| The purpose of this study was to examine how individuals' personalities influence their self-protective behaviors in different dating situations. Research has shown that college females mistakenly feel their personal risk of dating violence is lower than both their college peers' and the national dating violence average. Therefore, female college students may not be engaging in the amount of self-protective behaviors necessary to prevent risky dating situations. The present study extends upon the existing research on self-protection and examines predictors of self-protective behavior. Female participants from a Midwestern university (N = 119) participated in an online survey. They were asked to read a dating scenario describing meeting a person interested in dating them on Facebook (internet) and a second scenario describing meeting a person interested in dating them from one of their classes (traditional). After reading each scenario, their intent to engage in self-protective behavior, personality traits, dating background, and demographics were assessed. It was hypothesized that participants would report more intent to engage in self-protective behavior after reading the internet scenario than the traditional scenario, which was confirmed. It was also found that age and Extraversion had an interaction and were significantly negatively correlated with self-protective behavior. This suggests that female students who are traditionally college-aged and extroverted are less likely to engage in self-protective behavior. Additionally, participants thought about engaging in self-protective behavior significantly more than they actually engaged in the behavior. Other findings and the implications of this research were examined. |
