Date of Award
1995
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Psychology
Abstract
The effect ofEducational interventions upon perceptions of sexual harassment was the focus of this study. An additional focus was whether oft-reported sex differences, if any, were altered byEducational interventions. Ninety-six undergraduates volunteered to participate, with participants being randomly assigned to three groups. All participants completed the pretest Harassment Sensitivity Inventory and demographic data form during their first group meeting. A meeting for each group was held two weeks hence, at which time Group One viewed anEducational video about sexual harassment and completed the posttest, Group Two readEducational literature about sexual harassment and completed the posttest and Group Three, the control group, completed a non-salient task and the posttest. An analysis of covariance was used to test the hypothesis of whetherEducational interventions (video and literary) differentially affected perceptions of sexual harassment, with the pretest score serving as a covariate. Hypothesis two sought to test differences between male and female undergraduates' perceptions of sexual harassment prior to anEducational intervention. A two-tailed t-test was computed to test equality of means between sexes prior to intervention. To test the third hypothesis of a possible difference between female and male undergraduates' perceptions of sexual harassment as a function of type ofEducational intervention, data for all participants were separated according to treatment and divided according to sex. A two-tailed t-test was used to test equality of means between sexes following intervention. Results indicated thatEducational interventions impacted perceptions of sexual harassment, with the literary intervention being superior to the video intervention. Results also indicated a sex difference prior to intervention, with females averaging higher sensitivity scores than males. Further,Educational intervention appeared to even out this sex difference, yielding posttest means between sexes that were not significantly different.
Recommended Citation
Bonate, Diana L., "The Effects OfEducational Intervention On Perceptions Of Sexual Harassment" (1995). All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 893.
https://scholars.indianastate.edu/etds/893