and that forcing a friend or an acquaintance is more acceptable than ‘stranger

rape.’ The majority of studies that have proliferated are about sexual assault by students and

these incidences are often happening on campuses. Furthermore, studies have revealed that

females from the ages of 16 – 25 are in the category of high-risk group for rape, and that rape

victims and the perpetrators are in the same age range. Past research have also shown that

prejudicial stereotypes about rape provide a climate that is hostile for rape victims, such as

prevalence for victim blame. Moreover, rape-supportive attitudes have influenced the males’

perceptions and facilitate sexually coercive behaviors. Theorists have provided an explanation on

how rape is learned through a four-part process called The Social Learning Theory of rape,

which consists of (a) the modeling effect, whereby violence against women are being imitated by

the men through what they see in the environment or in the media (b) the sex-violence linkage

effect, where men learn to associate violence and sex through watching slasher and violent

pornographic materials, (c) the desensitization effect, whereby the painful experiences of rape

victims have desensitized society and lastly, (d) “rape myth” effect, whereby prejudicial and

stereotypical beliefs maintain the atmosphere of victim blame, rape acceptance and encourages

sexual violence. Additionally, the theory of Attributions of Cause have also attempted to

provided an explanation of victim blaming, by implying that the victim had some control over

her victimization of rape.

Attempts to bring more awareness to acquaintance rape have been evidenced by a few

well-known studies that introduced measurement scales that have been utilized often in studies

regarding sexual assault. Workshops were established to elicit rape-supportive judgments and

adherence towards stereotypical beliefs, afterwards providing education on what sexual assault

32

entails. Most of these studies have illustrated that providing rape education, intervention

workshops and participating in survey questionnaires, with repeated exposure, and at a very

young age can be successful in reducing ideologies that facilitate sexually coercive behaviors,

rape-supportive ideologies and facilitate attitude change. Studies on the factors of sexual assault

have numerously been investigated and attempts to understand such motives have been

examined. One of the underlying factors that the current study examined is the misperception or

lack of awareness of male population on what constitutes acquaintance rape. Results for the

current study revealed there was significant difference in level of awareness of males, compared

to females on acquaintance rape. The results provided a support for other studies that suggest that

males have perceptual biases but may also misperceive or misconstrue the sexual intent of the

females’ behavior. Results for the second hypothesis also revealed a strong positive correlation

between sexually coercive behaviors and rape-supportive attitudes. These results also suggest a

possible interaction of how rape-myth adherence can facilitate sexually coercive behaviors and

thus, misperception can often occur due to present ideologies. Despite the robust results

supporting the hypotheses, further investigation is required to gather more evidence to help

expound the level of awareness, not only on what constitutes as acquaintance rape among male

population, but also if given the chance to commit acquaintance rape, that this is a crime of

sexual assault, which is punishable by law. Research of this, will tie in with all the previous

studies mentioned above on how to provide prevention education among the male population.

With increased awareness, the public can identify acquaintance rape as a sexual assault, and also

raise empathy and understanding towards the victims of such criminal act. More research is

needed to provide more clarity to this sensitive topic, and to further evaluate the direction of how

33

and where research on sexual assault; rape myth acceptance and acquaintance rape would

continue to grow.

34

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38

Appendix Captions

Appendix A. Myth and Reality Examples

Appendix B. Mejia’s Awareness of Acquaintance Rape - MAAR

Appendix C. Sexual Assault and Behavior Scale - SBBS

Appendix D. Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale - IRMAS

Appendix E. Measurement Scale Request Approval

Appendix F. Letter Of Consent To The Deans

Appendix G. Recruitment Letter

Appendix H. Consent Form

Appendix I. Demographics Form

Appendix J. Debriefing Statement

39

Appendix A

The following are the most common myths juxtaposed with the reality (Warsaw, 1988):

Myth Reality

Rape is committed by crazy strangers Most women are raped by those they know, who are “normally sane” A woman who gets raped deserves the consequence, since she agreed to go inside the man’s house, car, room There is no excuse to deserve to be raped or violated upon, where ever it may be Women who do not fight back have not been raped You have been raped if you have been

forced, coerced, threatened to have sex against your will, whether you fight back or not

