Interpersonal sensitivities associated with sexual assault.

Abstract

Sexual assault is a common traumatic stressor associated with a number of psychosocial problems for adult men and women. The problems associated with sexual assault are thought to be attributable to its complexity as an interpersonal behavior. However, the interpersonal ramifications of sexual assault are unclear. One way of understanding the nature of interpersonal behavior is by using a tool that has deep roots in psychoanalytic thought, the interpersonal circumplex (IPC). The IPC is a graphical tool used to map the interpersonal salience of behavior across two dimensions, warmth (vs. coldness) and dominance (vs. submissiveness). In this study, we examined the interpersonal sensitivities related to sexual assault in a sample of adult men and women (N = 390) using a bootstrapped structural summary approach to mapping constructs across the IPC. Results indicated that sexual assault is associated with a sensitivity to submissiveness. Results further suggested some differences in how sexual assault is differentially associated with interpersonal sensitivity for men and women. Men who experienced sexual assault are especially sensitive to submissiveness, while women who experienced sexual assault are sensitive to submissiveness as well as many other kinds of interpersonal behaviors. These findings suggest directions for future research and have implications for working clinically with adult survivors of sexual assault.

The influence of trauma symptoms on interpersonal attributions in daily life

“…Although agency and communion are orthogonal axes, CIIT characterizes interpersonal functioning as a blend of these two dimensions that can be practically mapped using the “interpersonal circumplex” (IPC; Hopwood et al., 2021). Recent work indicates that CIIT can be a useful framework for characterizing PTSD symptoms because trauma alters an internal sense of autonomy (i.e., agency) and connection with others (i.e., communion; Fuller et al., 2023; Watters & Yalch, 2022; Yalch & Burkman, 2019). Cross‐sectionally, both agency and, to a lesser degree, communion, are associated with fewer maladaptive interpersonal attributions (Yalch & Levendosky, 2016).…”