Define sex-based harassment and describe the three different types of relevant behavior identified by psychologists. Describe what type of sex-based harassment tends to be the most common and explain differences in the prevalence of sex-based harassment across Eastern and Western cultures. Explain the role of both power distance and collectivism versus individualism in your response.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Sex-based harassment refers to behavior that derogates or humiliates an individual based on their sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity. Psychologists identify three different types of sex-based harassment behavior. Gender harassment refers to sexual or sexist remarks or gestures. Unwanted sexual attention refers to initiating unwanted sexual discussions or touching. Sexual coercion refers to compelling sexual favors through job threats or rewards. Unwelcome comments, jokes, and gestures tend to be the most common forms of sex-based harassment reported. Interestingly, sex-based harassment tends to be more prevalent among Eastern, collectivist cultures than Western, individualistic cultures. Part of this may be because collectivist cultures also tend to be higher in power distance, or the extent to which a culture has and accepts unequally distributed levels of status and power among its members. This has been shown to be associated with the frequency of sex-based harassment. However, the greater tendency in individualistic cultures to focus on individual rights, as opposed to collectivist cultures focus on preserving social harmony, may also contribute to increased tendencies to victim blame and rationalize sex-based harassment in collectivist cultures.