If there was no deadly weapon, then it was not rape Whether or not the rapist used a deadly weapon, his fists, verbal threats, drugs, alcohol, or used his own weight to pin you down, it is still rape It is not rape if the victim is not a virgin The virginity of a person has no relevance on whether the person was raped or not, but rather the act itself, of forcing the act upon an unwilling victim constitutes rape Agreeing to kiss, neck or pet with a man constitutes willingness to have sex Everyone has the right to say, “no” to sexual activity, regardless of what has preceded it, and to have that “no” respected When men are sexually aroused, they need to have sex or they will get “blue balls.” Once they get turned on, men can not help themselves Men do not ‘physically need’ to have sex after becoming aroused anymore than women do. Men are still able to control themselves even after becoming sexually excited

40

Appendix B

Mejia’s Awareness Of Acquaintance Rape – MAAR

7 item, 7-Point Likert Scale 1) Acquaintance rape is not a "real form" of rape compared to "stranger rape." 2) Your two good friends go out on a date one night. Your female friend tells you that your male friend gave her a drink and the next thing she knew, she woke up the following morning naked and in pain…...she thinks he raped her. Is she making a big deal out of nothing? 3) Bill was invited to his close friend's party and he sees his attractive classmate at the party. The classmate has never paid attention to Bill before, but now the classmate is intoxicated and is all over Bill. Bill's close friend knows that Bill really likes this person, the close friend suggests to Bill to take advantage of the situation.... implying that Bill should go and have sex with his classmate. Is it ok for Bill to take advantage of the situation? 4) Acquaintance and date rape is more permissible compared to stranger rape. 5) Your friend has taken your co-worker out on a few dates. Your co-worker has been such a tease and now your friend has been pressuring to have sex but surprisingly your co-worker refused your friend. Since your co-worker was seducing your friend in the first place, it is ok for your friend to pressure for sex. 6) Acquaintance rape is a "real form"of rape. 7) Pressuring 'casual sex' on a friend whether willingly or not, is justifiable. 8) Casual Sex between friends does not need to be consensual, especially when intoxicated.

Mejia, N. (2012)

41 Appendix C

SEXUAL BELIEFS AND BEHAVIOR SCALE – SBBS

28 item, 7-Point Likert Scale

Adversarial Sex Beliefs (ASB): This survey is designed to reflect relationships are fundamentally exploitative, negativism is reflected

a) Men are out for only one thing

b) A man’s got to show the woman who’s the boss from the start or else he’ll end up henpecked

c) Many women are so demanding sexually that a man just cant satisfy them

d) A women will only respect a man who will lay the law down to her

e) In a dating relationship a woman is largely out to take advantage of a man

Burt, M.R. (1980)

Acceptance of Interpersonal Violence (AIV): This is designed to reflect endorsement of force, coercion, particularly against women

a) Being roughed up is sexually stimulating to many women

b) A wife should move out of the house if her husband hits her

c) Sometimes the only way a man can get a cold woman turned on is to use force

d) A man is never justified to hit his wife

e) People today should not use “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” as a rule for living

f) Many times a woman will pretend she doesn’t want to have intercourse because she doesn’t want to seem loose, but she’s really hoping the man will force her

g) A wife should never move out of the house if her husband hits her

Burt, M.R. (1980)

42

Appendix C (Continued)

Sex Role Stereotyping (SRS): This survey reflects beliefs of traditional expected roles

a) A woman should be a virgin when she marries

b) It looks worse for a woman to be drunk than for a man to be drunk

c) There is nothing wrong for a woman to go to a bar alone

d) There is something wrong with a woman who doesn’t want to marry and raise a family

e) A wife should never contradict her husband in public

f) It is acceptable for a woman to have a career, but marriage & family should come first

Burt, M.R. (1980)

