Definitions set the parameters of research and influence the results and conclusions. It is thus crucial that researchers critically examine definitions and terms, particularly in fields that use popular terms likely to be influenced by the unacknowledged biases and political concerns of the dominant group. The study of sexual assault is such a field, and therefore this article examines researchers' definitions of sexual assault, rape, and related terms. Definitions vary along several dimensions, including (a) the sexual behaviors specified, (b) the criteria for establishing nonconsent, (c) the individuals specified, and (d) the perspective specified—that is, who decides whether sexual assault has occurred. For each dimension, the article discusses implications for researchers' results and conclusions, underlying assumptions, and political ramifications.

Relations between cardiovascular reactivity and cynical hostility, aggressiveness, antagonism, and anger-in were examined in White college women for conditions of high and low interpersonal stress. High stress was created by having the participants discuss an issue on which they held a strong view with a confederate who adamantly espoused an opposing view. Participants in the low-stress condition discussed an issue on which they held no strong views with a confederate who amicably expressed agreement. Participants higher in cynical hostility exhibited more systolic blood pressure reactivity than individuals lower in cynical hostility in the high interpersonal stress condition only. Also, antagonism was positively related to heart rate reactivity across conditions. However, neither aggressiveness nor anger-in was related to reactivity in either condition. Overall, cynical hostility and a disposition toward disagreeable, manipulative behaviors (i.e., antagonism) but not overt aggressive behavior were found to be related to cardiovascular reactivity.

We examined techniques for analysing the spatial scale at which parasitoids aggregate in response to host patchiness. (2) We attempted to demonstrate with simulations that current analyses based upon B, the slope of the linear regression of percentage parasitism on host density, are flawed. B is inappropriate due to its dependence upon the variance of host density measurements, and, therefore, upon the nature of the underlying host distribution. (3) An alternative analysis is proposed, based upon the correlation coefficient of the same linear regression, calculated over a series of increasing quadrat sizes. (4) The proposed analysis was applied to field data of the foraging behaviour of Argochrysis armilla (Hymenoptera: Chrysididae), a parasitoid of the solitary, groundnesting wasp, Ammophila dysmica (Hymenoptera: Sphecidae). A. armilla aggregated in areas of high host nest density both during and after nest excavation. Parasitoids responded maximally to host patchiness over areas of 3-50 m2. (5) Attempts to analyse parasitoid foraging behaviour indirectly through the resultant patterns of parasitism are criticized, due to (i) the tendency of such indirect analyses to ignore temporal variation in host distribution, (ii) the tenuous link between patterns of foraging and patterns of parasitism, and (iii) the inability of studies of parasitism to distinguish active, behaviourally mediated aggregation from passive, demographically mediated aggregation. (6) The current use of B as a measure of the strength of an aggregative response may also be inappropriate, but may be rectified by measuring host density on a logarithmic scale.

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