SEXUAL HARASSMENT RESEARCH: A METHODOLOGICAL CRITIQUE

Despite numerous court cases and over 10 years of research attention, what we don't know about sexual harassment far exceeds what we do know. The purpose of this paper is to critically assess the research literature on sexual harassment, identify methodological problems, and propose recommendations for advancing our knowledge of this important construct. Seven major methodological problems were found to be prevalent in the research: (a) a disturbing lack of attention to construct validity issues, (b) a weak theoretical development, (c) an overuse of cross-sectional or static approaches for studying a dynamic phenomenon, (d) an almost complete reliance on convenience samples for survey research and college student samples for experimental research, (e) an almost complete reliance on “paper people” or descriptive stimuli, (f) little or no attention paid to the potential reactivity of measures and methods used, and (g) mono-method bias (using the same instruments for measuring both independent and dependent variables).

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