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Biases in the communication of violence – Comparing the severity of psychological and physical intimate partner violence

Johansson Weeks, Marcus LU and Berlin, Johan LU (2017) PSPT02 20162
Department of Psychology
Abstract
This thesis concerns itself with the possibility that parental descriptions of psychological abuse by an intimate partner are viewed as less severe than claims of physical abuse by social workers involved in custody disputes. Swedish parents (N = 32) with experience of custody disputes were asked to write narratives describing incidents of psychological and physical abuse - abuse by their partner and to rate the severity of the acts described therein. These same narratives were subsequently rated by social workers (N = 19) with professional experience of custody disputes. The parent’s severity ratings for psychological abuse were marginally higher than those of the social worker’s, while both gave similar severity ratings for the... (More)
This thesis concerns itself with the possibility that parental descriptions of psychological abuse by an intimate partner are viewed as less severe than claims of physical abuse by social workers involved in custody disputes. Swedish parents (N = 32) with experience of custody disputes were asked to write narratives describing incidents of psychological and physical abuse - abuse by their partner and to rate the severity of the acts described therein. These same narratives were subsequently rated by social workers (N = 19) with professional experience of custody disputes. The parent’s severity ratings for psychological abuse were marginally higher than those of the social worker’s, while both gave similar severity ratings for the narratives involving physical abuse. The results lend tentative support to the notion that social workers involved in custody disputes may perceive psychological abuse as less severe than physical violence but further research is needed. (Less)
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author
Johansson Weeks, Marcus LU and Berlin, Johan LU
supervisor
organization
course
PSPT02 20162
year
type
H3 - Professional qualifications (4 Years - )
subject
keywords
Intimate partner violence, communication bias, custody dispute, Latent Semantic Analysis, gender, perception of violence
language
English
id
8900368
date added to LUP
2017-01-20 13:27:21
date last changed
2017-01-20 13:27:21
@misc{8900368,
  abstract     = {{This thesis concerns itself with the possibility that parental descriptions of psychological abuse by an intimate partner are viewed as less severe than claims of physical abuse by social workers involved in custody disputes. Swedish parents (N = 32) with experience of custody disputes were asked to write narratives describing incidents of psychological and physical abuse - abuse by their partner and to rate the severity of the acts described therein. These same narratives were subsequently rated by social workers (N = 19) with professional experience of custody disputes. The parent’s severity ratings for psychological abuse were marginally higher than those of the social worker’s, while both gave similar severity ratings for the narratives involving physical abuse. The results lend tentative support to the notion that social workers involved in custody disputes may perceive psychological abuse as less severe than physical violence but further research is needed.}},
  author       = {{Johansson Weeks, Marcus and Berlin, Johan}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Biases in the communication of violence – Comparing the severity of psychological and physical intimate partner violence}},
  year         = {{2017}},
}