The Role of Gender in the Generation of Stalking Scripts

摘要

The focus of this research was to examine the influence of gender on college students’ stalking scripts. One hundred fifty-four participants from a university located in the southern United States generated a narrative account of what occurs during stalking. Women were expected to generate more examples of ambiguous, non-aggressive, behaviors than were men, as well as to generate more coping strategies on the part of the target. Results overall revealed a high degree of similarity in content of generated stalking behaviors as a function of gender. However, women generated hyper-intimacy behaviors and mediated contact as part of their scripts significantly more often than did men. Women were also significantly more likely to generate a coping strategy than men.