March 28, 2024

Wilson Publishes Two Papers with Students

Laura Wilson, Assistant Professor of Psychological Science, has published two papers with recent graduates of the University of Mary Washington. During their senior year, Alesha Ballman, Emma Leheney, Katherine Miller and Brittany Simmons completed two projects on sexual assault under the guidance of Dr. Wilson.

The first paper, “Examining the psychological effect of rape acknowledgment: The interaction of acknowledgment status and ambivalent sexism,” was published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology. Based on the results of this project, they found that emotional functioning among female rape survivors was a function of both the survivor’s conceptualization of the event and her beliefs about gender.

The second paper, “Bystander perceptions of same-gender versus mixed-gender rape: A pilot study,” was published in the Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment, & Trauma. They found that the gender of the individuals involved in a rape incident significantly impacted how observers described the sexual assault experience. Furthermore, regardless of the gender of the individuals involved in the incident, approximately half of college students did not label a non-consensual sexual act as rape.