Sexual Conservatism (SC): This reflects restrictions on the appropriateness of sexual partners, sexual acts, & focuses on sexual behaviors

a) A woman who initiates a sexual encounter will probably have sex with anybody

b) A woman shouldn’t give in to a man too easily or he’ll think she’s loose

c) Men have a biologically stronger sex drive than women

d) Women have the same needs for a sexual outlet as men

e) I would have no respect for a woman who engages in sexual relationships without any emotional involvement

Burt, M.R. (1980)

43

Appendix C (Continued)

Koss (1985) Sexual Experience Survey: This survey is designed to reflect various degrees of sexual aggression and victimization

a) Have you had someone attempt sexual intercourse (get on top of you, attempt to insert his penis/an object) when you didnt want to by threatening or using some degree of force (twisting your arm, holding you down)?

b) Have you had sexual intercourse when you didnt want to because someone gave you alcohol or drugs?

c) Have you had sexual intercourse when you didnt want to because someone threatened or used some degree of physical force (twisting your arm, holding you down, etc.) to make you?

d) Have you had sex acts (anal or intercourse, or any penetration by any objects) when you didnt want to because someone threatened or used some degree of physical force (twisting your arm, holding you down, etc.) to make you?

e) Have you had sex play (fondling, kissing, or petting, but not intercourse) when you didnt want to because someone used their position of authority (boss, teacher, counselor, supervisor, spiritual advisor) to make you?

Koss, M.P. et al. (1987)

44

Appendix D

Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale - IRMA

This is a 45-item, 7-Point Likert Scale

1. If a woman is raped while she is drunk, she is at least somewhat responsible for letting things

get out of control.

2. Although most women wouldn’t admit it, they generally find being physically forced into sex

a real ‘‘turn-on.’’

3. When men rape, it is because of their strong desire for sex.

4. If a woman is willing to ‘‘make out’’ with a guy, then it’s no big deal if he goes a little further

and has sex.

5. Women who are caught having an illicit affair sometimes claim that it was rape.

6. Newspapers should not release the name of a rape victim to the public.

7. Many so-called rape victims are actually women who had sex and ‘‘changed their minds’’

afterwards.

8. Many women secretly desire to be raped.

9. Rape mainly occurs on the ‘‘bad’’ side of town.

10. Usually, it is only women who do things like hang out in bars and sleep around that are

raped.

11. Most rapists are not caught by the police.

12. If a woman doesn’t physically fight back, you can’t really say that it was rape.

13. Men from nice middle-class homes almost never rape.

14. Rape isn’t as big a problem as some feminists would like people to think.

15. When women go around wearing low-cut tops or short skirts, they’re just asking for trouble.

16. Rape accusations are often used as a way of getting back at men.

17. A rape probably didn’t happen if the woman has no bruises or marks.

18. Many women find being forced to have sex very arousing.

19. If a woman goes home with a man she doesn’t know, it is her own fault if she is raped.

20. Rapists are usually sexually frustrated individuals.

21. All women should have access to self-defense classes.

22. It is usually only women who dress suggestively that are raped.

45

Appendix D (Continued)

23. Some women prefer to have sex forced on them so they don’t have to feel guilty about it.

24. If the rapist doesn’t have a weapon, you really can’t call it a rape.

25. When a woman is a sexual tease, eventually she is going to get into trouble.

26. Being raped isn’t as bad as being mugged and beaten.

27. Rape is unlikely to happen in the woman’s own familiar neighborhood.

28. In reality, women are almost never raped by their boyfriends.

29. Women tend to exaggerate how much rape affects them.

30. When a man is very sexually aroused, he may not even realize that the woman is resisting.

31. A lot of women lead a man on and then they cry rape.

32. It is preferable that a female police officer conduct the questioning when a woman reports a

rape.

33. A lot of times, women who claim they were raped just have emotional problems.

34. If a woman doesn’t physically resist sex—even when protesting verbally—it really can’t be

considered rape.

35. Rape almost never happens in the woman’s own home.

36. A woman who ‘‘teases’’ men deserves anything that might happen.

37. When women are raped, it’s often because the way they said ‘‘no’’ was ambiguous.

38. If a woman isn’t a virgin, then it shouldn’t be a big deal if her date forces her to have sex.

39. Men don’t usually intend to force sex on a woman, but sometimes they get too sexually

carried away.

