Sexual coercion in romantic relationships is a facet of criminal behaviour requiring psychological investigation. The cuckoldry risk hypothesis, that sexual coercion is a tactic used by some males to reduce the risk of cuckoldry by engaging in sperm competition, was developed to account for such behaviour. From this hypothesis, four predictions were generated and empirically tested: (1) males should be more willing to use sexually coercive tactics when the risk of cuckoldry is high; (2) greater instances of cuckoldry risk in the past should be related to greater instances of sexual aggression; (3) cuckoldry risk and sexual jealousy should positively correlate in men; and (4) among males, rape attitudes and arousal are highest when the risk of cuckoldry is high. Theoretical considerations also suggested the following exploratory questions: (1) are factors currently known to be related to general sexual coercion also related to measures of coercion in romantic relationships; and (2) can the cuckoldry risk measures still predict coercion after controlling for psychopathy? In order to test these predictions, a sample of 82 male and 82 female undergraduate students who were sexually active in a heterosexual relationship completed a survey that collected information on demographics, relationship characteristics, arousal, antisociality, and attitudes. Results found: (1) a significant interaction between cuckoldry risk variables in predicting coercion among male participants and not among females; (2) no relationship between past instances of cuckoldry risk and instances of sexual aggression; (3) those who spend proportionally less time away from their partner were more likely to score higher on sexual jealousy; (4) significant interactions in the anticipated direction were found when predicting scores on the Rape Empathy Scale and Rape Myth Acceptance Scale, a trend in the anticipated direction was found when predicting Adversarial Sexual Beliefs, and nonsignificant results were found when predicting Attraction to Sexual Aggression. Results addressing the exploratory questions found that: (1) only psychopathy significantly predicted partner sexual coercion; and (2) cuckoldry risk variables predicted sexual coercion after controlling for psychopathy. Discussion of these results cover: the importance of finding a sex difference; understanding the interaction between variables; how cuckoldry risk impacts rape-supportive thoughts, attitudes, and arousal; the role of sexual jealousy; the function of a cuckoldry risk psychological mechanism; and lastly, the implications on dynamic risk prediction.

Sexual coercion in romantic relationships is a facet of criminal behaviour requiring psychological investigation. The cuckoldry risk hypothesis, that sexual coercion is a tactic used by some males to reduce the risk of cuckoldry by engaging in sperm competition, was developed to account for such behaviour. From this hypothesis, four predictions were generated and empirically tested: (1) males should be more willing to use sexually coercive tactics when the risk of cuckoldry is high; (2) greater instances of cuckoldry risk in the past should be related to greater instances of sexual aggression; (3) cuckoldry risk and sexual jealousy should positively correlate in men; and (4) among males, rape attitudes and arousal are highest when the risk of cuckoldry is high. Theoretical considerations also suggested the following exploratory questions: (1) are factors currently known to be related to general sexual coercion also related to measures of coercion in romantic relationships; and (2) can the cuckoldry risk measures still predict coercion after controlling for psychopathy? In order to test these predictions, a sample of 82 male and 82 female undergraduate students who were sexually active in a heterosexual relationship completed a survey that collected information on demographics, relationship characteristics, arousal, antisociality, and attitudes. Results found: (1) a significant interaction between cuckoldry risk variables in predicting coercion among male participants and not among females; (2) no relationship between past instances of cuckoldry risk and instances of sexual aggression; (3) those who spend proportionally less time away from their partner were more likely to score higher on sexual jealousy; (4) significant interactions in the anticipated direction were found when predicting scores on the Rape Empathy Scale and Rape Myth Acceptance Scale, a trend in the anticipated direction was found when predicting Adversarial Sexual Beliefs, and nonsignificant results were found when predicting Attraction to Sexual Aggression. Results addressing the exploratory questions found that: (1) only psychopathy significantly predicted partner sexual coercion; and (2) cuckoldry risk variables predicted sexual coercion after controlling for psychopathy. Discussion of these results cover: the importance of finding a sex difference; understanding the interaction between variables; how cuckoldry risk impacts rape-supportive thoughts, attitudes, and arousal; the role of sexual jealousy; the function of a cuckoldry risk psychological mechanism; and lastly, the implications on dynamic risk prediction.

