PSYCHOPATHIC TRAITS AND ATTITUDES ASSOCIATED WITH SELF-RESORTED SEXUAL AGGRESSION IN COLLEGE MEN

The relationships among psychopathic personality traits, rape-supporti ve attitudes, and self-reported sexual aggression were examined in a s ample of 191 college men. It was hypothesized that participants who re ported severe sexually aggressive acts (i.e., coerced intercourse) wou ld endorse items indicating more extreme psychopathic traits than thos e,oho reported only less severe acts. In addition, we expected that ps ychopathic traits would play a unique role in severe sexual aggression , above the contribution of rape-supportive attitudes. Results were st rongly supportive of the first hypothesis; however there was no eviden ce that traits and attitudes contribute to sexually aggressive behavio r in different ways. The discussion considers similarities and differe nces in the contribution of traits and attitudes to the development of sexually aggressive behavior.