The Sexual Experiences Survey (SES) assesses victimization and perpetration of unwanted sexual experiences (e.g., Koss, Gidycz, & Wisniewski, 1987). Revised versions of the SES that resulted from the work of the SES Collaboration are now available. This article reviews weaknesses of the SES that were identified, strengths that were preserved, and methodological considerations in the measurement of unwanted sexual experiences that informed the revisions. The primary changes include: more behavioral specificity; conversion to gender neutrality; full crossing of unwanted acts and coercive tactics; and revised and updated wording for assessing consent, alcohol‐related incidents, unwanted acts, and coercive tactics. For illustration, the full text of the revised victimization version and its scoring rules are provided. The article concludes with suggestions for future research. These suggestions aim to involve researchers in a coordinated agenda to develop data that clarify methodological questions and contribute to continued improvement in assessing sexual victimization and perpetration.

Three experiments supported the idea that alcohol fosters sexual risk-taking in men and women, in part, through its effects on sexual arousal. In Experiment 1, increasing alcohol dosage (target blood alcohol levels of .00, .04, .08%) heightened men's and women's risk-taking intentions. Alcohol's effect was indirect via increased subjective sexual arousal; also, men exhibited greater risk-taking than women. In Experiment 2, an extended dosage range (target blood alcohol levels of .00, .06, .08, .10%) heightened men's risk-taking intentions. Alcohol's effect again was indirect via subjective arousal. Physiological sexual arousal, which was unaffected by alcohol, increased risk-taking via increased subjective arousal. In Experiment 3, alcohol increased women's risktaking indirectly via subjective arousal, but alcohol-attenuated physiological arousal had no effect on risk-taking. Implications for alcohol myopia theory and prevention interventions are discussed.

Objective Although assessments of sexual assault victimization and perpetration have greatly improved, current scoring methods do not fully utilize the wealth of information they provide. The present studies assessed new methods for scoring sexual assault severity using the Sexual Experiences Survey (SES; Koss et al., 2007). Method In two studies of female (n = 436) and male (n = 313) non-problem drinkers who had engaged in unprotected sex within the past year, we compared three severity ranking schemes as well as three scoring methods per severity scheme for a total of nine scoring methods. New severity ranking schemes considered tactic types separately, varied combinations of assault outcomes, and accounted for multiple types and frequencies of assaults. Measures assessing convergent validity were also administered. Results Seventy-eight percent (n = 340) of the women reported victimization, and 58% (n = 180) of the men reported perpetration. All severity scoring methods were strongly associated with convergent measures. Conclusions Each scoring method is viable; however especially among samples with greater victimization/perpetration rates, there can be advantages to incorporating multiple types and frequencies of assault experiences into SES scores. Recent refinements of the SES necessitate commensurate improvements in its scoring methods in order to significantly advance the field of sexual assault assessment.

Resistance and prevention programming aimed at strengthening women’s ability to protect themselves against acquaintance sexual aggression has lacked attention to the cognitive and emotional processes women engage in when encountering such threats. Building upon current theory related to cognitive appraisal and coping processes, this study applies a theoretical model of how women evaluate and respond to sexual aggression by male acquaintances. Two hundred and two college women who had been sexually victimized by male acquaintances responded to a questionnaire that assessed their cognitive appraisals of and emotional and behavioral responses to the incident, in addition to aggression characteristics. Path analytic regression analyses examined theorized relationships among primary and secondary appraisal and emotional response variables in addition to their collective prediction of behavioral responding. The hypothesized model accounted for significant variance in behavioral responding and indicated different patterns of appraisals, emotions, and aggression characteristics predicting women’s assertive and diplomatic behavioral responses to their assaults. These findings are consistent with research and theory related to individuals’ appraisal of and coping with threatening events. Theoretical and intervention implications for resistance and prevention efforts are discussed.

