Francisca Expósito

University of Granada | UGR · Department of Social Psychology

Objective: Exposing women to intimate partner violence (IPV) poses a risk to their physical and mental health, necessitating that they leave the relationship. However, women face various obstacles in doing so, such as cognitive distortions that affect their interpretation of the reality of the violence, trapping them and significantly influencing t...

Purpose: Intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW) is a public health and social responsibility issue affecting women worldwide. The role of society is essential to help victims to get out of the violent relationship and reduce their risk of revictimization. In this regard, the social response to IPVAW depends to some extent on public beliefs...

Ideal partner preferences (i.e., ratings of the desirability of attributes like attractiveness or intelligence) are the source of numerous foundational findings in the interdisciplinary literature on human mating. Recently, research on the predictive validity of ideal partner preference matching (i.e., Do people positively evaluate partners who mat...

Previous literature suggests that in masculinized domains, a stereotypical portrayal of women has a negative impact on society’s perception of them. However, the influence of media representation on people’s perceptions of athletes depending on their gender, as well as its possible consequences for both men and women, remains unexplored in the spor...

Introduction Gender role stress emerges as a concept to try to explain the health difficulties presented by men and women due to gender socialization. Thus, gender role stress arises when individuals feel stressed due to their perceived inability to fulfill the demands of their gender role, or when they believe that a particular situation necessita...

Introduction: This article addresses the complex dynamics of sexual consent among female Spanish university student. The research is based on two independent studies, each employing a distinct methodology: study 1 (n = 308) employs a quantitative approach to analyze the relationship between the endorsement of heterosexual scripts, individual variab...

Evidence suggests that online disinhibition enhances the likelihood of perpetrating cyberbullying by increasing moral disengagement; however, these psychological mechanisms have not been examined in the context of cyberdating abuse. In the current study (N = 362), we examined whether online disinhibition would predict more frequent direct cyberaggr...

Direct cyberaggression and cybercontrol, although both are manifestations of cyberdating abuse (CDA), seem to show different intentionality and impact. Furthermore, how young people perceive and experience CDA within heterosexual relationships varies by gender. However, no studies have examined whether the victims’ perception of offense and severit...

La violencia de género (VG) tiene consecuencias graves para la salud de las mujeres y supone un problema a nivel mundial. Esta violencia puede mostrarse de forma más manifiesta (violencia física o sexual) o sutil (violencia psicológica o conductas de control), repercutiendo en su identificación, percepción de gravedad, emociones y, por tanto, en la...

Intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW) is a global public health problem where multiple factors, such as the perceptions and attitudes toward IPVAW, should be considered to properly address this issue. This systematic review and meta-analysis synthesized the information available about perceived severity of IPVAW by different actors (e.g.,...

We aimed to analyze whether women with higher family-role overload regret sacrificing their professional work to fulfill family responsibilities better after analyzing the costs of making the work sacrifice. In Study 1, participants (n = 218 women and men) self-reported their family-role overload, rated the costs of sacrificing their work for their...

The nature of social networking sites and the overconfidence and lack of awareness that characterize the adolescent stage favor the assumption of risk behaviors on Instagram (e.g., self-objectified photos, that is, photos showing sexualized body parts such as skin cleavage or the abdomen). Two experimental studies examine the social perceptions of...

It has been widely documented that infidelity is established as one of the main causes of relationship breakdowns. Likewise, the empirical literature has also revealed the association between anxious attachment and personal distress with unforgiveness motivations. However, there is no known research that has examined the role of anxious attachment...

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is the most frequent type of violence experienced by women, with devastating consequences for their physical and mental health. Due to exposure of women to the violence, their perceptions and interpretations of the situation may be distorted, making it difficult to leave the violent relationship. Exploring the obstac...

We aimed to analyze perceptions of the costs and benefits of family and work sacrifices. In Study 1, participants (n = 222) rated the associated benefits and costs of a sacrifice (work vs. family). In Study 2, participants (n = 213) rated the associated benefits and costs of a work sacrifice, their willingness to sacrifice, and their sense of authe...

Intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW) is a public health problem that affects women worldwide. Consequently, victims frequently go to healthcare centers, usually with a cover reason. To address this problem, national and autonomic protocols to respond to IPVAW in health systems have been developed in Spain. In this regard, the role of pri...

The negative consequences of intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW) are observed not only in the victims but also in the professionals who work in this field. Self-efficacy has been observed as a significant variable in the perception of work efficiency and general well-being, and in coping with work-related stress and burnout syndrome. Th...

Due to the unique characteristics of the online environment, cyberdating abuse (CDA) is a complex phenomenon with very detrimental consequences for the well-being of young people. Research examining romantic attachment systems and their association with CDA highlights the need to consider the heterogeneity of intimate partner violence experiences t...

Background: Infidelity is a relational process common in all types of romantic relationships and has been established as one of the main causes of relationship breakdown. However, little is known about this type of transgression in adolescent romantic relationships, although it manifests as a fairly frequent behavior involving different motivation...

Through two studies (N = 544 women), the role of types of relational problems (absence vs. presence of intimate partner violence [IPV]) in the use of conflict resolution strategies (exit and loyalty) was analyzed, considering the serial mediating effect of dependency and commitment and the moderating effect of benevolent sexism. The main results sh...

Background/objective: Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a public health problem for which many victims attend to healthcare centers to alleviate the results of violence. The present study aimed to explore the relation between IPV attitudes and willingness to intervene in cases of IPV by future health professionals, considering the influence of...

Pornography is the primary means by which young people learn about sex. This, combined with a generalized lack of comprehensive sex education, can contribute to fuelling negative attitudes toward women. This research aimed to examine social perceptions of porn actresses versus porn actors, based on the stereotypes attributed to them, considering vi...

Sexual coercion is among the subtlest forms of sexual violence in an intimate relationship and sometimes goes unnoticed by victims. The present study analyzed factors that potentially mitigate women’s negative perceptions of intimate partner sexual coercion (IPSC). A total of 427 women completed an online survey, in which they were shown vignettes...

Sexual coercion is one of the most subtle manifestations of gender-based violence and may profoundly affect victims’ sexuality. This research analyzed the association of previous experiences of sexual coercion by an intimate partner (intimate partner sexual coercion [IPSC]) with women’s reactions and responses to a scenario of sexual violence. Fema...

Sexual coercion is among the subtlest forms of sexual violence in an intimate relationship and sometimes goes unnoticed by victims. The present study analysed factors that potentially mitigate women’s negative perceptions of intimate partner sexual coercion (IPSC). A total of 427 women completed an online survey, in which they were shown vignettes...

Gender roles operate as a social schema through which people learn how they must behave and make decisions; that is, socially, what women and men are expected to do is pre-established. This gender socialization is such a deep-rooted process that people may not aware of how they have been socialized, which is thus often is difficult to analyze in pe...

Power dynamics are fundamental when negotiating conflicts. However, no instrument for measuring power in romantic relationships has been adequately adapted to Spanish culture. The goal of this research was to adapt the Relationship Power Inventory (RPI; Farrell et al., 2015) to Spanish culture and language, filling this gap by providing a rigorous...

Instagram is a popular social networking site (SNS) among adolescents that allows them to share visual content about their lives quickly and easily, increasing social connection, acceptation, and entertainment among others. Nevertheless, SNS exposure can also lead to negative counterparts such as judgments, envy, social comparison, or cyberbullying...

Background: Psychologists' increased workload over recent years has highlighted the importance of using self-care strategies that allow these professionals to become aware of and control their overall health. Despite the importance of these strategies, there is no instrument adapted for measuring them in the Spanish population. Therefore, this stu...

Instagram is a social networking site (SNS) that facilitate the social-comparison and feedback-seeking (SCFS) processes, which are particularly relevant during adolescence. Likes represent numeric evaluative feedback and seem to be considered as a form of social reward. In this research we examine some psychosocial factors that could influence the...

