Beliefs about rape and women's social roles.

The hypothesis tested was that beliefs about rape that place women at a disadvantage are positively related to beliefs that restrict the rights and roles of women in our society. Two scales, the R scale and the W scale, based on a survey of beliefs about rape (Feild, 1978) and the Attitudes Toward Women Scale (Spence and Helmreich, 1972), were administered as a single instrument. Subjects included 432 female undergraduates, 140 male undergraduates, 114 employed women, and 76 employed men. The latter two groups were predominantly from managerial, technical, and professional occupations. Product moment correlations between responses on the R scale and responses on the W scale were calculated for total scores as well as for three factors: women's responsibility and causal role in rape; role of consent in rape; and rapist's role and motivation. Correlations consistently supported the hypothesis for all four groups.

Dissimilarity and attraction: when difference makes a difference.

Students in 93 university classes described themselves and their instructors on personality tests measuring traits relevant (ascendancy and personal relations) and irrelevant (sociability and cautiousness) to teaching skill. Dissimilarity (instructor being higher than student) on relevant trait dimensions was hypothesized to be instrumental for student satisfaction with an instructor's role performance. When students were classified as similar or dissimilar to their instructors on the personality dimensions, those most attracted to their instructors were those dissimilar on relevant (but not irrelevant) traits. The dissimilarity finding was not an artifact of differences in skill of instructor nor of differences in students' perceptions of their instructors' traits. A three-dimensional system was devised to specify when similarity and dissimilarity should promote attraction.