An Interdependence Account of When, Why, and How Men’s Hostile Sexism Promotes Aggression and Creates Problems in Intimate Relationships
type: CreativeWork
description: The current research examines when and why men who endorse hostile sexism are aggressive towards their partners, and investigates the broader costs men's hostile sexism has for female partners. Hostile sexism encompasses aggressive attitudes toward women who contest men's power and contains beliefs that women will manipulate men by exploiting their relational dependence (Glick & Fiske, 1996). As outlined in Chapter One, despite the established associations between men's hostile sexism and aggression toward female partners, the reasons underpinning this important link are poorly understood. Three chapters present studies that adopt different approaches and diverse methods to clarify and advance understanding of the underlying fears and concerns that are particularly problematic in intimate relationships. In Chapter Two I investigated how the risk of relationship dependence is an important contextual factor that determines when men's hostile sexism is (and is not) associated with relationship aggression. Two dyadic studies demonstrated that men who more strongly endorsed hostile sexism were more aggressive toward their female partners during couples' daily life and conflict discussions, but only when their female partners were perceived to be, or reported being, low in relationship commitment, and thus men faced a greater risk of rejection. Extending this work, in Chapter Three I tested why men's hostile sexism is associated with greater relationship aggression by investigating the important role of perceived relationship power. Across four studies, men who more strongly endorsed hostile sexism perceived themselves to have lower power in their relationships which, in turn, predicted greater aggression toward female partners as reported by (1) both partners during couples' daily interactions, (2) observed during couples' video-recorded discussions, and (3) self-reported over the last year. Furthermore, these lower perceptions of power were shown to be biased: men who m…
abstract: The current research examines when and why men who endorse hostile sexism are aggressive towards their partners, and investigates the broader costs men's hostile sexism has for female partners. Hostile sexism encompasses aggressive attitudes toward women who contest men's power and contains beliefs that women will manipulate men by exploiting their relational dependence (Glick & Fiske, 1996). As outlined in Chapter One, despite the established associations between men's hostile sexism and aggression toward female partners, the reasons underpinning this important link are poorly understood. Three chapters present studies that adopt different approaches and diverse methods to clarify and advance understanding of the underlying fears and concerns that are particularly problematic in intimate relationships. In Chapter Two I investigated how the risk of relationship dependence is an important contextual factor that determines when men's hostile sexism is (and is not) associated with relationship aggression. Two dyadic studies demonstrated that men who more strongly endorsed hostile sexism were more aggressive toward their female partners during couples' daily life and conflict discussions, but only when their female partners were perceived to be, or reported being, low in relationship commitment, and thus men faced a greater risk of rejection. Extending this work, in Chapter Three I tested why men's hostile sexism is associated with greater relationship aggression by investigating the important role of perceived relationship power. Across four studies, men who more strongly endorsed hostile sexism perceived themselves to have lower power in their relationships which, in turn, predicted greater aggression toward female partners as reported by (1) both partners during couples' daily interactions, (2) observed during couples' video-recorded discussions, and (3) self-reported over the last year. Furthermore, these lower perceptions of power were shown to be biased: men who m…
author: Cross, Emily
license: https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/docs/uoa-docs/rights.htm
date published: 2018
date modified: 2026-07-24T01:07:07Z
provider: University of Auckland
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: ResearchSpace@Auckland

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: https://hdl.handle.net/2292/46857