Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas State University Libraries / Department: Human Development and Family Studies.

Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2001. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This paper aims to provide an understanding of the psychodynamic implications of battering on the victims of this form of abuse. Three dominant approaches to trauma (one descriptive, one explanatory and one phenomenological) are briefly discussed. Available empirical data is then explored to ascertain whether the empirical research correspond to these dominant theories. The research indicates that the theories all highlight different aspects of battering and all have important implications for treatment. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie werkstuk poog om die psigodinamiese implikasies van vroue mishandeling te verstaan. Drie dominante modelle van hierdie vorm van trauma (een beskrywend, een verduidelikend, en een fenomonologies) word kortliks bespreek. Beskikbare empiriese navorsing word ge-eksploreer om vas te stelof die navorsing ooreenstem met hierdie dominante modelle. Die navoring dui daarop dat al hierdie modelle verskillende aspekte van vroue mishandeling uitlig, en dat al hierdie modelle beduidende implikasies het vir behandeling.

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Work

published_or_final_version / Social Work and Social Administration / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment for the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts. / The present research aimed to illustrate a link between the two domains of work and abuse. It was an investigation into "the various relationships which exist between spouse abuse and intrapersonal and alternative interpersonal coping resources in employed women.The intrapersonal coping resources identified in past literature and currently examined included self-esteem and level of depression. Alternative interpersonal resources provided by the work sphere were also included for investigation; namely work social support and value-rich work. Amixed quantitative-qual itative research design yielded measures on the five variables of spouse abuse, self-esteem, depression, work social support, and value-rich work; as well as on the two dimensions of physical and non-physical violence, and an additional variable of work support obtained from counselling programmes.The final sample consisted of 106 female employees from a variety of occupational groups. A content analysis of information regarding workplace counselling programmes and its effect on self-esteem and depression generated insignificant results. However, quantitative analyses via Pearson's Product MomentCorrelation Coefficients, one-way ANOVA's and multiple moderated regressions, illustrated very strong support for the remaining hypotheses. This implied that significant relationships did exist between abuse and the coping resources of self-esteem, depression. work support and value-rich work.

Domestic abuse is the number one cause of injury to women in the United States. Women and their children flee everyday to shelters to escape the abuse. Once inside the shelters, material resources are rendered so that the women can continue to lead lives outside the shelter and different therapies are employed so that the women can better understand the abuse and their options once leaving. A type of therapy used in other therapeutic forums, such as patients sexually abused as children, is dream analysis. This type of therapy has allowed formerly traumatized victims a safe space to uncover hidden traumas, acknowledge them and begin to write new scripts for their lives. The theoretical view behind this paper is that dream analysis could be a feminist tool of empowerment for women participating in domestic abuse therapy. As a researcher, I performed research at The Spring, Tampa Florida's only domestic abuse shelter for women and their children. During the research, I observed multiple domestic violence group therapy sessions, interviewed the facilitator of this group, and held personal interviews with five different women over a three month period. During these interviews, the women discussed in detail their lives, the abuse they sustained and their dreams surrounding the abuse. The women were asked to give interpretations of the meanings of their dreams, which are incorporated in the paper. Throughout the interviews, it was of vital importance that the battered women's standpoints were privileged and that they remained the experts of their own experiences. During this process, two points became clear: forgotten traumas resurfaced during dreamtime and the women understood they were "too good" for the abuse and should leave. It became clear that dream analysis could be a feminist tool of empowerment for this highly marginalized community.

The purpose of this thesis was to investigate the relationship between ambivalent sexism, gender related system justification and religious orientation with attitudes toward physical wife abuse (APWA). APWA are investigated in three facets, namely justifiability (JPWA), perceived functionality (PFPWA) and consequences (ACPWA). As measurement tools, Attitudes toward Physical Wife Abuse Scale, Content Domains for Justification of Physical Wife Abuse Scale, Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (ASI), Ambivalence toward Men Inventory (AMI), Revised Muslim Religious Orientation Scale (MROS-R), Gender Related System Justification Scale (GSJ) and demographic information form were used. Although a total of 385 student and non-student participants responded the questionnaire, only 303 (119 males, 184 females) participants who stated their religion to be Islam were included in the study for accurate assessment of Muslim religious orientation. The age range of the participants was between 17 and 72 (M=27.30 / SD= 8.68). Since women and men significantly differed with respect to their APWA, separate hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted in order to further observe the differences between them. Although there were slight differences in unique contributions of the variables for the three subscales of APWAS and for men and women, a general pattern was drawn in which results revealed that intrinsic religious orientation and quest religious orientation were not related to any of the three dimensions of APWA whereas fundamentalist religious orientation was found to be a significant predictor of APWA. Among the dimensions of ASI and AMI, Hostile Sexism (HS) and Benevolence toward Men (BM) predicted more favorable attitudes toward the three dimensions of physical wife abuse, whereas hostility toward men (HM) and benevolent sexism (BS) predicted less favorable attitudes. GSJ was not found to have a unique contribution in predicting any of the three dimensions of APWA. The major contributions of the present study are / 1) Investigation of religious orientation as an individual difference affecting APWA first in a Muslim culture, 2) Investigating GSJ first in Turkey and first with relation to APWA and 3) Providing a detailed measurement tool for specific assessment of attitudes toward physical wife abuse in three dimensions and 4) Providing a re-constructed Muslim Religious Orientation Scale which was extended and improved in content, reliability and validity after revision.

