Peer modeling and college men's sexually impositional behavior in the laboratory

Journal of Sex Research, Nov, 2002 by Damon Mitchell, D.J. Angelone, Richard Hirschman, Roy S. Lilly, Gordon C. Nagayama Hall

Materials

We used the Coercive Sexuality Scale (CSS), a self-report measure that assesses the extent to which a male respondent has engaged in various types of coercive sexual behavior against a woman (Rapaport & Burkhart, 1984). The CSS consists of 19 items answered on a 4-point scale (never, once or twice, several times, often). The reported coefficient alpha is .96. Rather than a total score, the scale yields descriptive and quantitative information on the type and frequency of a variety of sexually aggressive behaviors. Self-reported sexually aggressive behavior on the CSS is significantly correlated with measures of adversarial sexual beliefs and acceptance of interpersonal violence (Rapaport & Burkhart, 1984). We used the CSS in the present study because it measures a wide continuum of sexually aggressive behavior.

Procedure

Eighty participants who had completed the CSS during a mass testing procedure were contacted by telephone and invited to participate in a study on "common themes in the media" as one of several options for research credit. They were unaware that their participation was based upon their responses to the CSS. Upon arrival at the laboratory, each participant was met by a male experimenter and a male confederate posing as another participant. The experimenter and confederate were blind to participant history of sexually aggressive behavior. The participant and confederate were informed that the study was examining reactions to "common themes in the media." They were told they had each been partnered with a female student who was waiting in a separate room (in actuality, these students did not exist). The participant and confederate were led to believe that they would be tasked with either (a) watching several video clips and choosing one for their partner, or (b) completing questionnaires and watching a video clip chosen for them by their partner. The tasks would be determined by a random drawing. The experimenter presented a baseball cap containing two folded pieces of paper and asked the participant to draw one. The drawing was prearranged such that the participant selected a piece of paper indicating that he and the confederate would be watching three video clips and choosing one to show to their partners.

The experimenter escorted the participant and the confederate into a laboratory where their female partners would ostensibly be working. The experimenter pointed out that the room contained a television that was connected to a TV-VCR in an adjoining room, and that this facilitated the simultaneous viewing of video clips. They were escorted into the adjoining room and presented with a consent form. The consent form indicated they would be exposed to violent or sexually oriented material, that their responses to the material would be kept confidential, and that they were free to withdraw from the study at any time without penalty. The experimenter explained that they would watch three video clips and later choose one to show to their female partners. They could choose the same or different video clips to show their respective partners.