Effects of Contextual and Individual Difference Factors on Perceptions of Victims

<p>Victim blame can have detrimental effects on victims' coping with traumatic events. The current study examined contextual (i.e., victim-observer ingroup membership and safety of the environment) and individual difference (i.e., world beliefs, trauma exposure, and cognitive semantic associations) factors in relation to victim blame. Ingroup membership predicted greater character praise in females, while outgroup membership predicted greater praise in males. Victim praise was also greater when the environment was safe versus dangerous. Stronger beliefs about the manageability of the world marginally predicted greater victim blame, while stronger benevolent world beliefs predicted less victim blame and less character derogation. Further, the number of traumatic event types reported by participants was positively related to character praise and negatively related to derogation. Histories of exposure to traumas high in betrayal predicted greater character derogation. Using an implicit semantic priming task to examine the automatic semantic associations between victim and derogation concepts, victim-to-derogation priming was related to less victim blame.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Year dc:date.available

2008

Author dc:creator

• Combs, Melody Dawn

Contributors dc:contributor

• Anne P. DePrince, Ph.D.
• Daniel McIntosh
• George Potts
• Stephen Shirk
• Maria Riva

• Just world beliefs
• Trauma
• Victim blame
• Victim perceptions
• Counseling Psychology
• Psychology

Statement dc:rights

• <p>Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.</p>

Language dc:language

en

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/786

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.du.edu:etd-1785