The Application of Role Theory to the Sexual Harassment Paradigm: A Policy Capturing Approach

This research utilized policy capturing techniques to analyze the different factors individuals use when determining sexual harassment. The importance of level of power, verbal behavior, and invasiveness of touch were examined. Additionally, role theory was applied to the sexual harassment paradigm in order to understand how context factors within an organization affect the perception of sexual harassment. Profile analysis was used to determine how the perception of what constitutes harassing behavior is mitigated by one\u27s role in the organization. Participants were one hundred and five males and one hundred and fifteen females who were either currently employed or employed within the last six months. Participants were asked to complete take-home packets that contained a series of questionnaires that were designed to measure the perception of and response to sexual harassment. Thirty-two sexual harassment scenarios that were a full manipulation of three levels of power, verbal behavior, and touch were also included in the packet. Participants were asked to read each scenario and indicate how appropriate they felt the described behavior was in the workplace, how likely they were to respond to the situation, and to choose the response type that best described how they would react to the situation. In order to establish the level of realism of these scenarios, participants were asked to indicate how easy it was for them to imagine the situation and to assess how likely the behavior was to occur in the workplace. Additionally, in order to assess the context within which the participants worked, a series of questionnaires that contained measures of organizational factors, attributes of the person, and interpersonal factors were included. The findings revealed that the perception of and response to sexual harassment were affected by the level of invasiveness of touch, the level of verbal behavior, and the relative power of the perpetrator. Different organizational factors, personal attributes, and interpersonal factors were found to affect the perception of sexually harassing role expectations and anticipated role behaviors. Role perceptions and behaviors were influenced by the gender-ratio of one\u27s occupation; the organization\u27s policies and culture regarding its tolerance for sexual harassment; the rater\u27s gender, age, race, and relationship status; one\u27s tolerance for sexual harassment; and one\u27s previous experience with certain types of interpersonal harassment. Although all a priori hypotheses regarding the context factors were not confirmed, it is still believed that role theory provides a viable model for understanding the perception of sexual harassment

Typology of adults diagnosed with mental disorders based on socio-demographics and clinical and service use characteristics

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Mental disorder is a leading cause of morbidity worldwide. Its cost and negative impact on productivity are substantial. Consequently, improving mental health-care system efficiency - especially service utilisation - is a priority. Few studies have explored the use of services by specific subgroups of persons with mental disorder; a better understanding of these individuals is key to improving service planning. This study develops a typology of individuals, diagnosed with mental disorder in a 12-month period, based on their individual characteristics and use of services within a Canadian urban catchment area of 258,000 persons served by a psychiatric hospital.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>From among the 2,443 people who took part in the survey, 406 (17%) experienced at least one episode of mental disorder (as per the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI)) in the 12 months pre-interview. These individuals were selected for cluster analysis.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Analysis yielded four user clusters: people who experienced mainly anxiety disorder; depressive disorder; alcohol and/or drug disorder; and multiple mental and dependence disorder. Two clusters were more closely associated with females and anxiety or depressive disorders. In the two other clusters, males were over-represented compared with the sample as a whole, namely, substance abuses with or without concomitant mental disorder. Clusters with the greatest number of mental disorders per subject used a greater number of mental health-care services. Conversely, clusters associated exclusively with dependence disorders used few services.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The study found considerable heterogeneity among socio-demographic characteristics, number of disorders, and number of health-care services used by individuals with mental or dependence disorders. Cluster analysis revealed important differences in service use with regard to gender and age. It reinforces the relevance of developing targeted programs for subgroups of individuals with mental and/or dependence disorders. Strategies aimed at changing low service users' attitude (youths and males) or instituting specialised programs for that particular clientele should be promoted. Finally, as concomitant disorders are frequent among individuals with mental disorder, psychological services and/or addiction programs must be prioritised as components of integrated services when planning treatment.</p