South African organisations face increasing diversification of the workforce, with the concomitant benefits and potential challenges thereof. Along with the traditional approaches towards the management of diversity, less conventional areas have yet to be explored within the South African context. One such area is that of sexual attraction in the workplace. With the growing need for organisations to become employers of choice, to create organisational competitive advantage and optimally leverage their human capital it is becoming evident that acknowledgment of innate humanity is essential. The question under exploration was to determine what the perceptions surrounding the prevalence and effects of sexual attraction in the South African workplace are. Employees are human beings, human beings are essentially sexual in nature and therefore it can be said that sexuality and all its composite elements are present in and acting upon organisations. The researcher focused exclusively on self-reported perceptions and experiences surrounding this phenomenon in the workplace, including its perceived effects on productivity; communication; job performance; job involvement; job satisfaction, stress; sexual harassment; morale; the individual and the workgroup. In addition the perceived roles of management in regulating sexual attraction as well as potential perceived motives underlying its initiation in organisations were also explored. The research explored and described differences with regards to these areas of organisational life in respect of age groups; gender; marital status; relationship status; experience of sexual attraction; awareness of sexual attraction and workplace rendezvous experiences. A self-administered questionnaire was designed specifically for the study by the researcher and was used to gain feedback from 155 respondents in numerous fields and organisations through a mixed methods sampling technique. Analysis of data was statistical in nature, including detailed descriptive or frequency distributions; correlations and inferential statistics. The research yielded substantial results with regards to perceptions of sexual attraction in the South African workplace, with numerous implications for management and Human Resource practitioners abounding. Sexual attraction in the workplace is perceived to be a prevalent organisational condition amongst respondents with findings revealing that it is viewed as inevitability in the workplace. Personal experience of sexual attraction was alluded to by the majority of respondents. In addition, various organisational factors, such as proximity, similarity and ongoing work requirements were confirmed as having a perceived influence on the prevalence of sexual attraction amongst co-workers. This linked with findings and existing research with regards to aspects of diversity in the workplace, particularly similarity of moral values. In line with the body of literature, elements underlying sexual attraction were divergent, indicating that attraction is individual specific. Younger respondents indicated that they found physical elements of their co-workers attractive, which was less the case for the older respondent group. When evaluating findings on the perceived effects of sexual attraction in the workplace it was evident that respondents felt that sexual attraction had a slight positive effect on productivity. Significant differences were observed between age groups as well as personal experience of sexual attraction on this construct. Interestingly, sexual attraction was perceived to have a positive effect on job involvement by respondents, with differences observed due to age groups and amongst individuals whom had been previously sexually attracted to a colleague and those whom had not. Gender differences were also observed herein, with females having higher perceived positive effects on job involvement. Job satisfaction was perceived to be positively affected by sexual attraction in the workplace by respondents. Significant differences between age groups as well as with regards to marital statuses and relationship statuses were also found with regards to this construct. Mixed perceptions existed around the influence of sexual attraction on the experience of stress, with a respondents age group found to have an influence thereon. In addition thereto, a respondent’s marital status also made a difference in this regard. Generally the findings concurred with the available literature on the topic. Moreover, the general affects of sexual attraction on the individual involved in this workplace dynamic were fairly positively perceived by respondents. This finding was evidenced to be influenced to some extent by respondents’ experience of prior sexual attraction to a colleague; age; relationship status and marital status. The latter was found to have the largest influence in this regard. Sexual attraction was perceived by respondents to have a negative effect on communication and job performance. The perception of the latter was found to be significantly different between individuals whom had been aware of sexual attraction in the workplace and those whom had not indicated that this was the case; as well as with respondents whom reported prior sexual attraction to a colleague having higher perceived positive influences thereof on job performance. Age was also found to be an influential factor on perceptions surrounding job performance. Morale was found to be slightly negatively affected due to sexual attraction according to reported perceptions of respondents. The majority of respondents were inclined to feel that sexual harassment is an important organisational issue, yet the effects of sexual attraction thereupon may not be as negative as one might have thought. Prior sexual attraction to a colleague was found to have an influence on respondent perceptions of sexual harassment, as did the length of marriage for married respondents. Most respondents perceived sexual attraction to have more of a negative effect on the workgroup surrounding the sexually attracted individuals. Influencing variables in this regard were respondent age and marital status. In addition, motives underlying sexual attraction were negatively perceived by respondents. Marital status was found to have an influence on respondent perceptions of sexual attraction motives. Findings revealed that respondents in general felt that management has some form of role to play in the regulation of this workplace dynamic. However, the vast majority of respondents felt that it was the responsibility of the individual employee to manage their own sexual attraction in the workplace. Differences in this perception were found between males and females; age groups as well as the length of marriages of married respondents. The research established that sexual attraction is a prevalent condition in South African organisations. Moreover, substantial effects of sexual attraction were reported on various important areas of organisational functioning. Copyright 2009, University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. Please cite as follows: Mortimer, C 2009, An exploratory study on the perceived prevalence and effect of sexual attraction in the South African workplace, MCom dissertation, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd < http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-02162012-103105 / > C12/4/203/gm / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Human Resource Management / unrestricted

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Lehigh University, 2001. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 108-118).

