| This investigation was designed to replicate and extend findings by Schweinle, Ickes and Bernstein (in press). Using the empathic accuracy paradigm, signal detection analyses and several novel adaptations, the findings indicate that when controlling for men's perceptions of their own relationship and their wives' criticism or rejection, men's bias to attribute criticism or rejection to women is closely linked with the men's maltreatment of women, specifically wife-directed aggression and sexual harassment. Mediation analyses and path models indicate that abusive men's inferential bias is enabled by the men's feelings of contempt for women and the men's disattention to women. Further, the findings suggest that abusive men's biased inferences of women's criticism or rejection are processed through abusive men's anxious/ambivalent attachment style, resulting in aggression against their own female partners. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications to current theories of partner abuse and sexual harassment as well as their implications for the treatment of abusive men. |
