NCJ Number
176481
Date Published
1996
Length
21 pages
Annotation
This study uses a social psychological framework for an analysis of attitudes underlying sexual coercion among acquaintances and examines the usefulness of distinguishing between the affective and cognitive components of attitudes toward rape.
Abstract
Analyses of rape-supportive attitudes, with few exceptions, have not included conceptual or operational definitions of attitudes, and analysts have not explicitly examined the affective, cognitive, and behavioral components of attitudes toward rape. Three relevant studies are presented in this article. In Study 1, items from 14 published attitudes-toward- rape scales were categorized as affective, cognitive, or behavioral. Of the items, 1.1 percent were identified as behavioral; 52.2 percent were as cognitive, and 46.7 percent as affective. Secondary analyses of published data showed the respondents reported more disagreement with affectively based rape attitude items than cognitively based rape attitude items. Study 2 further examined the distinction between affective and cognitive components of attitudes toward rape by using Burt's (1980) Rape Myth Acceptance Scale. Data collected from college men confirmed the affective-cognitive distinction. Further, affectively based attitudes, but not cognitively based attitudes were correlated with level of self-reported sexual coercion. Study 3 compared affective and cognitive components by using a factor-analytically derived attitude measure. These analyses replicated the findings from Study 2. Together, these results support the importance of attending to the separate components of attitudes. In particular, the affective component of attitudes toward rape may have more predictive utility than the cognitive component. 2 tables, 4 notes, and 62 references