The Role of EEOC Factors in Determining Perceptions of Hostile Work Environment Sexual Harassment

The Equal Employment Opportunity Guidelines on Sexual Harassment identify six factors that are relevant in determinations of sexual harassment. This study attempted to determine if three of these factors (i.e., frequency of harassment, number of victims and number of perpetrators) drive perceptions of what constitutes sexual harassment. Participants role-playing jurors on an hostile environment sexual harassment case demonstrated no differences in perceptions as a function of number of victims or number of perpetrators. The significant effect for frequency of harassment was not in the hypothesized direction, with less frequent harassment being perceived as more likely to constitute sexual harassment. The well-documented gender difference in perceptions of sexual harassment was observed in this study. However, analyses indicated that women are more likely to perceive a situation as sexually harassing because they are more feminine, not simply because of their gender.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Department of Psychology

Year

2000

Author dc:creator

• Miller, Libby

• Gender and Sexuality
• Industrial and Organizational Psychology

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/730

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.wku.edu:theses-1733