Psychological Issues: Understanding Domestic Violence and Its Causes

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Psychological Issues
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Summary
Young (2018) article highlights the unacknowledgedd issue of abused husbands. The
society knows men as the ones who abuse husbands and not the other way round. The post by
Sorensen is an opportunity to highlight the underreported issue of female-on-male. The article
reports that a 2010 National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey by the Centers for
Disease Control revealed that 40% of males had reported serious assault cases from women. This
type of domestic violence is underreported because it is seen as less harmful due to the sex
differences in size and strength. However, abusive women like in the case of Sorensen use
weapons like knives, boiling water and any other household object that they find closer to them.
This makes the violence more lethal that male-to-female assault. Female-on-male abuses have
been met with extreme hostility from feminist academists and activists who sympathise more
with women. Further Young (2018) adds that abused men face biases from judges, police and
other support institutions to who assume that the man is the aggressor while the woman was
defending herself. Since battering is regarded as a patriachal power, then battered men have to
violate the stereotypical expectation of manliness to come and report. This makes it difficult for
people to believe the case of Sorensen
Psychological concepts related to the issue
Socialization is the way children are taught to grow up and become full-fledged members
of the society. This is through nature and nurture where the former entails activities that take
place in the external environment while the latter is related to conscious efforts exerted on the
individual. In a patriarchal and matriarchal society, men and women are socialized in different
ways where women are supposed to be submissive while males are the head of the house
(Murthy, Ganesh, Srivirajarani, & Madhusudan, 2004). Children who are socialized in domestic

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violence environment grow to understand that violence is a way of resolving disputes within the
household. Further, girls who grow seeing their mothers abused grow up with defensive
mechanisms against men which can make them abusive. Researchers have linked childhood
experiences of aggression and violence abuse in adulthood. This is termed intergenerational
transmission of violence which learning the behaviour through modelling. The child learns how
to commit the violence and the positive attitudes associated with the violence if he is a boy while
a girl learns way of reacting to such violent situations. This means that women who grew up in
abusive backgrounds may have sworn not to be subjected to such cases
Stress is another component that can lead to domestic violence. Family situations like
lack of finances create increased pressure for couples due increased tension. Stress and
aggression reinforce each other at the biological level where a vicious cycle is demonstrated by
bringing out the worst in people (Susmitha, 2016). When responding to stressful pressures within
the domestic set up, some couples resort violence as way of managing their stress. Stressed
people are likely to respond violently since their levels of resistance are low Rakovec-Felser
(2014) suggests that couples in poverty are more likely to experience domestic violence due to
the pressures of life. A man who fails to provide for the family is forced to submit to the wife
while the wife takes total control to the point of abusing the husband. Since the man has failed to
provide, then it means that he has failed the idea of successful manhood which leads to lost
honour and respect.
The social cycle theory can be used to explain domestic abuse in the context of
relationships where it states that abusive incidences are repeated every time now and then.
Partners who stay long in abusive relationships developed the pattern of learned helplessness
which makes them feel like there is nothing that can be done to changes the situation. The