Infidelity occurs in adult romantic relationships quite often; however, little is known about this relational phenomenon in the adolescent stage, despite its being a surprisingly common behavior. Through a correlational study, we set out to examine how the various documented motivations to engage in an act of infidelity are associated with negative...

SARS-CoV-2 has resulted in the mandatory isolation of the entire population, reducing the opportunities for casual sexual encounters or between partners who do not live together. However, it is plausible to assume that other forms of sexual contact like sexting are occurring. This research aimed to analyse the behaviours and motivations to engage i...

The aim of this study was to analyze the relationship between body shame and participation in sexting among adolescents by examining the mediational roles of social physique anxiety and misuse of social networking sites (SNSs). Four hundred thirty-nine adolescents completed self-report measures for assessing their levels of body shame, social physi...

Sexual coercion is one of the most frequent manifestations of sexual aggression that occurs within intimate relationships. The current research examined the role of previous perpetration of sexual coercion toward an intimate partner on men’s proclivity toward partner sexual assault and their cognitive and emotional reactions to a sexual assault sce...

Prior research has indicated that the people one loves the most, such as their romantic partners, ironically, are also the people toward whom they often direct destructive behaviors in times of conflict, and such destructive responses become one of the most challenging relationship problems. Identifying the conditions that promote destructive (vs....

Sexual coercion is one of the most frequent manifestations of sexual aggression that occurs within intimate relationships. The current research examined the role of previous perpetration of sexual coercion toward an intimate partner on men’s proclivity toward partner sexual assault and their cognitive and emotional reactions to a sexual assault sce...

Prior research indicated that lack of power leads to emotional suppression and low emotional expression during conflicts among strangers. However, little is known about how power affects emotional inhibition in close relationships, where partners are highly interdependent, and achieving one's goals greatly depends on their partner's cooperation. In...

Gender equality's progress in the public sphere has not expanded to the private sphere, where women are primarily responsible for housework, which seems to affect them at individual, family, and social levels. We investigated how women perceive contextual (society), intrapersonal (decision‐making), or interpersonal (romantic relationship) factors c...

Research has demonstrated gender differences in the decision‐making process, showing that women make more disadvantageous risk decisions than men. However, these differences have not been examined in terms of psychosocial or socio‐structural variables, such as the gender stereotype threat. We conducted an experimental study (Ns = 105) to test the w...

La Comisión Nacional de Salud ha clasificado el COVID-19 (enfermedad por coronavirus 2019) como una enfermedad tipo B altamente contagiosa que requiere medidas de control y prevención, y que ha causado graves consecuencias físicas y un impacto psicológico potencialmente significativo en todo el mundo. La literatura empírica ha documentado ciertas v...

Authors have empirically evidenced that cultural stereotypes influence gender-typed behavior. With the present work, we have added to this literature by demonstrating that gender roles can explain sex differences in risk-taking, a stereotypically masculine domain. Our aim was to replicate previous findings and to analyze what variables affect women...

Sexual aggression is one of the most humiliating forms of gender-based violence and may profoundly affect victims’ physical, mental, and sexual health. This research analyzed the role of previous experiences of sexual coercion by an intimate partner on women’s behavioral, cognitive, and emotional responses to a video clip showing a sexual assault i...

This bibliometric study seeks to know and analyse the available scientific activity on the perception and detection of gender violence as well as in the identification as victims. An unlimited search was conducted in the Scopus database, finding 2,152 documents. Subsequently, the results were screened by reducing the documentary noise. The resu...

This experiment explored behavioral consequences of interpersonal objectification. In an actual interaction with an objectifying man, women (N = 91) perceived the interaction as less pleasant, reducing the amount of time they spent interacting with the male objectifier compared to a neutral interaction. Moreover, the effect of the objectifying beha...

