BELIEFS OF BATTERED WOMEN: INFINITE TOLERANCE FOR INTERMITTENT AND INTERMINABLE VIOLENCE

摘要

Physical violence against women by their marriage partners is a world-wide problem. Research has focused on a variety of variables: religious and cultural norms (e.g., Archer, 2006; Haj-Yahia, 2002; Rondon, 2003); gender status relationships (Harris, Firestone, & Vega, 2005). sociobiology (Fischer & Mosquera, 2001; Smuts, 1992), socieconomic variables (Figueredo et al., 2001), and still others. Some research focuses on the causal sequence of events that leads to the battering phenomenon. Scheff and Retzinger (1991) suggest that the sequence is as follows: (a) the husband construes a given social interaction as aversive because it evokes in him the experience of shame; (b) the reaction to shame is rage against any available target, preferably the one in whose presence and because of whose past or present actions, he experiences shame; (c) rage in turn leads to violence against the target if the rage is not acknowledged and resolved. Hyden (1995) demonstrated that verbal abuse of the woman partner is a precursor of physical abuse as well as a concomitant of physical abuse when the latter becomes an established pattern of behavior.