Chapter 12: PSYC 360

battered woman syndrome

When low self-esteem interacts with fear, depression, confusion, anxiety, feelings of self-blame, and loss of a sense of personal control to keep a physically or emotionally abused women from finding a way out of her situation.

child abuse

Overt acts of aggression against a child, such as beating or inflicting physical injury or excessive verbal derogation. Sexual abuse is a form of physical child abuse. When a parent or guardian is overly harsh and critical with a child, failing to provide guidance or being uninterested in the child’s needs..

child maltreatment

Defined by the 1974 Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act as the “physical or mental injury, sexual abuse, or negligent treatment of a child under the age of 18 by a person who is responsible for the child’s welfare under circumstances that indicate that the child’s health or welfare is harmed or threatened.”

child neglect

Failure to provide adequate physical or emotional care for a child. When a parent or guardian is overly harsh and critical with a child, failing to provide guidance or being uninterested in the child’s needs..

child to parent violence

A form of family violence involving a child’s (especially an adolescent’s) physical and emotional abuse of a parent.

coercive power

One of the six power bases or sources of power. This power is based on the dominant person’s ability and willingness to punish the partner either with psychological–emotional or physical abuse or with more subtle methods of withholding affection.

Conflict Tactics Scale

A scale developed by sociologist Murray Straus to assess how couples handle conflict. Includes detailed items on various forms of physical violence

conjugal power

The ability to exercise one’s will or autonomy in a marital relationship.

criminal justice response

The punitive approach for perpetrators of child maltreatment; advocates believe that one or both parents should be held legally responsible for child abuse.

cycle of violence

Three consecutive phases in which there is the violent episode itself (phase 1), a calm period (phase 2), and tension buildup during which a victim feels increasingly disappointed and intimidated while the abuser’s behavior is unpredictable and threatening (phase 3).

egalitarian norm

The marital norm (cultural rule) that husband and wife should have equal power in a marriage.

egalitarian relationships

Equal relationship in which resources and power are relatively gender-free.

emotional abuse

Verbal threats and routine comments that damage a partner’s self esteem.

emotional neglect

When a parent or guardian is overly harsh and critical with a child, failing to provide guidance or being uninterested in the child’s needs.

equity

A standard for distribution of power or resources of partners according to the contribution each person has made to the unit. Another way of characterizing an equitable result is that it is “fair.”

expert power

One of the six power bases or sources of power. This power stems from the dominant person’s superior judgment, knowledge, or ability.

family preservation

A program of support for families in which children have been abused. The support is intended to enable the child to remain in the home safely rather than being placed in foster care.

gender-modified egalitarian model

Family model in which absolute equality is diminished by the symbolic importance of maintaining fairly traditional, comfortable, and familiar gender roles.

incest

Sexual relations between close and genetically related individuals.

informational power

One of the six power bases or sources of power. This power is based on the persuasive content of what the dominant person tells another individual.One of the six power bases or sources of power. This power is based on the persuasive content of what the dominant person tells another individual.

intimate partner violence (IPV)

Violence against current or former spouses, cohabitants, or sexual or relationship partners.

coercive control

A single act or pattern of acts that are used with the intention of hurting, punishing, or scaring another person. These acts can involve threatening, intimidating, and/or humiliating the victim.

legitimate power

One of the six power bases or sources of power. Legitimate power stems from the more dominant individual’s ability to claim authority, or the right to request compliance

marital rape

A husband’s forcing a wife to submit to sexual contact that she does not want or that she finds offensive.

money allocation systems

Arrangements couples make for handling their income, wealth, and expenditures. They may involve pooling partners’ resources or keeping them separate. Who controls pooled resources is another dimension of an allocation system.

National Family Violence Surveys

Early and continuing research of Murray Straus, Richard Gelles, and their colleagues in shaping scientific research on family violence among the general population.

patriarchal norm

The marital norm (cultural rule) that the man should be dominant in a marital relationship.

power

The ability to exercise one’s will. Personal power, or autonomy, is power exercised over oneself. Social power is the ability to exercise one’s will over others.

power politics

Power struggles between spouses in which each seeks to gain a power advantage over the other; the opposite of a no-power relationship

referent power

One of the six power bases or sources of power. In a marriage or relationship, this form of power is based on one partner’s emotional identification with the other and his or her willingness to agree to the other’s decisions or preferences

reproductive coercion

Behavior related to reproductive health that is used to maintain power and control in a relationship.

resource hypothesis

Hypothesis (originated by Robert Blood and Donald Wolfe) that the relative power between wives and husbands results from their relative resources as individuals.

resources in cultural context

The effect of resources on marital power depends on the cultural context. In a traditional society, norms of patriarchal authority may override personal resources. In a fully egalitarian society, a norm of intimate partner and marital equality may override personal resources. It is in a transitional society that the resource hypothesis is most likely to shape marital power relations.

reward power

One of the six power bases or sources of power. With regard to marriage or partner relationships, this power is based on an individual’s ability to give material or nonmaterial gifts and favors to the partner.

sexual abuse

A form of child abuse that involves forced, tricked, or coerced sexual behavior—exposure, unwanted kissing, fondling of sexual organs, intercourse, rape, and incest—between a minor and an older person.

shelters

Physically protected and safe spaces that provide a woman (and often her children) with temporary housing, food, and clothing to alleviate the problems of economic dependency and physical safety.

sibling violence

family violence that takes place between siblings (brothers and sisters).

situational couple violence

Mutual violence between partners that often occurs in conjunction with a specific argument. It involves fewer instances, is not likely to escalate, and tends to be less severe in terms of injuries.

Violence Against Women Act

Federal law enacted in 1996 that has resulted in greater perpetrator accountability for rape and stalking, as well as increasing rates of prosecution, conviction, and sentencing of offenders; 2010 expansion of the act includes same-gender couples, and 2013 expansion includes additional categories such as transgender individuals.