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is a public health problem with harsh consequences for women’s well-being. Social attitudes towards victims of IPV have a big impact on the perpetuation of this phenomenon. Moreover, specific problems such as the abuse of alcohol and drugs by IPV victims could have an effect on blame attributions towards them. The ai...

Transgressions occur frequently in romantic relationships, and how they are perceived is influenced by the type of transgression that occurred. By means of an experimental study of 399 participants (75.9% women and 24.1% men) aged 18 to 64 years old ( Mage = 31.20, SD = 10.48), we examined the relationship between the type of sexual transgression (...

Young people have incorporated information and communication technology (ICT) and its influence on socialization as a new instrument to exercise controlling behaviors in their relationships. The present research aims to analyse the influence of some variables that affect social perception of those controlling behaviors, such as the adopted role on...

Intimate partner sexual violence has countless consequences for women suffering it. This research analyse the effect of the type of sexual coercion tactic and partner dependence on both the attribution of responsibility and the probability of leaving a relationship. In Study 1, six scenarios for different sexual tactics were presented (coaxing, coe...

Sexual objectification is a variable to consider for understanding the sexual violence that takes place into intimate context. The set of studies presented here aims to connect sexual objectification phenomena with sexual coercion and explore the consequences that both have on sexual satisfaction. Two studies examined the association between sexual...

Conflicts that arise in romantic relationships can be one of the greatest causes of suffering when they are not faced appropriately. Through two studies, this research analyses the differential effect of gender and the influence of emotional intelligence on conflict-facing responses, as well as their consequences at an individual and relationship l...

Interpersonal transgressions often threaten the stability of the relationship. Within the scope of romantic relationships, physical violence and sexual infidelity have been considered the most difficult transgressions to forgive. Similarly, two variables considered relevant for forgiveness within the context of the couple are partner-specific depen...

Infidelity is considered an unforgivable betrayal. However, not all behaviors considered unfaithful affect the person who suffers them in the same way. Therefore, to have a better understanding of unforgiveness according to different extradyadic behaviors, two studies were designed. Study 1 (N = 240) explored which extradyadic behaviors are conside...

Despite the fact that literature regarding the implications of envy in the work environment has generated growing interest in recent years, the role of malicious and benign envy in the workplace has scarcely been studied. Therefore, the present study, using an experimental design, N = 213 (140 female and 73 male; Mage = 31.05, SD = 10.01; range fro...

Violence against women is probably the most prevalent human rights violation, affecting the greatest number of people and occurring in all countries and social classes. Every day, thousands of women and girls worldwide suffer some type of violence related to their gender. Although the most extreme consequence of violence against women is death, gen...

ResumenLa violencia sexual es un problema actual sobre el que se necesita estudio empírico, pues afecta a más del 30 % de las mujeres en sus relaciones con los hombres. El obje­tivo de esta investigación ha sido comprobar el modo en el que el tipo de táctica utilizada para conseguir sexo, el género y el sexismo benévolo influyen en la responsabi­li...

A través de dos estudios, la presente investigación analizar el proceso de perdón ante una situación de abuso psicológico, en función de la distancia social en relación con la persona que transgrede. En el primer estudio (n = 145), se examinó el otorgamiento de perdón ante diferentes tipos de violencia (física vs. psicológica). Los resultados mostr...

Current research has postulated that sexual harassment is one of the most serious social problems. Perceptions of sexual harassment vary according to some factors: gender, context, and perceiver's ideology. The strategies most commonly used by women to cope with harassment range from avoiding or ignoring the harasser to confronting the harasser or...

Envy strongly influences many spheres of social life. However, the psychology of envy is still in its infancy. A theoretical and empirical examination of envy was performed with a psychosocial focus via two exploratory studies. In Study 1 (N = 141), participants were asked to describe an event in which they experienced envy, indicating which people...

Dejar una relación de pareja es una de las decisiones más difíciles que las personas tienen que tomar, en ocasiones, en algún momento de su vida. Esta investigación pretende contribuir a la comprensión del proceso implicado en esta toma de decisión a través de 2 estudios. En el primero participaron 265 personas de población general, examinándose lo...

