Ego-Identity Achievement and Perception of Risk in Intimacy in Survivors of Stranger and Acquaintance Rape

One hundred twenty-two women participated in a study of the relationship between acquaintance/stranger rape and the respective variables of ego-identity achievement (attainment of self-image during adolescence that integrates one's ideas of what one is and what one wants to be) and perception of risk in intimacy (perception of close interpersonal relationships as a risky proposition). Results showed that compared to women who had not been sexually assaulted, survivors of rape in general reported lower ego-identity achievement and greater perception of risk in intimacy. Focusing on acquaintance rape and stranger rape with age at the time of assault as possible moderator, it was found that lower ego-identity achievement was systematically related to acquaintance rape in women who had been raped during their adolescent years, but not in survivors of rape during adulthood. Perception of risk in intimacy was significantly higher among women who had been raped when adolescents compared to those who had been raped during adulthood, but only in relation to acquaintance rape.     

Geophysical variables and behavior: LX. Lonquimay and Alhué, Chile: tension from volcanic and earthquake hazard

This study assesses the effect of trait anxiety scores on subjects' responses to volcanic eruption hazard and earthquake hazard in Lonquimay and Alhué, respectively. Lonquimay is located in the southern Chilean Andes and Alhué is located in central Chile in the Coastal Range. The former was afflicted by a volcanic eruption which commenced on Christmas Day 1988 and the latter by an earthquake on March 3, 1985. Expectations of high damage and fear from a radio hazard prediction were associated with high trait-anxiety scores in the Alhué sample while positive adjustments to extenuate the hazard effect reached significance for the Lonquimay sample.