40. This society should devote more effort to preventing rape.

41. A woman who dresses in skimpy clothes should not be surprised if a man tries to force her to

have sex.

42. Rape happens when a man’s sex drive gets out of control.

43. A woman who goes to the home or apartment of a man on the first date is implying that she

wants to have sex.

44. Many women actually enjoy sex after the guy uses a little force.

46

Appendix D (Continued)

45. If a woman claims to have been raped but has no bruises or scrapes, she probably shouldn’t

be taken too seriously.

Payne, D.L. et al. (1999)

47 Appendix E

Measurement Scale Approval

INVOICE NO. N/A Federal Tax I.D. 53-0205890 Date: March 12, 2012

IN MAKING PAYMENT REFER TO THE ABOVE INVOICE NUMBER Nancy I. Mejia Notre Dame de Namur University 565 Arastradero Rd. PH-B Palo Alto, CA 94306 APA Permissions Office 750 First Street, NE Washington, DC 20002-4242 www.apa.org/about/copyright.html permissions@apa.org 202-336-5650 Fax: 202-336-5633

IF THE TERMS STATED BELOW ARE ACCEPTABLE, PLEASE SIGN AND RETURN ONE COPY TO APA. RETAIN ONE COPY FOR YOUR RECORDS. PLEASE NOTE THAT PERMISSION IS NOT OFFICIAL UNTIL APA RECEIVES THE COUNTERSIGNED FORM AND ANY APPLICABLE FEES. Request is for the following APA-copyrighted material: Scale content f) Table 1 (adapted), p. 222, from Burt, M. R. (1980). Cultural myths and supports for rape. Journal of

Personality and Social Psychology, 38(2), 217-230 h) Table 3 (adapted), p. 167, from 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 higher education students. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 55(2), 162-170

For the following use: Non-Commercial Research or Educational Use in: a) thesis or dissertation research (such as data collection or surveys) via an online password-protected web site and/or in hardcopy format; and b) print and/or digital versions of the final thesis or dissertation document provided that digital distribution is limited to non-commercial, secure and restricted web site(s). File: Mejia, Nancy I. (author) Permission is granted for the nonexclusive use of APA-copyrighted material specified on the attached request contingent upon fulfillment of the conditions indicated below: g) The fee is waived. f) The reproduced material must include the following credit line: Copyright ♥ [indicate year] by the

American Psychological Association. Reproduced [or Adapted] with permission. The official citation that should be used in referencing this material is [list the original APA bibliographic citation].

48 Appendix E (Continued)

Measurement Scale Approval

b) For all online use: (a) The following notice must be added to the credit line: No further reproduction or

distribution is permitted without written permission from the American Psychological Association; (b) the credit line must appear on the first screen on which the APA content appears; and (c) the APA content must be posted on a secure and restricted web site.

NOTE: Reproduction of the APA content on a Public Internet Site or via an online commercial dissertation service, such as ProQuest, is not permitted.

This agreement constitutes permission to reproduce only for the purposes specified on the attached request and does not extend to future editions or revisions, derivative works, translations, adaptations, promotional material, or any other formats or media. Permission applies solely to publication and distribution in the English language throughout the world, unless otherwise stated. No changes, additions, or deletions to the material other than any authorized in this correspondence shall be made without prior written consent by APA. This permission does not include permission to use any copyrighted matter obtained by APA or the author(s) from other sources that may be incorporated in the material. It is the responsibility of the applicant to obtain permission from such other sources. ACCEPTED AND AGREED TO BY: PERMISSION GRANTED ON ABOVE TERMS:

Applicant for the American Psychological Association June 20, 2012 March 12, 2012 Date Date I wish to cancel my request for permission at this time.