Sexual Objectification Theory originally focused on the consequences for women of being treated as objects and how women are reduced to their sexualized body parts to give sexual pleasure to men. However, it is now a reality that men are also increasingly treated as sexual objects in their daily life. Therefore, Sexual Objectification Theory has be...

Sexual objectification as a form of sexist discrimination accounts for the higher prevalence of psychological problems among women. More specifically, sexual objectification manifests itself in different ways with different intensities, in turn affecting women's psychological well-being differently. On one hand, experiences of body evaluation are m...

Research has shown that the perception of sexual harassment depends on factors such as gender, the situational context, the type of harassment, the ideology of the perceiver, the physical attractiveness of the harasser and victim and the relationship between them. This study focuses on examining the influence of physical attractiveness in the perce...

There is an open debate regarding the notion of female sexual empowerment. Some feminist authors, headed by third-wave feminism, have supported the idea that sexuality is a way to female empowerment, whereas other authors have considered that this power is part of a sexual objectification phenomenon where women are subjugated to men. The critical p...

Through forgiveness, people reduce negative responses toward their transgressors, and are more motivated to show positive behaviors instead. Two studies were performed with the aim to approach the phenomenon of forgiveness. The first study, in which 101 university students participated, aimed to examine the differenttypes of transgressions dependin...

Sexual objectification of women is a subtle manifestation of gender violence. The aim of this study was to adapt the 15-item Interpersonal Sexual Objectification Scale (ISOS) to Spanish to obtain a valid instrument to evaluate this construct. After its adaptation, the questionnaire was administered to 771 women from the general population. Subseque...

El acoso sexual se ha convertido en un problema de gran importancia en la actualidad social, que sin embargo está invisibilizado. El objeto de este trabajo se centró en indagar posibles factores que influyen en la percepción social del acoso. En un primer estudio, 177 participantes leyeron un escenario de acoso sexual donde un jefe acosa a una trab...

Sexual harassment is among the most serious forms of gender violence, and what all violent acts have in common are the many myths associated with them. Three studies were conducted to adapt a Spanish version of the Illinois Sexual Harassment Myth Acceptance (ISHMA) scale, which assesses myths about sexual harassment. The first study aimed to, for t...

Sexual harassment is one of the most widespread forms of gender violence. Perceptions of sexual harassment depend on gender, context, the perceivers’ ideology, and a host of other factors. Research has underscored the importance of coping strategies in raising a victim’s self-confidence by making her feel that she plays an active role in overcoming...

Two studies examined how the effect of dependency and emotions on the dynamics of relationship conflict differs between men and women. In Study 1, 96 women and 67 men were presented with conflict situations that might occur in their relation- ship; the probability of aggression, anger, and dependency was measured. Results showed that anger mediated...

Conflict is inherent to all types of interpersonal relationships. The interdependence that characterizes romantic relationships is related to the way that men and women perceive intimate partner conflict. The emotion of guilt also plays an important role in the perception of conflict. In the present research we study how, in a conflictive situation...

This study aims to analyse the acceptance of gender violence in Spanish and Cuban populations. We analysed the influence of sexist beliefs and other ideologies that justify unequal gender relationships. A total of 230 men and women from Spain and 200 from Cuba participated by answering a questionnaire. The results showed the effect of participants’...

In the context of motivated social cognition, the need for cognitive closure emerges like a decisive factor for a better understanding of individual differences on psychosocial variables linked to culture. Besides, they are likely to be taken into account in intervention programmes which objectives would aim to modify attitudes anchored in prejudic...

Background: Studies conducted in several countries have documented that women with disabilities are more vulnerable to experience gender-based violence than women without disabilities. Method: A total of 96 women, 45 with visual disabilities and 51 with physical disabilities, were interviewed to determine the prevalence of violence and its possi...