Citation

Goodfriend W, Arriaga XB. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2018; 15(11): e15112464.

Affiliation

Department of Psychological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA. arriaga@purdue.edu.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, MDPI: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute)

DOI

10.3390/ijerph15112464

PMID

30400614

Abstract

Intimate partner aggression violates U.S. culturally-accepted standards regarding how partners should treat each other. Victims must reconcile the dissonance associated with being in what should be a loving and supportive relationship, while being in the same relationship that is personally and deeply harmful. To manage these clashing cognitions, victims consciously and unconsciously adopt perceptions to reframe their partner's aggression, minimizing and reinterpreting the occurrence or impact of aggressive acts, and justifying remaining in their relationship. The paper examines the multiple and nested influences that shape such perceptions, including individual, partner, relationship, and cultural factors. Each type of influence is discussed by reviewing previous research and including accounts from women who had experienced aggression. Greater awareness of such perceptions may afford greater control in changing harmful relationship patterns.

Language: en

Keywords

coping with IPA or IPV; intimate partner aggression; perceptions of IPA or IPV