Degree Received
Ph.D., University of Nevada, Reno, 2001

Research Interests
My current research program focuses on identifying contextual and interpersonal factors that increase women's risk of sexual victimization and revictimization by using an information processing model of social competence as a general framework and methods borrowed from cognitive science. I have used these methods to better understand and identify information processing differences between groups of previously victimized and non-victimized women in response to relevant heterosexual interactions. I have developed an inventory of vignettes that depict varying degrees of risk for sexual coercion (see examples included on this page). I have collected responses to these vignettes and provided them to expert raters who evaluated the competency of the responses in decreasing risk of having unwanted sexual experiences. The results of this study revealed that previously victimized women's responses were rated as less competent in situations that involved (1) sexual activity with the man described, (2) actual or potential romantic involvement with the man described, and (3) a potential impact on her popularity or social acceptance with men. Now that the inventory is complete, I plan to use the stimuli in a variety of studies to investigate the different stages of the information-processing model of social competence that may be related to risk of sexual victimization.