Danielle Delpriore, Ph.D.
Friday, January 23, 3:30pm to 4:30pm, McClelland Park RM 206
Title: The Effects of Paternal Disengagement Cues on Women’s Sexual Attitudes and Perceptions
Abstract: Previous research demonstrates a robust association between father absence – or low quality paternal investment – and daughters’ accelerated development, increased sexuality, and earlier reproduction. However, the psychological shifts underlying the association between low quality fathering and these outcomes remain largely unexamined. The current work begins to address this empirical gap, exploring the impact that proximately activated cues to paternal disengagement have on women’s sexual psychology. In a series of experiments, women were prompted to describe a time that their biological father was physically or psychologically absent for an important life event (or a control state) before completing measures designed to assess their sexual attitudes and perceptions. The results demonstrate that women primed with paternal disengagement cues reported less restricted sexual attitudes, and perceived greater sexual intent in men’s actions and faces, relative to women in the control condition. This work suggests that attitudinal and perceptual shifts may contribute to the reliably observed association between father absence and daughters’ accelerated sexual and reproductive outcomes.
.png)