There have been few investigations of sexual coercion in relationships. I conducted several studies to develop a measure of partner sexual coercion and to identify its proximate causes and the relevant personal characteristics of male perpetrators. Community participants’ self-reported propensity to engage in various tactics to obtain sex from a reluctant partner clustered into a subscale relating to sexual coercion and a subscale pertaining to sexual coaxing. These subscales had excellent internal reliability, construct validity, criterion validity, and were used to test predictions in subsequent studies. I tested the application of Lalumière et al.’s (2005) three-path model for the development of sexually coercive behavior in general to sexual coercion in relationships. Self-reported interest in partner sexual coercion in a community sample was significantly related to psychopathy, but not age or neurodeveopmental insults. I confirmed the importance of psychopathy in this model by comparing men who raped their partner to other sex offender groups. Another characteristic of sex offenders, sexual deviance, was tested for its application to partner rapists. Unlike non-partner rapists, men who raped their partner exhibited low sexual arousal to rape scenarios, similar to community controls. Cuckoldry risk, a hypothesized proximate cause of partner sexual coercion, was also tested. Direct cues to cuckoldry risk were related to self-reported propensity for partner sexual coercion, whereas indirect cues of cuckoldry risk were related to sexual coaxing. In a forensic sample, most partner rapists had experienced cuckoldry risk prior to committing their offense, and they experienced more cuckoldry risk events than partner assaulters. A necessary condition of the cuckoldry risk hypothesis is that men should exhibit sexual arousal to cues signaling cuckoldry risk. Men in a community sample exhibited as much sexual arousal to stories depicting partner infidelity as they did to stories depicting consenting sex with their partners, and men who were currently in relationships showed greater arousal to stories of infidelity than consenting sex. Taken together, my results suggest psychopathy and cuckoldry risk are important contributors to partner sexual coercion. / Thesis (Ph.D, Psychology) -- Queen's University, 2008-07-16 11:13:04.26

By analyzing and contextualizing the polarized discourses on coffee and coffeehouses in post-1652 England, this dissertation argues that the divisive worldviews of the English population at this critical historical juncture shaped the contentious reception of coffee. Countless scholarly efforts dealing with seventeenth-century coffeehouses, those of London in particular, have helped explaining the rapid growing popularity of coffee and the establishments in which it was consumed, the coffeehouse. Building upon exiting literature, this work advances a new approach to shed light the interconnection between social and cultural anxieties, paradoxes and contradictions in seventeenth-century English society, and the contradictory discourses surrounding the rise of coffee in England. My project demonstrates that pervasive anxieties about the rise of religious heterodoxy, the ambiguous dispositions of the English people towards the Ottoman Turks, and the ever-present concerns surrounding the tenuous state of patriarchal manhood collectively helped to both encourage and discourage interactions with the Islamic practice of coffee drinking in coffeehouses. Coffee and coffeehouses came from the Ottoman Empire, the land of the presumed Turks. One sector of society, the optimists, embraced the exotic novelty from the Islamic world and participated enthusiastically in a custom shared with their Turkish, Arab and Persian counterparts since the early sixteenth century. Conversely, the pessimists vilified the adoption of cultural and dietary practices from a non-Christian society; they condemned the enthusiasts' cosmopolitanism as a sign of disloyalty that would only deepen discord in the nation. Indeed, they proclaimed the craze for the Turkish-imported habit as a sign of degeneration, threatening not just Englishmen's religiosity, but also their manliness. Coffee and coffeehouse came from the Ottoman Empire, the land of the presumed effeminate Turks at that. Intimate intermingling with this imported novelty thus compromised England's identity and even sovereignty. By relying upon a borderlands approach that is inspired by gender analysis, this dissertation seeks an alternative theoretical path to explain the controversy and contention swirling around a new drink and novel spaces of sociability among a populace dislocated by years of religious, political and cultural turmoil.

This thesis re-examines the role of marriage in the golden age of seventeenth-century French comedy. It reconsiders received wisdom on the subject to challenge acceptance of the final promise of marriage as a dénouement complet to comedy. Through an analysis of the themes of discontent, cuckoldry, fertility, non-heteronormative desire and widowhood, it offers an alternative view of what comedy can encompass. Close reading of works by Molière, Quinault, (Thomas) Corneille, (Françoise) Pascal, Ulrich and de Visé establishes that comedy can be both enjoyable and satisfying while incorporating elements that conflict with the marriage ideal. This thesis does not attempt to provide a full socio-historical reading of seventeenth-century attitudes to marriage, although an understanding of contemporary attitudes provides a starting point for close textual analysis. Critical theories, notably gender theory, are used where appropriate to further clarify the role of marriage in comedy. Chapter One presents and problematizes the framework of marriage as the structuring principle of comedy, drawing on themes of compatibility, discontent and desire. The second chapter focuses on anxiety regarding cuckoldry in comedy, relating it to the promise of marriage. An analysis of the desires of older characters in projected comedic marriages, particularly as these desires relate to fertility, is the guiding principle of Chapter Three, which also sets out essential terms of reference for the fourth chapter on widowhood and queer desire. The thesis demonstrates that rather than constituting a satisfying and happy ending, a constant challenge is posed to the promise of marriage by on-stage marriages, fears of cuckoldry, widowhood, and ‘inappropriate' or queer desires. I propose a more nuanced reading, showing that comedy can be fully satisfying and structurally complete without a final promise of marriage, and that, rather, comedy can incorporate significant elements that appear antithetical to the ideal of marriage typically associated with the genre.