Originally presented as the author's Thesis (doctoral)--Freie Universität, Berlin, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [247]-270).

This thesis focuses on Aboriginal women as survivors of intimate violence, and as participants in debates about justice and rights in the academic, political and legal spheres. While several federal and provincial reports have documented the adverse impact of the dominant criminal justice system on Aboriginal peoples, most of the reports fail to consider the impact of the dominant system, and of reform initiatives on Aboriginal women, who engage with such systems primarily as survivors of violence. Although feminist legal scholars and activists have focused on survivors of violence in critiquing the dominant justice system, such discourses have also tended to ignore the needs and concerns of Aboriginal women in recommending reforms to the dominant system, as well as in theorizing the causes and sites of intimate violence. Using feminist methods, I explore how the writings of Aboriginal women have begun to fill these gaps. In focusing on gender and racial oppression, Aboriginal women have complicated theories on and reforms around intimate violence, and have demanded that they be included in the shaping of public institutions in both the Canadian legal system, and in the context of Aboriginal self-government. While Aboriginal women largely support the creation of Aboriginal justice systems, some have expressed concerns about the willingness of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal leaders to include women in the process of creating, implementing and operating such systems. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, as well as Aboriginal rights under the Constitution Act, 1982 have been advocated as means of achieving Aboriginal women's participation in this context. This gives rise to a number of fundamental questions which I examine in my thesis. What is the historical basis for the participation of Aboriginal women in the political process, and for survivors of violence in both the dominant and Aboriginal justice systems? What is the significance of the absence of Aboriginal women from dominant discourses on justice and intimate violence? Might a broader level of participation for survivors of violence, both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, ameliorate the problematic aspects of the dominant justice system? Does the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms provide a vehicle for survivors of violence who seek a greater level of protection and participation in the dominant justice system? Can the Charter, or Aboriginal rights under the Canadian constitution, assist Aboriginal women in establishing a right of participation in the processes leading to the creation of Aboriginal justice systems, and their participation in such systems once they have been created? What are the limitations of rights discourse in this context? My analysis suggests that the Supreme Court of Canada's conservative approach to rights, as well as more fundamental limitations in rights discourse, make constitutional litigation within the dominant system a sometimes necessary, but not ideal strategy for Aboriginal women in defining their involvement in the political and justice arenas. On the other hand, there is potential for rights discourse to bear more fruit once Aboriginal decision making fora are in place, in keeping with holistic approaches to interpretation, and the traditional roles of Aboriginal women and survivors of violence in justice and in the community.

The purpose of this preliminary and exploratory research project was to identify possible links between insecure male attachment patterns and wife assault. Attachment theory suggests that the quality of early interpersonal relationships has a profound effect on the psychological, emotional and social development of the individual. Insecure attachment has been found to be associated with a number of relationship problems and these interpersonal problems have also been identified with men who assault their wives. Based on this similarity, the insecure attachment paradigm may offer a useful theoretical orientation for understanding the conflict behaviours of men who assault their wives. The sample of fifty adult men who had assaulted their female partners was drawn from two therapy groups. In this preliminary and exploratory study, a number of measures were used to assess each man's mental representation of childhood attachment and his adult intimate attachment patterns, intimate conflict tactics and interpersonal jealousy and anger problems. The associations between insecure preoccupied, dismissing, and fearful attachment pattern ratings and male conflict tactic and relationship problems were then analyzed. The findings indicated that men who assault their wives had a high proportion of insecure adult intimate attachment patterns. These assaultive men were also found to be predominantly insecure in both their mental representations of childhood attachment and adult intimate attachment pattern ratings, with the greatest continuity occurring with the insecure preoccupied and fearful pattern ratings. Three patterns of relationship problems corresponding to the three insecure adult intimate attachment pattern rating were found. Preoccupied attachment pattern ratings were positively correlated with interpersonal jealousy scores and the reported use of the reasoning, verbal/symbolic abuse, physical abuse and severe physical abuse conflict tactics. Dismissing attachment pattern ratings were positively correlated with interpersonal anger scores and negatively correlated with the reasoning, verbal, physical and severe physical abuse conflict tactics. Fearful attachment pattern ratings were similar to the dismissing pattern in the positive correlation with interpersonal anger scores. The importance of considering insecure adult intimate attachment pattern ratings when providing group therapy to men who assault their wives was considered. Men with high insecure dismissing adult intimate attachment pattern ratings seem to require a distinctly different therapeutic approach than those with high insecure preoccupied adult intimate attachment pattern ratings and ideas in this regard are discussed.