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Access Type
WSU Access
Date of Award
January 2025
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
M.A.
Department
Psychology
First Advisor
Antonia Abbey
Abstract
Research on the etiology of sexual aggression often uses the Confluence Model (Malamuth et al., 1991; 2021). One central risk factor, impersonal sexuality, refers to a self-oriented, detached approach to sex. Many studies use casual sex proclivity as a proxy for impersonal sex (Abbey et al., 2011; Pegram et al., 2018; Yucel et al., 2023), which fails to explain the widespread perpetration within committed, long-term couples. Two studies address this limitation by testing a novel measure for impersonal sexuality, the Self-Focused Sexuality scale, hypothesized to be an invariant and significant predictor of sexual aggression for single and committed men.Study 1 (N = 288) provided initial evidence for the Self-Focused Sexuality scale’s validity and structure with 288 men in an online sample. The 11-item scale demonstrated good reliability (α = .88), and items loaded onto a single factor. In Study 2 (N = 431), a one-factor model showed poor fit while a two-factor model revealed two possible subscales, Selfishness and Non-Intimacy. Though fit improved with two factors, the model fit was much worse for single than committed men, demonstrating a lack of measurement invariance. Finally, regressions compared Self-Focused Sexuality and casual sex proclivity as predictors of sexual aggression, with the latter predicting single but not committed men’s aggression while Self-Focused Sexuality predicted both. These findings suggest that impersonal sexuality remains an important predictor of sexual aggression and future work should revise the scale to assess if it can better capture impersonal sex for men in committed relationships.
Recommended Citation
Hart, Jaxon, "Impersonal Sexuality And Men's Sexual Aggression Against Casual And Committed Partners" (2025). Wayne State University Theses. 1006.
https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/oa_theses/1006