Dissertation

Graduate students' perceptions of contrapower sexual harassment

Mohipp, Charmaine

2005

Overview

Sexual harassment is a serious problem no matter who perpetrates it, however, the majority of empirical sexual harassment literature has examined traditional (supervisor/supervisee, faculty/student) and peer sexual harassment with only a small number of studies examining contrapower sexual harassment. Contrapower sexual harassment can be defined as the sexual harassment of individuals (usually women) with more organizational power by others (usually men) with less organizational power. This study examined attitudes toward contrapower harassment in graduate students, a unique sample because of their dual role as a student and a teacher. A mail survey was distributed to a random sample of 595 graduate students at the University of Windsor and was completed by 172 graduate students (29% response rate). Participants received one of four sexual harassment scenarios in which the role of the graduate student (victim or perpetrator), as well as the type of harassment (contrapower or traditional) was varied. They rated how likely it was that the scenario was sexual harassment, as well as made judgments about the responsibility of the victim and perpetrator. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

• Publisher: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
• Subject: Educational psychology / Social psychology
• ISBN: 9780494097502, 0494097507