Psychology 2032A/B Chapter Notes - Chapter 8: Infidelity, Observational Learning, Iceberg
6 Jun 2018
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Intimate Partner Violence and Sexual Assault
Domestic Violence
• Violence occurring within a family has a major impact on victims, witnesses and society
• Domestic violence: any violence occurring between family members
- Typically involves private settings
- Historically, it was tolerated and not subject to effective legal sanctions
o Religious and cultural attitudes generally positioned women and children in
deferential roles
o Little attention paid prior to 1980s
▪ The oe’s liberation movement and growth of feminism gave
women the courage to speak out against this
• Intimate partner violence: any violence occurring between intimate partners who are
living together or separated
- Also known as Spousal violence
Types of Violence
• Physical: hitting, punching, stabbing, burning
• Sexual
• Financial: restricting access to personal funds, theft of pay
• Emotional: verbal attacks, degradation, threats about hurting family or pets
- Often as damaging as physical abuse
- Common form is verbal aggression
o Women use verbal aggression more often than men
Measures of Intimate Partner Violence (CTS Scale)
Scale Name
Measurement
Example Item
Negotiation scale
Constructive problem solving
Suggesting a compromise
during an argument
Psychological scale
Verbal/indirect aggression
Swearing, threatening to hit
Physical assault scale
Physical aggression
Slapping, hitting
Sexual coercion scale
Sexual aggression
Forcing partner to have sex
Injury scale
Consequences of aggression
Visits to a doctor because of
pate’s aggessio
The Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS)
• Most commonly used to measure intimate partner assault
- Consists of 39 items divided into 5 scales
- Respondents are asked how frequently they have engaged in the behaviour and how
often they have experienced these acts
• Does not include all potential violent acts
- Hoee, liiias o’t use it if it is eessiel log
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• Ignores the different consequences for the same act for men and women
- Women are more likely than men to suffer both physical and psychological
consequences from intimate violence
• Does not assess motive for violence
- Initiating and responding with violence are treated equally
• The 3 criticisms are mostly concerned with theoretical disagreements and seem to
neglect evidence that women also exhibit violence in relationships
- Research should be concerned with reducing all violence
• Females are more likely engage in minor physical aggression (slapping, kicking, or hitting
with an object)
• Men are more likely to beat up or choke their partner
• With couples in treatment, men engage in much higher rates of minor or severe physical
violence compared with men from student and community samples
- Within the student and community samples, men and women commit equal
amounts of violence
• Respondents report fewer violent acts than their partners
- Men are more likely to under-report than women
Intimate Partner Violence Myths
• It is not a common problem
• Only heterosexual women get battered
• When a woman leaves a violent relationship, she is safe
• Alcohol and/or drugs cause people to act aggressively
• When a woman gets hit by her partner, she must have provoked him
• Maybe things will get better
Statistics Canada Survey on Intimate Partner Assault (2014)
• Used modified CTS to measure physical, psychological and sexual violence in intimate
relationships:
- Both men and women experience violence
- Women experience more severe forms of violence
- Violence against women more likely reported to police
o Most common reason = stop the violence from happening again
o Most common reason for not reporting it = it was a personal matter to try to
resolve
- Almost half (48%) of intimate violence victims also reported having experienced
childhood physical and/or sexual abuse
- Younger residents and Aboriginal residents had higher rates of IPV
o Higher police contact is that there is a higher concentration of police per
population in the territories as compared to the provinces
• Women engage in the same amount of violence as men
- Some studies show more
• Males are more likely to be charged than females
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• Risk factors for same-sex are substance abuse, mental health issues, HIV-positive status
- Gay men incur many types of IPV (ex. Emotional abuse) and often both perps and
victims
- Common pattern in lesbian couples = social isolation as a couple
o More isolation predicts more physical abuse
- They are also 2x as likely to report violence (especially lesbian/bisexual
relationships)
Prevalence of IPV in Aboriginal Populations
• Canada showed that Aboriginal respondents reported more than two times the amount
of intimate partner violence as compared to non-Aboriginal respondents
• Aboriginal women, compared to non-Aboriginal women, were more likely to be
victimized
- Experienced child abuse
- They are more likely to contact the police
Prevalence of IPV in University Students
• Females students were less likely to be perps of serious assaults and sexual coercion as
compared with male students
• Median rates = assault = 29.8%, serious assaults – 5.8% and sexual coercive acts = 21.5%
• 1/5 Canadian students reported having experienced physical assault in the last 12
months
• Canada has a high rate of sexual coercion as compared with many countries
- Violence will likely to continue in later relationships
- Substance abuse increases assault
Theories of Intimate Violence
• Patriarchy: broad set of cultural beliefs and values that support male dominance of
woman
- Often associated with sociology and feminism
- Some researchers believe that this contribute
- Yllo and Straus (1990) compared rates of spousal abuse across different American
states
o States with male-dominated norms had much higher rates of spousal assault
- Although this a otiute to the peeptio of e’s use of pate iolee, a
more encompassing theory is needed to explain why it exists on so many levels
Social Learning Theory
• Developed by Bandura (1973) – used by Dutton (1995) to explain IPV
• There are 3 main components:
1. Origins of Aggression
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Document Summary
Domestic violence: violence occurring within a family has a major impact on victims, witnesses and society, domestic violence: any violence occurring between family members. Intimate partner violence: any violence occurring between intimate partners who are living together or separated. Types of violence: physical: hitting, punching, stabbing, burning, sexual, financial: restricting access to personal funds, theft of pay, emotional: verbal attacks, degradation, threats about hurting family or pets. Common form is verbal aggression: women use verbal aggression more often than men. The conflict tactics scale (cts) during an argument. Visits to a doctor because of pa(cid:396)t(cid:374)e(cid:396)"s agg(cid:396)essio(cid:374: most commonly used to measure intimate partner assault. Consists of 39 items divided into 5 scales. Respondents are asked how frequently they have engaged in the behaviour and how often they have experienced these acts: does not include all potential violent acts. Ho(cid:449)e(cid:448)e(cid:396), (cid:272)li(cid:374)i(cid:272)ia(cid:374)s (cid:449)o(cid:374)"t use it if it is e(cid:454)(cid:272)essi(cid:448)el(cid:455) lo(cid:374)g. Ignores the different consequences for the same act for men and women.
