COGNITIVE-STYLE AND ATTITUDINAL CORRELATES OF THE PERCEIVED CAUSES OFRAPE SCALE

This study examines the relations between beliefs about the causes of rape and attitudinal and cognitive style (the tendency to think about social problems systemically, the view of people as complex and change able, and an intellectual personality) measures in a sample of 270 com munity-college students. The Perceived Causes of Rape (PCR) Scale incl uded the following subscales: Male Dominance, Society and Socializatio n, Female Precipitation, Male Sexuality, and Male Hostility. Beliefs a bout the causes of rape varied on three dimensions: individual versus sociocultural causes of rape, those causes that focus on the perpetrat or versus those that focus on the victim, and rape myths versus femini st beliefs. The causes of rape identified as rape myths were associate d with male sexuality stereotypes, a version of Burt's (1980) Rape Myt h Acceptance Scale, attitudes toward feminism, and self-identification as a feminist. Agreement with the sociocultural causes of rape was as sociated with cognitive style measures and age. We suggest that belief in sociocultural causes of rape may require a predisposition to think systemically as much as an ideological stance.