49 Appendix E (Continued)

Measurement Scale Approval

Dear Ms. Kim Lonsway, Please allow me to introduce myself, my name is Nancy Mejia. I am currently a 3rd year Clinical Psychology/ MFT graduate student at Notre Dame de Namur (NDNU), Belmont, California. I have started writing my preliminary proposal for my thesis and I hope to submit this proposal in time, and attain consent to conduct the research by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of NDNU. I have been trying to contact Diana L. Payne to request permission to use the Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance scale, if you can be of service in helping me acquire permission, I would greatly appreciate your assistance. Below are the following reasons that I will be needing the IRBA scale. The title of my thesis is: THE INFLUENCE OF RAPE MYTH ACCEPTANCE AND SEXUALLY COERCIVE BEHAVIORS SUCH AS ACQUAINTANCE RAPE ON HIGHER EDUCATED INDIVIDUALS

 The topic that this paper wishes to investigate is whether males and females recognize what sexual violence pertains to and the issue that lies within cultural myths that may influence sexually coercive behavior. The question of interest of this research paper is regarding awareness on what constitutes acquaintance rape, which are crimes of sexual assault, and if prejudicial stereotypical beliefs help support sexual violence. It will be of great importance to be able to attain the permission to use the Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance scale (IRMA). I truly hope to hear from you and I truly apologize for such inconvenience on your busy schedule. But I hope for you assistance. Sincerely, Nancy Mejia

Dear  Nancy,    

You  are  more  than  welcome  to  use  the  scale,  as  it  is  in  the  public  domain.    You  do  not  need  our  permission,  but  it  is  nice  to  hear  from  you  nonetheless.  

I  will  attach  the  scale  development  paper,  and  I  wish  you  luck  with  your  project.  

-­‐Kim  Lonsway  

Kimberly A. Lonsway, Ph.D. Research Director End Violence Against Women International Co-Editor, Sexual Assault Report 3940 Broad Street, Suite 7, Box #150 San Luis Obispo, CA 93401 (805) 547-9981 Phone / Fax Kim@evawintl.org http://www.evawintl.org  

50

Appendix F

Letter Of Consent To The Deans Nancy I. Mejia Palo Alto, Ca. The Office Of The Dean of Students NDNU (650) 210-6872 nmbudhrani@gmail.com Dear Ms. Jean Conde,

My name is Nancy Mejia and I am currently a graduate student pursuing a 3rd year MS.

Clinical Psychology/MFT degree here at NDNU. I am writing my thesis and conducting a

research project that will evaluate certain beliefs, attitudes and awareness on cultural myths that

may influence sexually coercive behaviors.

I am requesting permission to recruit participants from your campus either by placing a letter of

recruitment on your billboards, distributing flyers, or obtaining permission from your professors

to recruit in class or howerver you deem fit.

The title of my thesis is: The Influence Of Rape Myth Acceptance and Sexually Coercive

Behaviors Such As Acquaintance Rape On Higher Educated Individuals.......

The topic that this paper wishes to investigate is whether males and females recognize what

sexual violence pertains to and the issue that lies within cultural myths that may influence

sexually coercive behaviors.

The participants will be asked to participate in a survey-based research study that will be

investigating one’s beliefs, attitudes and awareness on what constitutes sexually coercive

behaviors. As you are probably aware about the many research studies that have been conducted

in evaluating this controversial topic, the bulk of many research studies have focused on students

because “they are a high-risk group for sexual assault,” (Koss et al., 1987). The results of this

study should further our understanding on how and why people have different ways in accessing

sensitive situations, and how prejudicial beliefs may play a role in interpersonal violence and

sexually coercive behaviors.

51

Appendix F (Continued)

If they choose to participate, the participants will be informed and directed to the website

where the survey will be conducted. The online survey (surveymonkey,com or qualtrics.com)

should take approximately no more than 20-30 minutes to complete. Before the participants are

allowed to undergo the survey, they will need to give their informed consent. They will also be

informed that the age limit to participate should not be any younger than 18 years old. They will

also be debriefed about the questionnaires, after they have completed the survey. The survey will

consist of 80 relevant questions taken from different measurement scales. There may be possible

psychological risks of some discomfort and may trigger anxieties based on reaction to the survey

questions, but overall, no physiological risks are anticipated.

