Psychology RootsAttitudes Toward Rape Victims Scale
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About Attitudes Toward Rape Victims Scale
Scale Name
Attitudes Toward Rape Victims Scale
Author Details
Ward‚ C. (1988)
Translation Availability
Not Sure
Background/Description
A 25-item Attitudes toward Rape Victims Scale (ARVS) was designed to assess favourable and unfavourable attitudes with particular emphasis on victim blame, credibility, deservingness, denigration, and trivialization. Normative data are presented as well as the results of various psychometric analyses based on four independent studies and a variety of samples including university students, doctors, lawyers, social workers, psychologists, and police in Singapore, and university students in the United States. These analyses confirm the ARVS’s reliability, validity and cross-cultural suitability. As attitudes toward rape victims have been implicated in the quality of victim care in legal, medical, and social spheres, it is proposed that the ARVS provides a valuable tool for applied research in victimology.
Administration, Scoring and Interpretation
- Materials: Participants receive a copy of the ARVS questionnaire, which includes instructions at the beginning.
- Instructions: The instructions explain the purpose of the scale in a neutral way, emphasizing it’s about understanding attitudes towards victims of rape. It should also detail how to answer each question.
- Response Format: Each item presents a statement about rape victims. Participants rate their level of agreement with the statement on a scale, typically ranging from 0 (strongly disagree) to a higher number (often 4 or 5) indicating strong agreement.
- Anonymity: To encourage honest responses, researchers often strive to maintain anonymity when administering the ARVS. This can be achieved through online surveys or by collecting completed questionnaires without requiring participant identification.
Reliability and Validity
The Attitudes Toward Rape Victims Scale (ARVS) has been evaluated for its reliability and validity, which are crucial for any psychological measure used to assess attitudes towards rape victims. Here’s a breakdown of what these terms mean in the context of the ARVS:
- Internal Consistency: Studies have shown good internal consistency for the ARVS. This means the items within the scale tend to measure a related concept, suggesting a high level of internal coherence. Participants who agree with one statement reflecting negative attitudes towards victims are likely to agree with other similar statements on the scale.
- Temporal Stability: Research on the ARVS’s temporal stability is limited. Ideally, the scale should produce similar scores when administered to the same person on multiple occasions, assuming their attitudes haven’t significantly changed. More research is needed to confirm this aspect of reliability.
- Content Validity: The ARVS demonstrates good content validity. The statements it includes directly address various aspects of negative attitudes towards rape victims, such as victim blame, credibility, and denigration. The scale covers the content domain it’s intended to measure.
- Construct Validity: Evidence for the ARVS’s construct validity is promising. Scores on the scale tend to correlate with other measures that theoretically should be connected. For example, higher scores on the ARVS (indicating more negative attitudes) might correlate with lower scores on measures of empathy or compassion.
Available Versions
25-Items
Reference
Ward, C. (1988). The attitudes toward rape victims scale: Construction, validation, and cross cultural applicability. Psychology of women quarterly, 12(2), 127-146.
Important Link
Scale File:
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the ARVS?
A survey to assess beliefs and feelings about victims of rape (mostly women).
What does it measure?
Victim blame, credibility, deservingness, negative views of victim, and minimizing the seriousness.
How is it administered?
Self-administered: participants read statements and rate their agreement. Anonymous to encourage honest responses.
Is it reliable and valid?
Likely reliable based on internal consistency (similar items measure related concepts).
Valid based on content (covers what it’s meant to) and promising evidence for construct validity (scores correlate with other related measures).
Needs more research on temporal stability (scores over time) and generalizability (across populations).
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