<p>Alternative reproductive tactics (ARTs) have been described across taxa numerous times, and are especially common in fishes. The advent of molecular techniques has enhanced our understanding of such mating systems, yet these techniques have only been applied to relatively few species. Furthermore, ecological variation has long since been recognized as an important factor influencing mating patterns and sexual selection, yet it is often ignored. In my thesis, I conducted field studies to investigate the reproductive ecology of a species with well characterized ARTs, the plainfin midshipman (<em>Porichthys notatus</em>), and to explore how these mating patterns varied across time and space. This species is characterized by two male tactics: guarders and sneakers. I show that both tactics are successful at gaining fertilization. Indeed, I found evidence for several behavioural adaptations by the guarder male tactic to gain fitness, including guarding, nest takeovers, and plastic cuckoldry behaviours. I also documented the lowest paternity for guarder males for a species with obligate male parental care. Paternity increased over the course of the breeding season, which was likely a result of a higher occurrence of nest takeovers early in the season. In a cross-population analysis of plainfin midshipman, I found significant differences in nest availability and density between two genetically distinct populations, but this did not translate into significant differences in mating patterns. Taken together, my thesis helps elucidate the reproductive ecology of a classic species with ARTs, and has important implications for our understanding of ecological influences on mating patterns and sexual selection.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

此論文檢視莎士比亞《冬天的故事》中里昂提斯的妒忌，辯證其顯示出了英國文藝復興時期，陽剛身分建構本身的問題性。在誘勸波西米亞國王延長拜訪的結果中，里昂提斯敗給了他的妻子赫美溫妮，他雄辯技巧上的弱勢也讓他的男性尊嚴受損；而赫美溫妮當初對於里昂提斯求婚的延遲回覆，以及本劇中的語言的模糊性引發了他的猜忌，進而帶來了陽剛身分的崩解。除了辯才外，此論文也探討私通的焦慮，其為英國近代早期陽剛身分建構下所暗藏的隱憂。這樣的焦慮引發他不理性的行為以及對妻子貞潔的誤判。為了重建他的聲望，里昂提斯擅用審判來保留駕馭妻子的絕對權力，並恢復他受損的名聲。儘管本劇稍後轉向以年輕一代為主軸，似乎象徵著新的轉變，然而在赫美溫妮復甦後，里昂提斯機智卻又令人感到不安的沉默，反映出他始終無法接受私通焦慮所帶來的汙名。此論文以辯才與私通來檢視莎士比亞《冬天的故事》中的陽剛特質，並以歷史與文化的文獻來佐證。期許能夠闡明英國文藝復興時期所困擾男性的陽剛焦慮，並且辯證主角里昂提斯的妒忌並不是無從解釋的情緒爆發，而是文藝復興陽剛身分建構下不可避免的集體產物。 / This thesis argues that Leontes’ jealousy manifests the problematic construction of masculine identity in Renaissance England. Leontes’ rhetorical inferiority to Hermione in the persuasion work resulted in his injured masculinity, which is exacerbated by the ambiguity of language in the play and Leontes’ sour memories of Hermione’s late acceptance to his marriage proposal, all of which sparkle Leontes’ jealousy and stimulate the collapse of his masculinity. Aside from rhetorics, this thesis also examines the anxiety of cuckoldry, a pre-existent, latent apprehension inherent in the construction of masculinity in early modern England. This anxiety leads to his unreasonable behavior and misjudgment. In order to rebuild his reputation, Leontes appropriates the public trial to retain absolute dominance over his wife and restore his stained honor. While the shift of the play’s focus to the younger generation signals a revision, Leontes’ tactful yet disturbing silence after Hermione’s resurrection reflects his resurfaced masculinity in the context of marriage and his inability to come to terms with the stigma of cuckoldry anxiety. Leontes’ jealousy is triggered by his lack of rhetorical skills essential to male confidence, a lack which is brutally magnified by his wife’s impeccable eloquence; his following accusation of Hermione’s adultery is precipitated and irrevocably executed by his fear of rumor and cuckoldry prevalent in his time. This thesis aims to shed light on the issue of Renaissance masculine anxiety and prove that Leontes’ jealousy is not just an unexplainable outburst of emotion, but rather an inevitably collective product of the construction of Renaissance masculine identity.