In conjunction with Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM) on April, I would like to

assist in this endeavor of bringing more awareness to this sensitive topic. It will be of great

importance to obtain your permission to recruit participants from your campus. It would also be

beneficial for you to know the final results and receive the final report, which I will gladly

submit upon your permission and completion of this project.

Any information from this study that can be identified with the participant will remain

confidential. Names, addresses and personal identity will not be required and the data will be

pooled to maintain anonymity. If you have any questions about this study please do not hesitate

to contact me via email nmejia@student.ndnu.edu or via cellphone (650) 210-6872. Or if you

have any concerns about this study please feel free to contact Dr. Nusha Askari,

naskari@ndnu.edu). If there are any complaints or concerns please address to Dr. Kim Tolley,

(Chair, Institutional Review Board, NDNU) at (650) 508-3464.

I ask that I may be allowed to recruit participants in the campus and directly inform

students if they would be willing to participate in this study online or disseminate flyers or

indirectly recruit by posting flyers. If you do agree, please indicate your decision by checking the

52

Appendix F (Continued)

YES box below, sign and date on the line. Please scan the form and either email or fax this back

to me at (650) 493-1732 (Attn: PH-B).

I thank you for your time and assistance. I truly apologize for any inconvenience on your busy

schedule and I hope to hear from you soon.

Sincerely,

Nancy Mejia

I, Jean Conde, hereby give permission to Nancy Mejia to freely recruit participants here at

NDNU campus to participate in her research study.

YES, I give permission

NO, I do not give permission

_____________________________________ ________________ Signature Date

_____________________________________ ______________________________ Printed Name Institution

53

Appendix G

Recruitment Letter

Do you believe that higher education equates to stronger moral values? Do acceptance of cultural

myths influence sexually coercive behaviors among higher educated individuals? These are

questions that you can help to answer.

Hi, my name is Nancy Mejia. I am a graduate student at Notre Dame de Namur University,

currently pursuing MS. Clinical Psychology/ Marriage Family Therapy. I am conducting a

survey assessing cultural myths that may influence sexually coercive behaviors.

I am looking for volunteers who will undergo this survey that will take no more than 20-30

minutes. If you wish to volunteer, your age should be between 18-40 years old. Have undergone

or is still undergoing higher education (college &/or university).

All information will remain confidential and anonymous.

Click the following link to participate: www.surveymonkey.com

Thank you for your time and assistance.

54

Appendix H

Consent Form

RESPONSIBLE INVESTIGATOR: Nancy I. Mejia

TITLE OF RESEARCH PROJECT: Understanding beliefs, attitudes and awareness on cultural

myths that may influence sexually coercive behaviors

I have been asked to participate in a survey-based research study that is investigating one’s

beliefs, attitudes and awareness on what constitutes sexually coercive behaviors. The results of

this study should further our understanding of how prejudicial beliefs and awareness level may

play a role in sexually coercive behaviors.

I understand that:

1) I must be no younger than 18 or not older than 40 years old to participate in this survey

2) I will be asked to take a survey that should take approximately no more than 20-30

minutes to complete.

3) The possible psychological risks may be some discomfort and may trigger anxieties

based on reaction to the survey questions. Should any feelings be elicited based on my

participation in this study, I may contact the Counseling Center at my school to receive

free counseling. No physiological risks are anticipated.

4) There are no discernible benefits to me personally, although the results of this study will

help expand our knowledge of (how and why people have different ways in dealing with

sensitive situations in life).

55

Appendix H (Continued)

5) Although alternative procedures may be used, the present procedure is the most

advantageous and economical.

6) The results of this study may be published, but any information from this study that can

be identified with me will remain confidential and the data will be pooled to maintain

anonymity.

7) Any questions about my participation in this study will be answered by Nancy Mejia,

(nmejia@student.ndnu.edu). Any questions or concerns about this study should be

addressed to Dr. Nusha Askari (naskari@ndnu.edu). Complaints or concerns about this

study may be addressed to Dr. Kim Tolley, (Chair, Institutional Review Board, NDNU)

at (650) 508-3464.

