PARADIGMATIC ASSUMPTIONS IN SEXUAL HARASSMENT RESEARCH - BEING GUIDED WITHOUT BEING MISLED

Sexual harassment research has been conducted within paradigmatic assumptions regarding gender-related violence and harmdoing. These assumptions are outlined briefly and ways that they have misled as well as guided sexual harassment research are discussed. Several explanations are presented for findings from a university sexual harassment survey that question the widely held view that women are the primary targets of harassment. These accounts do little to resolve the apparent contradiction, but they do raise a number of conceptual and methodological issues for harassment research. These issues are discussed, leading to an examination of some unresolved issues in harassment research and presentation of some alternative views of sexual harassment. © 1993 Academic Press, Inc.