SUMMARYWe offer a theoretical model that consolidates background, environmental, and intrapersonal variables related to women's experience of sexual coercion in dating into a coherent ecological framework and present for the first time a cognitive analysis of the processes women use to formulate responses to sexual coercion. An underlying premise for this model is that a woman's coping response to sexual coercion by an acquaintance is mediated through cognitive processing of background and situational influences. Because women encounter this form of sexual coercion in the context of relationships and situations that they presume will follow normative expectations (e.g., about making friends, socializing and dating), it is essential to consider normative processes of learning, cognitive mediation, and coping guiding their efforts to interpret and respond to this form of personal threat. Although acts of coercion unquestionably remain the responsibility of the perpetrator, a more complete understanding of the multilevel factors shaping women's perception of and response to threats can strengthen future inquiry and prevention efforts.

This article summarizes a symposium organized and cochaired by Maria Testa and presented at the 2005 Annual Meeting of the Research Society on Alcoholism, in Santa Barbara, California. The symposium explored issues relevant to understanding the function of placebo conditions and to interpreting placebo effects. Cochair Mark Fillmore began with an overview of the use of placebo conditions in alcohol research, focusing on methodological issues. Jeanette Norris and her colleagues conducted a review of studies examining placebo conditions among women. They conclude that expectancy effects are limited to a few domains. Maria Testa and Antonia Abbey presented papers suggesting that placebo manipulations may result in unanticipated compensatory effects in actual or hypothetical social situations. That is, placebo participants may compensate for anticipated cognitive impairment through vigilant attention to situational cues. John Curtin's research suggests that the compensatory strategies of placebo participants appear to involve a sensitization of evaluative control, resulting in improved performance. Kenneth Leonard provided concluding remarks on the meaning of placebo effects and the value of placebo conditions in research. KeywordsAlcohol Drinking; Placebo Effect; Methods THE PLACEBO EFFECT is intimately tied to the concept of expectancy that arose out of the need to specify an internal (i.e., cognitive) representation of the learning experience (Bolles, 1972;Tolman, 1932). When an association between 2 events is learned, the first event is said to elicit an expectancy of the second event. Moreover, once learned, the expectancy itself can elicit the associated outcome, and thus expectancies are considered to be an important determinant of behavior (Kirsch, 1999).The placebo has a long history as a control-comparison condition in studies of drug effects on behavior (Kirsch, 1999). Early medical reports of the beneficial effects of placebos led to considerable interest beyond their use as control conditions. In particular, the placebo effect

Objective There is considerable excitement about implicit alcohol associations (IAAs) as predictors of college student hazardous drinking; however, few studies have investigated IAAs prospectively, included multiple assessments, or controlled for previous drinking. Doing so is essential to show their utility as a predictor and, ultimately, target for screening or intervention. Therefore, three IAAs (drinking identity, alcohol approach, alcohol excitement) were evaluated as prospective predictors of drinking in first- and second-year US undergraduates. Method A sample of 506 undergraduates completed eight online assessments of IAAs, explicit measures of the IAA constructs, and hazardous drinking (consumption, problems, and risk of alcohol use disorders) every three months over a 21-month period. Retention rates, ordered by follow-up points were 90%, 76%, 76%, 77%, 72%, 67%, and 66%, respectively. Fifty percent of participants were non-drinkers at baseline; 21% were above clinical cutoffs for hazardous drinking. Results Drinking identity and alcohol excitement associations predicted future alcohol consumption and problems after controlling for previous drinking and explicit measures; drinking identity also predicted future risk of alcohol use disorder. Relative to the other IAAs, drinking identity predicted alcohol consumption for the longest duration (i.e., 21 months). Alcohol approach associations rarely predicted variance in drinking. Conclusions IAAs vary in their utility as prospective predictors of college student hazardous drinking. Drinking identity and, to a lesser extent, alcohol excitement emerged as robust prospective predictors of hazardous drinking. Intervention and screening efforts could likely benefit from targeting those associations.

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