The Bystander Approach: Strengths-Based Sexual Assault Prevention With At-Risk Groups

Bystander intervention is described as a promising approach for social workers engaged with groups labeled “at risk” for perpetrating sexual violence. An exploratory study was conducted with one at-risk group, student-athletes, to determine their willingness to intervene as bystanders in situations involving sexual violence. A survey was administered to 205 participants, focus groups held with nine teams, and individual interviews conducted with 22 student-athletes. Results indicate that the closeness of the team bond is the most significant predictor for willingness to intervene. Many student-athletes reported a willingness to intervene in situations involving sexual violence but need further skill development to do so effectively. Implications for social workers implementing the bystander approach with at-risk groups are discussed, such as skill development and utilization of the strengths perspective.     

Customer First and Customer Sexual Harassment: Some Evidence from the Taiwan Life Insurance Industry

Empirical research suggests that customer sexual harassment is a far more common problem than employee to employee harassment for female salespeople. However, to date, there has been relatively little research conducted on the problem of customer sexual harassment. Insurance salespeople sometimes need to meet customers outside the company, and customer sexual harassment problems may occur. Hence, by using Taiwan's life insurance industry as an example, this study explores three research questions: (1) When the idea of ‘customer first’ is fully recognized by insurance salespeople, does it make the salespeople more tolerant of customer sexual harassment problems? (2) When the idea of customer first is supported by the insurance company, will insurance salespeople expose customer sexual harassment problems? (3) Will insurance salespeople tend to be more tolerant of quid pro quo sexual harassment? A total of 223 full‐time and self‐employed insurance salespeople participated in and completed this study survey. The results showed that the company's attitude may significantly affect the respondents' intention to expose the customer sexual harassment, but the personal belief in ‘customer first’ may not affect the respondents' intention to expose the customer misconduct. Since the three research questions have been less studied in the literature, and customer sexual harassment problems could have serious effects on salespeople, we think the results of this empirical study may have some implications for researchers and practitioners.     

Complexity and the social world

While advocating the adoption of qualitative approaches to evaluation, it is important to reflect on the practice. This paper draws on the work of a diversionary project to involve young people at risk in leisure and sporting activities using one to one mentors. The approach adopted was one that was designed to address potentially sensitive issues and place the experience of the key players central to the enquiry. Hence, the intention was that the young people and their mentors should be treated as knowers and actors rather than the objects of the research. The approach discussed here stops short of treating them as 'partners' in the research as discussed previously in this journal, arguing instead for an approach in which skilled researchers actively engage all parties. Such an approach can offer insights inaccessible to more conventional evaluation techniques.     

论晚清文龙评批《金瓶梅》的新策略与新识见

文龙的《金瓶梅》评点呈现出不同于前人的新面目,原因是他采用了新的阅读策略。面对张竹坡评点,他故意反其道而读之,维护月娘、痛诋玉楼、春梅,同时提出批书者要具备客观的态度,评书时要务求"真"、"细",不能做酒醉雷公;面对性描写,他跳开传统的解读方式,把批评重心放在读者身上,提出了观此书可止淫的说法,其阅读分级标准也值得参考;面对末十回,他发现了与前九十回的艺术水平差距,据此提出作者可能江郎才尽的判断,对此,刘辉的理解不准确。     

Scale for the Identification of Acquaintance Rape Attitudes

SUMMARY

Within the context of intimate interpersonal relationships, gender-based violence has a significant impact on the social-emotional functioning and development of women. Our ability to determine the effectiveness of our efforts to reduce sexual violence is linked to our ability to assess those attitudes that condone sexual violence. This study examined the validity of college students' responses to the Scale for the Identification of Acquaintance Rape Attitudes (SIARA). The Scale for the Identification of Acquaintance Rape Attitudes is a measure designed to assess attitudes that are believed to be supportive of sexual violence within dating relationships. The sample consisted of 1,782 residential students in the first year class at a large, public university who participated in a sexual assault prevention program as part of a new student orientation. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated that two dimensions, Sexual Expectations and Rape Mythology, could be used to characterize students' responses. Multi-group confirmatory factor analysis and mean structure analysis confirmed that the two dimensions provided equivalent measurements of the underlying construct for male and female subjects. Implications for the use of SIARA as a program outcome measure will be discussed.     

