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Self-Labeling Sexual Harassment

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Abstract

This study was designed to examine personal, stimulus, and organizational factors that predict the self-labeling of sexual harassment. Hypotheses were developed based on the social cognitive schema framework, which suggests that the activation of a victim's schema of sexual harassment influences self-labeling incidents as sexual harassment. Results of a secondary analysis of the 1995 Department of Defense Gender Issues dataset generally supported the hypotheses in that self-labeling is a multi-faceted process. Several findings were in the opposite direction from that predicted (e.g., perceptions that the military was implementing sexual harassment policies were negatively associated with self-labeling). Alternative explanations for the complexity of the self-labeling process were also examined.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Connecticut, 406 Babbidge Road, Unit 1020, Storrs, 06249, Connecticut

    Vicki J. Magley

  2. Department of Psychology, Grand Valley State University, Michigan

    Ellen I. Shupe

Authors
  1. Vicki J. Magley
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  2. Ellen I. Shupe
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Vicki J. Magley.

Additional information

Portions of this article were presented as a poster at the 2000 Association for Women in Psychology conference in Salt Lake City, Utah. Authorship is listed alphabetically, both authors contributed equally to this study.

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Magley, V.J., Shupe, E.I. Self-Labeling Sexual Harassment. Sex Roles 53, 173–189 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-005-5677-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-005-5677-3

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