City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 5-2015 Effectiveness of Psychological Techniques in Increasing Deviant Sexual Fantasy Self-Disclosures Christian Maile Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/1031 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] EFFECTIVENESS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL TECHNIQUES IN INCREASING DEVIANT SEXUAL FANTASY SELF-DISCLOSURES by CHRISTIAN PATRICK MAILE A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Psychology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2015 ii © 2015 CHRISTIAN P. MAILE All Rights Reserved iii The manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Psychology in satisfaction of the Dissertation requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Elizabeth Jeglic (Print) __________________ ________________ (Signature)_____________________________ Date Chair of Examining Committee Joshua C. Brumberg (Print) ______________ ________________ (Signature)_____________________________ Date Executive Officer Maria Hartwig (Print) __________________ Cynthia Calkins (Print) _________________ Virgina Barber-Rioja (Print) _____________ Charles Amrhein (Print) _________________ Supervisory Committee THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iv Abstract EFFECTIVENESS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL TECHNIQUES IN INCREASING DEVIANT SEXUAL FANTASY SELF-DISCLOSURES by CHRISTIAN PATRICK MAILE Advisor: Professor Elizabeth L. Jeglic The assessment of deviant sexual fantasy and interests is an important component in sex offender risk assessment and subsequent treatment planning. However, clinicians and researchers have long acknowledged that sex offenders often distort or underreport details related to their sex offenses, particularly details relating to offense-related deviant sexual fantasy and interests. Some of the common methods used to minimize underreporting of deviant sexual fantasy and interests include the use of phallometry (or plethysmography) and polygraphy; however, not all assessment/treatment facilities or private practitioners providing services to sex offenders have access to such resources. Thus, the development of more efficient, cost-effective and less invasive methods for the assessment of deviant sexual fantasy and interests would be valuable. As a first step in a program of research attempting to address this issue, the current research project sought to determine if techniques derived from clinical, social, and marketing psychology—Foot-in-the-Door (FITD), Door-in-the-Face (DITF), Normalization (Norm), and Bogus Pipeline (BPL)—could be adapted for use with a self-report questionnaire to increase disclosure rates of deviant sexual fantasy among non-offenders. It was hypothesized that participants exposed to these adapted techniques would endorse greater rates of deviant sexual fantasy than participants in the control condition. Six hundred seventy eight undergraduate participants were recruited and randomly assigned to one of five conditions (control, FITD, DITF, Norm, or BPL). Each participant completed a battery of questionnaires online, including v sexual fantasy and detailed demographic questionnaires. A between-groups design was utilized to assess the effectiveness of these techniques. Overall, no significant differences between groups were found and results indicated equivalent disclosure rates across all experimental conditions. Potential reasons for the obtained results are offered and future directions for this line of research are proposed. vi Acknowledgements I would first like to thank my incredibly patient mentor, Dr. Elizabeth Jeglic, for her many, many years of guidance and support. You, without a doubt, made my graduate school experience a pleasure! Thank you to Dr. Cynthia Calkins and Maria Hartwig, both of whom contributed greatly to my dissertation project and were just fun to work with! I would also like to thank Drs. Michelle Galietta and Bill Gottdiener for their tireless efforts and dedication as the Clinical Directors of our program. I must thank my family, particularly my brother, Damien, and my Mom and Dad for their all of their support, in all ways imaginable. Safe to say, I would not have reached this hallmark without them! Finally, to my best friends who went through the entire process with me (you know who you are), we're finally done!! vii TABLE OF CONTENTS TITLE...............................................................................................................................................i COPYRIGHT..................................................................................................................................ii APPROVAL...................................................................................................................................iii ABSTRACT...................................................................................................................................iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS............................................................................................................vi TABLE OF CONTENTS..............................................................................................................vii LIST OF TABLES..........................................................................................................................ix LIST OF APPENDICES.................................................................................................................x CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………………1 CHAPTER 2: ISSUES WITH SELF-REPORT DATA…………………………………………..5 Validity of Self-Report Data of Sex Offenders………..…………………………………..6 CHAPTER 3: METHODS TO INCREASE SELF-REPORT ACCURACY……………………11 Improving Accuracy of Self-Report in Sex Offenders…………………………………..12 Polygraphy……………………………………………………………………………….12 Polygraphy and Sex Offenders…………………………………………………………..14 Phallometry………………………………………………………………………………15 CHAPTER 4: PSYCHOLOGICAL TECHNIQUES TO INCREASE SELF-DISCLOSURE OF DEVIANT SEXUAL FANTASY……………………………………………………………….19 Normalization……………………………………………………………………………20 Foot-in-the-Door/Door-in-the-Face……………………………………………………...21 Bogus Pipeline…………………………………………………………………………...22 Summary............................................................................................................................23 Study Hypotheses..............................................................................................................24 CHAPTER 5: METHOD………………………………………………………………………...26 Participants……………………………………………………………………………….26 Procedure………………………………………………………………………………...28 Measures…………………………………………………………………………………34 Data Analysis…………………………………………………………………………….36 CHAPTER 6: RESULTS………………………………………………………………………...42 viii CHAPTER 7: DISCUSSION…………………………………………………………………….49 TABLES........................................................................................................................................62 APPENDICES...............................................................................................................................65 REFERENCES…………………………………………………………………………………..79 ix LIST OF TABLES Table 1.1: Intercorrelations Between Questionnaire- and Subscale-Level Outcome Variables and Potential Covariates……………………………………………………………………………...62 Table 1.2: Intercorrelations Between Fantasy Theme-Level Outcome Variables and Potential Covariates………………………………………………………………………………….…….62 Table 2: Means and SDs of Outcome Variables by Condition………………………………......63 Table 3: Incidence Rates by Condition…………………………………………………………..64 x LIST OF APPENDICES Appendix A: Normalization Script (Manipulation).......................................................................65 Normalization Manipulation Check........................................................................66 Appendix B: Bogus Pipeline Script (Manipulation)......................................................................68 Bogus Pipeline Manipulation Check.......................................................................69 Appendix C: Sexual Fantasy Questionnaire (SFQ).......................................................................70 Appendix D: Sexual Opinion Survey (SOS).................................................................................74 Appendix E: Marlowe-Crowne Short Form version C (M-C Form C).........................................78 1 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION Sexual abuse is a significant social problem (Briere & Elliott, 2003; Finkelhor, 1994), with estimates suggesting that between 7-36% of women and 3-29% of men report experiencing some form of childhood sexual abuse throughout their lives. Moreover, research suggests that approximately 12.7% of adult women will be sexually assaulted at some point in their lives (Resnick, Holmes, Kilpatrick, & Jager, 1999). Many victims of sexual abuse suffer long-lasting emotional and psychological issues secondary to sexual abuse, such as depression, substance abuse, and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (Chapman, Dube, & Anda, 2007). Given the prevalence and serious consequences of sexual abuse, sexual offenders have been the subject of much empirical investigation, with many researchers endeavoring to understand the etiology