Patterns of Masturbatory Behaviour

Abstract

In 1966, 1981 and 1996 the Department of Sex Research at Hamburg University, Germany, carried out three surveys into the sexual behavior of university students. Taken as a longitudinal study they provide information on the social history of sexuality over the past three decades for well-educated young adults (20 to 30 years old) in Germany. The samples consist of 8,641 men and women. In this paper data from the studies is analyzed under two aspects:

1. Shifts in masturbatory behavior 1966–1981–1996. Men and especially women begin to masturbate considerably earlier than used to be in the eighties, not to mention in the sixties. As a consequence, most young women nowadays have already experienced masturbation when having their first heterosexual intercoursethus following a pattern of sexual socialization that traditionally was typical for boys. In addition, in 1996, more students of both sexes had masturbated in the year preceding the investigation. The more relevant point is, however, that young adults (according to active incidence during the last 12 months) now masturbate almost irrespective of whether they have intercourse often or rarely, whether they are singles or live in a steady relationship or whether or not they are satisfied with their current relationship. So masturbation peacefully coexists with sex between partners and a loving relationship more often than it did in 1981 and 1966.

2. Masturbation in steady relationships, 1996. A detailed analysis of masturbation frequencies during the last four weeks also shows small differences between students who live in a sexually satisfying relationship and those without relationship. Only a minority feels the need to justify masturbation on the grounds that they lack sex with their partner. Three-quarters expressly state that masturbation is a form of sex in its own right and, therefore, does not interfere with partner sex. Furthermore, there is a tendency that students living in steady relationships experience masturbation slightly more positively than those living alone.     

The Psychoneuroendocrinology of (Sexual) Aggression

Summary

The contours of the psychoneuroendocrinology of (sexual) aggression are becoming clearer. The sex difference in aggression originally directed attention to androgens, but the role of androgens has been difficult to substantiate. Rather novel is the insight that (sexual) aggression may be viewed as a maladaptive stress response. The stress response system is composed of psychological elements (the interpretation and labeling of threats), the neural system, that subserves this interpretation, and finally the endocrine system permitting the organism to react to threats with a physical response such as flight or fight, and as such is vital for our self-protection. Aggression may be viewed as an inappropriate and exaggerated response to a perceived threat. The stress system is largely tuned by early life experiences. Both psychological and biological elements can be identified in the stress response system, allowing both psychotherapeutic and pharmacological approaches to treatment.     

革命话语遮蔽下的不同节烈观——《我在霞村的时候》与《荷花淀》的比较阅读

丁玲《我在霞村的时候》和孙犁《荷花淀》同是40年代反映抗日战争时期根据地农村妇女在抗战中的表现及命运的重要小说。但二者有许多不同,尤其是两篇作品反映出来的节烈观,虽然在民族解放战争中因和民族气节、政治节操纠缠在一起而具有同样的复杂性,但除去革命话语的遮蔽,可以发现作家对节烈的态度有很大区别。这与作家的性别视角、文化背景、审美旨趣、创作原则以及作品的创作时间均有较大的关系。     

Staying put in the Closet: Examining Clinical Practice and Countertransference Issues in Work with Gay Men Married to Heterosexual Women

Gay men married to heterosexual women seek psychotherapy for numerous reasons, not only to find a way out of their marriages. Therapists must identify their countertransference reactions to avoid pushing the patient either to commit to his marriage or leave it. The patient’s underlying problems should be addressed before the patient can explore the fate of his marriage. Therapists also need to be understanding of the patient’s attachment to his wife. In addition, therapists must be aware of the societal implications of homophobia on gay patients. This article discusses motivations for heterosexual marriage among gay men, examines two clinical cases, and addresses practice and countertransference issues. A version of this article was presented at the tenth national conference of the National Membership Committee on Psychoanalysis in Clinical Social Work on March 10, 2007.