Pornography and sexual aggression in adult males

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Daniels, Sophie (2020) Pornography and sexual aggression in adult males. DForenPsy thesis, University of Nottingham.

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Abstract

Overall, this thesis explored the impact of viewing pornography on adult males, particularly on attitudes towards sexual aggression including rape myth acceptance. The systematic review served to provide a starting point and reviewed the impact of exposure to pornography on attitudes towards sexual aggression; typically, acceptance of rape myths and attitudes towards sexual coercion. A narrative synthesis generally suggested that exposure to pornography, particularly pornography inclusive of violent themes, has detrimental effects on males attitudes towards sexual aggression.

The systematic review demonstrated that rape myth acceptance is a common outcome measure focused upon in the literature examining pornography consumption and thus the psychometric measures used to investigate rape myth acceptance were evaluated. A critique of the psychometric properties of the Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale is presented, referring to the development of the Acceptance of Modern Myths about Sexual Aggression Scale throughout. In addition, the development of rape myth acceptance as a construct is discussed.

The third chapter of the thesis reports a research project that focused on the impact of adult males’ exposure to ‘soft-core’ pornography, which is commonly found in mainstream media via sexualised media content. This area is of interest given the comparable lack of research exploring exposure to pornographic content via engagement with mainstream media. Generally, the impact of an ever-increasingly sexualised media environment is considered.

Finally, a case study is presented which evaluated the effectiveness of a compassion focused therapy informed intervention that was completed with a 33-year-old male (patient A) in a medium secure therapeutic community. Patient A had a well-established history of sexually inappropriate behaviour towards females. Formulation suggested that his excessive pornography use appeared to play an important role in his behaviour and thus an aim of the intervention was to qualitatively explore the role of pornography use in his sexually aggressive behaviour.

In summary, the thesis explored the seemingly detrimental impact of pornography consumption on individuals. Recommendations are made for further exploration of our sexualised media environment and the thesis considered the role of pornography in the commission of sexual aggression.

Item Type: Thesis (University of Nottingham only) (DForenPsy)
Supervisors: Duff, Simon
Keywords: Pornography exposure; Rape myth; Sexual coercion; Psychometric evaluation
Subjects: W Medicine and related subjects (NLM Classification) > WM Psychiatry
Faculties/Schools: UK Campuses > Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > School of Medicine
Item ID: 60075
Depositing User: Daniels, Sophie
Date Deposited: 28 Jul 2020 07:48
Last Modified: 28 Jul 2020 08:00
URI: https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/id/eprint/60075

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