8) My consent is given voluntarily without being coerced. I may refuse to participate in this

study or in any part of this study, and I may withdraw at any time, without prejudice to

my relation with Notre Dame de Namur or with any future contact with NDNU.

9) Upon providing an email address, I will receive a copy of this consent form for my record

upon completion

I HAVE MADE A DECISION WHETHER OR NOT TO

PARTICIPATE, BY CHECKING THIS BOX, I INDICATE THAT I

HAVE DECIDED TO PARTICIPATE

56

Appendix I

Demographics Form

Before you proceed with the survey please answer the following completely.

Please indicate your:

Age: ________

Gender: ____________

Race or Ethnicity: ___________

Religion (if none, indicate none): ___________

Highest educational attainment: ________________

57

Appendix J

Debriefing Statement

Thank you for your participation in this research on understanding beliefs, attitudes and

awareness on cultural myths that may influence sexually coercive behaviors

Written, multiple-choice/scale questionnaires were used for participants in this study. The goal of

the questionnaires was to examine how males and females differ in their awareness of sexual

intent and how acceptances of cultural myths play a significant role in sexually coercive

behaviors. It was hypothesized that the expected results will reveal that males will have a

tendency to misattribute the sexual intent of the females in a myriad of contexts. Furthermore, it

was also hypothesized that both males and females will adhere to cultural myths, prejudicial

stereotypical beliefs that may facilitate sexually coercive behavior.

If you would like to learn more about this research study, please see the references below. If you

feel that you need assistance with feelings that have triggered and anxieties, as a result in

participating in this study, please contact your school counselor, and inform them about this

study.

Based on the results, current research has found that males do have a tendency to misattribute the

sexual intent of females and that both males and females adhere to cultural myths, prejudicial

stereotypical beliefs that may facilitate sexually coercive behaviors. Your participation was

important in helping researchers have a better understanding on how these stereotypical beliefs

play a part in the behaviors for sexual assault.

Final results will be available from the investigator, Nancy Mejia, by December, 2012. You may

contact me at nmejia@student.ndnu.com to receive an email copy of the final report and a copy

of the consent and debriefing forms. All results will be grouped together; therefore individual

results are not available.

58

Appendix J (Continued)

Debriefing Statement

The confidentiality and anonymity of all participants will be maintained, even if the report is

published.

If you have any additional questions regarding this research, please contact the information

above.

59

Author Notes

Nancy I. Mejia, Master of Science in Clinical Psychology, Marriage and Family Therapy

Degree at Notre Dame de Namur University, 1500 Ralston Avenue, Belmont, CA 94002.

I would like to express my gratitude to all who have supported me throughout the

strenuous experience of my thesis project. First, I would like to express my humble thanks and

gratitude to Dr. Nusha Askari for her patience, and also her belief that I had the ability and thus,

pushed me to produce the best work that I can possibly create. Research has never been my forte,

or the arduous scientific writing that goes along with it. I never thought that I could have an

appreciation for research studies, but now I have a newfound respect for it. Next, I would like to

give my thanks and appreciation to my Second Reader, Dr. Helen Marlo, who has provided

encouragement, which lifted my spirits and constructive critique that assisted me to do better in

this endeavor. I also want to express my heartfelt thanks to my program director, Dr. Adeline A.

Boye, without her compassion, guidance and mentoring I would not have been able to plough

through the times I was struggling and wanting to quit. I would also like to give my thanks and

appreciation to my buddies in my class, who were inspirational, generous of their time, and for

the friendship that flourished along the way, and will remain with me forever. I may not mention

your names one by one, but you know who you are, especially those who provided their time to

tutor and guide me in creating a work of art in science, for you all have touched my heart in

many different ways. Last but not the least, a special thanks to my loved ones. Your support,

love and acceptance and patience for my grumpiness and providing a safe place for me to vent,

has propelled me to reach this stage in my final years here in NDNU.

60

For any correspondence regarding this study, please contact Nancy I. Mejia at

nmbudhrani@gmail.com, or at Notre Dame de Namur University, Master of Science Clinical

Psychology/Marriage Family Therapy program, 1500 Ralston Avenue, Belmont, CA 94002.