Eyewitness testimonies for spousal abuse as a function of gender roles and person variables

Author

Cynthia L. Barker

Date of Award

1994

Degree Name

Psychology

College

College of Liberal Arts

Type of Degree

M.A.

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

In order to uncover how personality characteristics interact with the suggestibility and recall of events, subject's recollection and interpretation of domestic violence was tested. College students were shonn a film which a husband and wife began arguing; the argument ended in the husband hitting his wife. Encoding was manipulated by giving negative or neutral suggestions about the woman before subjects witnessed the film, and storage was manipulated by giving such suggestions after the .film creating a 2 X 2 experimental design. Attitude and personality questionnaires were also administered to the subjects. In addition to demonstrating the significance of the encoding and storage suggestions, it was found that those having more chauvinistic attitudes toward women said that the wife was more responsible for starting the argument, that the man was nicer, and the woman was a poor wife. When asked to recall how many affairs the wife has had, the led encoding group stated the most affairs, while the neutral group said the fewest. Regressions were also performed on the person variables to see what best predicted attitudes toward women, beliefs in rape myths, sexual interests, sexual perversions, and levels of anger and hostility. It was found that attitudes toward women, encoding, and storage all were factors in suggestibility, encoding was typically the strongest variable.

Subject(s)

Eyewitness identification.

Psychology, Forensic.

Women -- Violence against.

Sex role -- Psychological aspects.

Recommended Citation

Barker, Cynthia L., "Eyewitness testimonies for spousal abuse as a function of gender roles and person variables" (1994). Theses, Dissertations and Capstones. 1981.
https://mds.marshall.edu/etd/1981