A Behavioral Analysis of Intimate Partner Violence Victims
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Western Michigan University ScholarWorks at WMU Honors Theses Lee Honors College 4-30-2020 A Behavioral Analysis of Intimate Partner Violence Victims Maryssa Presbitero Western Michigan University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/honors_theses Part of the Criminology Commons Recommended Citation Presbitero, Maryssa, "A Behavioral Analysis of Intimate Partner Violence Victims" (2020). Honors Theses. 3297. https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/honors_theses/3297 This Honors Thesis-Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Lee Honors College at ScholarWorks at WMU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at WMU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Running Head: A BEHAVIORAL ANALYTIC VIEW OF INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE VICTIMS 1 A Behavioral Analytic View of Patterns in Intimate Violence Victims Maryssa Presbitero Dr. Angela Moe Dr. Zoann Snyder Dr. Lester Wright Western Michigan University A Behavioral Analytic View of Patterns in Intimate Violence Victims 2 Table of Contents Abstract ………………………………………………………………….…………. 4 Introduction …………………………………………………………………....…… 5 Scope of the Problem ………………………………………………………. 5 Theory ……………………………………………………………………………… 6 Analyzing Behavior ………………………………………………………… 6 Operant Conditioning ………………………………………………….……. 7 Respondent Conditioning …………………………………………….……... 9 Literature Review ………………………………………………………………….... 9 Childhood Abuse ……………………………………………………………. 9 Substance Abuse ………………………………………………………....….. 11 Cycle of Abuse …………………………………………………………….... 12 Difficulty Leaving …………………………………………………………… 13 Methods ……………………………………………………………………………... 14 Design & Sampling …………………………………………………………. 14 Participants ………………………………………………………………….. 15 Procedure ………………………………………………………………….... 15 Results …………………………………………………………………………...….. 16 Childhood Abuse ……………………………………………………………. 16 A Behavioral Analytic View of Patterns in Intimate Violence Victims 3 Escalation of Abuse …………………………………………………………. 19 Difficulty Leaving ……………………………………………………….…... 21 Children as a Motivation ……………………………………………………... 23 Discussion ……………………………………………………………………………. 25 Findings ………………………………………………………………………. 25 Theoretical Implications ………………………………………………………. 28 Practical Implications …………………………………………………………. 28 Limitations ……………………………………………………………………. 29 Future Research ………………………………………………………………. 33 Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………. 34 Appendices …………………………………………………………………………… 35 References ……………………………………………………………………………. 36 A Behavioral Analytic View of Patterns in Intimate Violence Victims 4 ABSTRACT This study derived from the stories of eight women from varying backgrounds who have experienced intimate partner abuse. My analysis focuses on identifying themes across the transcripts of their qualitative open-ended interviews. I was specifically interested in how intimate partner abuse impacted the women’s behavior in terms of surviving the relationships and navigating escape. Given that the interviews included life histories, I was able to also examine themes related to childhood victimization as well. Patterns that arose from their experiences include exposure to violence in the home as children, escalation of abuse in their adult intimate relationships, various struggles to leave their abusive partners, and how children were used to motivate the women to leave. These behaviors were analyzed from a behavioral perspective, and in doing so I tried to explain the reasons that these thematic experiences are common in many survivors of intimate violence. A Behavioral Analytic View of Patterns in Intimate Violence Victims 5 INTRODUCTION Scope of the Problem An estimated 25 Americans per minute experience physical violence, stalking, and/or rape at the hands of an intimate partner, totaling approximately 13 million men and women annually. Nearly 75 million Americans have reportedly experienced at least one of the three behaviors during his or her lifetime (Black, Basile, Breiding, Smith, Walters, Merrick, Chen, & Stevens, 2011). Furthermore, reports of psychological aggression from a current or former partner were disclosed by roughly 103 million men and women (Black, et al., 2011). The Center for Disease Control and Prevention acknowledges that due to underreporting and lack of education amongst the public, these statistics are only a fraction of the victims and do not resemble the real magnitude of the intimate partner violence occurring (Black, et al., 2011). Since this violence often occurs behind closed doors, it is difficult to explain just how much damage occurs to these victims and even more so when there are no physical signs to prove it. According to Truman and Morgan (2014), of all reports of violent victimization from 2003-2012, 15% of those were intimate partner violence. It is estimated that only 34% of the victims physically assaulted by their intimate partners will seek medical care for the injuries. They also found that “[v]ictims of intimate partner violence were more likely to suffer serious injuries (i.e., sexual violence injuries, gunshots, knife wounds, internal injuries, unconciousness, and broken bones) than those victimized by immediate family members or other relatives” (Truman & Morgan, 2014, p. 5). Approximately 1 in 6 homicide victims were murdered at the A Behavioral Analytic View of Patterns in Intimate Violence Victims 6 hands of a current or former partner. That number jumps to 1 in 2 when solely analyzing female homicide victims. Undeniably, victims of intimate partner violence suffer from more than just the physical scars that can be seen and can last far longer than when the episodes end. Moreover, victims often are diagnosed with health issues that are not directly caused by the violence itself, including “frequent headaches, chronic pain, difficulty with sleeping, activity limitations, poor physical health, asthma, irritable bowel syndrome, and diabetes” (Black, et al., 2011, p. 3). Victims will also suffer from sexual health issues, such as “unintended and unwanted pregnancy, abortion and unsafe abortion, sexually transmitted infections including HIV, pregnancy complications, pelvic inflammatory disease, urinary tract infections and sexual dysfunction” (Garcia-Moreno, Guedes, & Knerr, 2012, p. 5-6). In addition to struggling with physical health, these victims will also struggle mentally and emotionally. Often victims will suffer from post- traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety, suicidal ideation, low self-esteem, and sleeping and eating disorders, not to mention the increased risk of substance abuse, smoking, self-harm, and unsafe sexual behavior (Garcia-Moreno, Guedes, & Knerr, 2012). In short, being victimized by someone who claims to love you takes a toll on an individual’s body, mind, and soul that could take a lifetime to mend. Intimate partner violence does not discriminate; regardless of gender, age, race, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status and/or any category used to differentiate humans. As a society, it is dangerous to assume that intimate partner violence is far away, when the threat is much closer to home. Intimate partner violence should not be thought of as a private family matter. By doing that, society has perpetuated the victimization. THEORY A Behavioral Analytic View of Patterns in Intimate Violence Victims 7 Analyzing Patterns of Behavior To understand behavioral patterns that arise amongst individuals, the underlying causes of those behaviors must be examined and identified. Behavioral psychology, a branch of psychology otherwise known as behaviorism or behavioral analysis, seeks to explain behavior and the contingencies that maintain it. To explain behavior, this school of psychology does not rely on underlying internal causes but rather on behavior as a response to environmental changes. The analysis of behavioral contingencies, which are the occasion or antecedent that signal behavior, also named response, and the consequences that follow the response, is utilized by behavior analysts to understand the occurrence of behavior. In this school of psychology, learning is defined as the process of adding a novel behavior to an individual’s repertoire. The two main behavioral learning procedures in behaviorism are operant and respondent conditioning. Although both analyze behavior and the surrounding stimuli, the two are differentiated by the interpretations of which stimulus, preceding or succeeding, causes behavior (Malott & Shane, 2014). Operant Conditioning According to Thorndike’s law of effect, consequences that follow response will determine if behavior will continue. This idea is the basis of operant conditioning. This learning theory states that the contingencies that shape behavior will result in the immediate or delayed presentation or removal of a stimulus, which will either reinforce or punish that response and influence future frequency of responding. Contingencies in behavioral analysis include reinforcement, punishment, direct-acting, and indirect-acting. There are two types of reinforcement contingencies, positive and negative reinforcement, that will increase the frequency of a response, or behavior. Positive reinforcement is the response-contingent A Behavioral Analytic View of Patterns in Intimate Violence Victims 8 presentation of a stimulus resulting in an increased frequency of that response; whereas, negative reinforcement is the response-contingent removal of an aversive stimulus resulting in an increased frequency