Term Paper: Investigate the topic in your proposal in depth and provide a formal 10-page term paper. The goal of this paper is for you to become familiar with the theories, research, intervention approaches and prevention/social change efforts that relate to your topic. Papers should follow the organization of an academic paper: introduction, distinct sub-headings, a conclusion, a bibliography, etc. Consult at least 6 professional sources (peer reviewed articles). The paper should follow APA format.
5 pages on the theory and research done on the effects of victimization on females
5 pages-
Intervention approaches
Prevention/social change efforts
Theories/Research- 5 pages
– start off with the definition of domestic violence, intimate partner violence
– talk about how it has to do with power and control
– talk about the cycle- the wheel, the phases
the research comes from and was put together under the BWS umbrella, but can be broken down
Battered woman syndrome- Psychological effects of abuse
– mention how this term isn’t used anymore, but it addresses a lot of the potential lasting effects of DV, including
o learned helplessness
o PTSD effects
article on effects of DV on well being
Article that research effects of DV on unemployment
Article on impact on self-esteem
that is the outline.
i have written 2-3 pages already including the introduction:
Introduction
In the wide variety of sensations we feel as human beings, physical pain is one that can be used against us as a weapon when expressed through violence. It has the power to not only hurt physically, but also leave the victim hurt emotionally. In the case of intimate partner violence, the person causing the pain is usually someone the victim knows and loves, so the effects can be even more intense. The study of victimology within relationships involving intimate partner violence has come to show the lasting influence it can have on the mental health and wellbeing of a victim. Much of the research that has been done on abusive relationships show that the majority of victims are females, so the theories surrounding victimology in this area focus on how females in particular are affected by it.
There is this looming question in the world of domestic violence of why females can choose to remain in a relationship even though her partner is being abusive towards her. To a lot of people, the common sense answer would be to leave the relationship and find someone else who wouldn’t be abusive. I want to focus on the psychology behind being constantly victimized by a romantic partner, and the primary reasons females don’t take steps to remove themselves from harmful relationships.In working with victims of domestic violence, it is important to understand what goes on in the mind of a battered woman. In coming up with effective interventions, the first step is to usually set up a good rapport with the client and get to the core of why she might stay in the relationship, or finally decide to leave. There can be a lot of shame involved in discussing these things in an honest manner, so being well informed on the psychology behind victimization would help assist social workers in being sensitive towards the state of mind of their clients, which in turn would hopefully make them feel more comfortable opening up about what is genuinely going on with their emotions towards their partner. It is also important to understand the topic of victimization because of how domestic violence is portrayed in the media. In looking at situations like Ray Rice and Janay Palmer, Chris Brown and Rihanna, there is a lot of pressure put on what decision the female will make in response to an incident of abuse. It is important to understand why a female would make either decision of leaving or staying to make sure we are not judgmental as social workers.
BWS
During the 1970s, there was an increased interest in the psychological effect that violence had on women who had been abused by their romantic partners. One of the first major significant studies done on this topic was conducted Lenore E.A. Walker, who created the construct of Battered Woman Syndrome, also known as BWS. The term was first coined back in 1978 , and the topic has since then been revisited with an updated version of the study done in 2000. Intimate partner violence was defined as a disorder of “power and control, in which the abuser uses these for the purpose of controlling the victim” (page 145). Walker gathered data using a questionnaire on victims of IPV, and came up with BWS. BWS is a subcategory of post traumatic stress disorder, listing all the following symptoms a female who has been abused by her partner might experience: “re-expiericing the battering as if it were reoccurring even when it is not, attempts to avoid the psychological impact of battering by avoiding activities, people, and emotions, hyperarousal or hyper vigilance, disrupted interpersonal relationships, body image distortion, and sexuality and intimacy issues” (page 1).
This construct was created by Walker in part by using a biopsychosocial model, which combines how social stressors and trauma can influence the response of the autonomic nervous system. Neurotransmitters are released in the brain to help cope with traumatic events, and the constant dysregualtion of these chemicals in battered woman’s brain can lead to the irregularities that can contribute to the victim’s ability to function and the development of a mental illness like PTSD or depression. The goal of an abuser is to establish control within the relationship, and this is done by using manipulative psychological tactics that can disregulate those neurotransmitters. Walker explains that “applying [these] aversive psychological tactics in a random and variable manner together with some periods of withdrawal of the aversive stimuli and substitution of pleasurable or loving behavior is known to create psychological dependency [and] learned helplessness” (page 145). The concept of learned helplessness, which was first studied by Seligman in 1975, is a sense that nothing the person does will affect what will happen to them, and therefore, they do not try to escape a negative situation (Bauer 2008). A battered woman who is abused often and
It is important to note that Battered Woman Syndrome has been the subject to a good deal of questioning and backlash.
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