This research explores the relationship between sexual exploitability and sexual attractiveness. Sexual exploitability describes the ease with which a woman could be pressured, deceived, or coerced into sex, or sexually assaulted. Study 1 documented novel cues to sexual exploitability. Moreover, men found women displaying these cues to be attractive as short-term mates, supporting the hypothesis that men’s attraction functions to motivate the pursuit of sexually accessible women. In Study 2, it was determined that women also perceived other women who displayed cues to exploitability as sexually attractive to men. Because displaying exploitability enhances a woman’s sexual attractiveness, women may have co-evolved mate attraction mechanisms designed to capitalize on this feature of male sexual psychology. In Study 3, it was hypothesized that three individual differences would predict which women would be more likely to signal exploitability as a mate attraction tactic: propensity towards short-term mating, relationship status, and self-perceived mate value. Women self-reported their likelihood of using mate attraction tactics involving the intentional display of exploitability cues. Women inclined toward casual sex were more likely to report using such tactics. In Study 4, a separate set of female participants made a hypothetical video dating profile to provide a record of their actual behavior in a mate attraction scenario. Women inclined toward short-term mating and high in the personality characteristic of Openness to Experience were more likely than their female counterparts to display exploitability cues in their videos. These convergent results across studies support the hypothesis that women pursuing short-term mating capitalize on the relationship between exploitability and attractiveness to achieve their mating goals. Results from these studies expand our knowledge of sexual exploitability and mate attraction. Documentation of a comprehensive list of cues to exploitability expands our knowledge of potential predictors of sexual victimization. Identification of individual differences that predict which women may functionally display exploitability cues increases our understanding of which women may be at greater risk for sexual exploitation. / text

Thesis (M.A.)--Eastern Illinois University. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 31-38).

From an adaptive perspective human memory ought to be strategically attuned towards information deemed to be of value according to nature's criterion; i.e. that which promotes individual survival and reproduction. The experiments in this thesis represent an interdisciplinary venture to merge cognitive psychology with social perception research in order to study how sociosexual pressures may have shaped women's episodic memory systems. A vast literature has validated sexual dimorphism as a cue by which women comparatively judge the value of potential mates in terms of their perceived biological and behavioural characteristics (e.g. heightened sexual dimorphism in men correlates with positive biological attributes but also negative behavioural traits). The first 5 experiments extend this work by focusing on the functional contribution women's episodic memory systems may play in constraining generalisations. Experiments 1 and 2 reveal a mnemonic bias in women's memory for contents of encounters with men who have (attractive) masculinised low vs. (less attractive) feminised high pitch. Experiment 3 finds a similar memory benefit for information associated either with masculinised or feminised men's faces, depending on whether women prefer masculinised or feminised characteristics in men. Data from Experiments 6 and 7 reveal further evidence of sociosexual adaptation in women's episodic memory. Memory appears to be biased towards remembering the location of women with feminised (highly attractive) facial features, i.e. high-value competitors for potential mates. While no sociosexual bias was found in women's location memory for attractive male faces, a sociosexual bias was present in women's location memory for men with attractive, low-pitch voices. Considered along with other recent adaptive memory research, the data in this thesis further erode the idea of episodic memory as a general purpose mechanism.

Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Auburn University, / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographic references (p.135-154).

Thesis (M.S.)--Western Washington University, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 40-44). Also issued online.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Committee on Human Development, Dept. of Psychology, Aug. 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 113-126). Also available on the Internet.

The LOOK is an iPad-based application that measures sexual interest. It does this by recording the amount of time individuals take to view and rate the attractiveness of images of fully clothed people from differing age, gender, and racial demographics. Viewing-time measures, such as the LOOK, operate under the assumption that individuals view sexually attractive images longer than they view images that they deem unattractive or sexually non-preferred. Although there is research to show the efficacy of these kinds of tests, there is a lack of research supporting the assumption that viewing-time correlates strongly with reported ratings of sexual preferences. This study analyzed existing data from the LOOK to assess the nature of this correlation and how it varies across gender groups. The results of this analysis found that a moderately sized correlation did exist between time spent rating the image (Rate-time) and the subsequent rating of sexual attraction (Ratings) in most age and gender categories. However, for both men and women, these correlations were significantly weaker or were negative in target categories (those categories in which they rated the highest amount of sexual attraction). Additionally, cluster analysis indicated two clusters within both the male and female participant groups that had significantly different mean Rate-time, mean Ratings, and correlation coefficients. Given these results, the viewing-time theory that Rate-time is strongly associated with sexual attraction is questionable. A greater understanding of what viewing-time measures truly assess will require additional research.

Sport psychology professionals (SPPs), like psychologists in general, may cross therapeutic boundaries (e.g., hug a client) and even become sexually attracted to their athlete-clients (ACs). I examined the prevalence of these issues, as well as SPPs' ethical training and use of supervision in relation to them. Participants were 181 SPPs; 92 (50.8%) reported being sexually attracted to one or more of their ACs. In regards to specific behaviors, approximately half (49.4%) reported discussing personal matters unrelated to their (n = 87), whereas far fewer had engaged in sexual behaviors with their ACs, such as discussing sexual matters unrelated to their work (n = 4), and caressing or intimately touching an AC (n = 1). No SPP reported kissing, dating, having sexual intercourse, or engaging in other sexual activities with their ACs. The three most common nonsexual boundary crossings were (a) consulting with an AC in public places (e.g., hotel lobby or practice field; 87.8%), (b) working with an AC at practice (86.2%), (c) working with an AC at a competition (75.0%). Interestingly, few SPPs sought supervision/consultation regarding the attraction, though 83.7% said they would do so if they were attracted in the future. I also examined differences across gender, mental health licensure, and years since graduation in relation to the outcome. Sexual attractions appear to exist between SPPs and their AC and should be discussed during training to normalize the experience and increase the likelihood of them discussing such attractions when they occur. Further, self-reflection and supervision are recommended approaches to managing such feelings and to minimize the chances of harming ACs.