Social and Psychological Effects of Domestic Violence

Question: Write an Essay about the psychological and sociological effect on he victim of domestic violence. should relate to theories. Answer: Introduction In this paper a case scenario of intimate partners Anne and John and their family has been described and discussed. Since a year, they have shifted to Annes mothers (Gretas) house and since then there have been incidences of domestic violence due to social and psychological reasons. These incidences have had significant impact socially and psychologically on the couple and their kids. As Anne is the only child of Greta, both Anne and Greta feel that it is Annes duty to care for her dependent mother. Anne has quit her job to shift with Greta. The incidences of violence have led Anne into depression as she is feeling down about her life and her role in the family. She has started feeling guilty for all that is going wrong with her family to the extent that she feels herself responsible and guilty for Jessicas asthma also. She feels if they wont have shifted, these problems could have been avoided. Anne is also grieving her loss of employment because of the relocation as this had given her an outlet and a sense of independence. Over the time, Anne has become introvert, has explosive bursts at children and outside people, and nagging John. Anne is now not socializing with friends as she is ashamed of what theyll think of her. John who is suffering from occupation related back injury, is not working at present, has become an alcoholic and has started being violent with Anne. The reason for Johns explosive outbursts, erratic, angry, and anxious behavior is that he does not approve of Anne spending all her time caring for Greta, the kids, and money. Annes daughter, Jessica, has been suffering from asthma triggered by change of weather. Her son, Dylan, has become introvert and avoids interaction with her. This paper tries to analyze the causes leading to such behavior of the family members by interpreting the situation and justifying their actions. The social and psychological causes and their impact being faced by the family have been discussed. It tries to assess the reason for this behavior of the members and how it is affecting their health and highlights the need for immediate actions to prevent further deterioration of the condition. Psychological causes and impact According to Albert Banduras social learning theory (1977), observational learning facilitates behavior learning from the environment and there exist mediating processes between stimuli and responses. In this case the children are observing the parents (as models) behavior which is having an impact on them. This is the reason for Dylans changed and unsocial behavior. Though according to John the reason for Dylans introvert behavior is adolescence, Anne is quite right in thinking that there are other things responsible for this (Margolin Vickerman 2011). The second part says that there are mediating processes between stimuli and response. This can be seen in Johns case, where he is feeling left out and frustrated over time and this has made him aggressive towards Anne, acting as a mediating process between the stimulus of Anne talking of the Booze and his violent response (Nathan et al. 2011). According to Bronfenbrenners ecological system theory (1979), the different types of ecosystems influence the development of an individual. In the microsystem, i.e., the family environment of the kids, they are experiencing the domestic violence going on at home. This is having significant psychological impact on Dylan and Jessica (Jun et al. 2011, Howell 2011). According to Sarafino, 2012, the cause of stress is the discrepancy perceived by an individual between the physical and psychological demands of a situation and the biological, psychological or social systems available at that point of time. The cause of stress for Anne in this situation is that she is feeling too stretched with her responsibilities both physically and psychologically. On the other hand, John is also stressed out due to his physical condition and dependency. To cope with this stress one may use either an emotion-focused approach or a problem-focused approach (McLeod, 2015). The emotion-focused approach in this case is being used by Anne as she has turned to eating in order to comfort herself, is distracting herself by staying busy, and is writing all her emotions in her diary to precipitate those emotions, though this has led to her weight gain. Similarly, John has also taken up to the same approach as he has started boozing to cope with his stress. To improve the si tuation both should opt for the problem-focused coping technique by seeking social support in this case. People have different approaches to cope with the grief of loss according to the theory of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross (Van Vliet, 2014). The five stages that they undergo are mostly: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Different individuals pass through these stages at different paces. Anne has reached the fourth stage. Her grief at her loss of her job, aka, her independence and outlet and her mother being unwell and dependent has crossed the first four stages in this scenario. She is stuck at the fourth stage along with John. Social causes and impact According to the gender socialization theory the environment provides forms the basis for the childs outlooks and awareness of sex-typed behavior from which the consequences are drawn (Fagot et al, 2012). The parent effect perspective addresses of gender socialization tries to show how the different styles, activities, and temperaments of parents socialize traits and behavior in children. The child effects perspective focuses on how children socialize parents by examining how the presence of a child forces parents to adopt new identities for bringing up the children. The reciprocal effect also exists according to this theory (Carter, 2014). In this case, Anne is subject to this gender socialization as she cant leave John because she doesnt want the children to be without their father. The children have become distant from the parents after going through all this. The social determinants of health include the economic stability, education, health and health care, and neighborhood and environment. The economic instable condition of the family, changing schools of the children, changing health and healthcare facilities, the changing neighborhood, friends and in-home environment are having effect on Dylans behavior and Jessicas health. Also, Johns and Annes friend circle has changed in the new place indicating the impact that social factors at personal, family, and community level have on the health of adolescents and adults alike (Viner et al. 2012). Initially, it was John who convinced Anne for the shifting by saying that it will be an opportunity for a fresh start and Anne also thought that it will prove beneficial for convalescing John and Jessica. Though shifting of the family has had positive effects on the family like Jessica is getting treatment from the asthma nurse at home and also at the local clinic, and making it stable in the past year, this seems to be ignored by Anne and John. John being jobless does not mean that he is free to drink and cannot assist Anne in looking after Greta and the kids. He is following the patriarchal philosophy that highlights the need to dominate and control unruly females and the unruly wilderness. Instead of helping, he is putting up new for questions Anne. Ecofeminism (Sturgeon 2016) is a theory believes that patriarchal philosophies are harmful to women, children, and other living things. In this case, this theory finds relevance with regard to John. Annes job was her outlet to her independence. Since she left her job now John is questioning her about her whereabouts, this is against the individualist feminist theory (Donovan 2012) which has its primary focus in an individuals autonomy, rights, liberty, independence and diversity. As per this Anne has liberty to go anywhere she wants. She is being restricted to the house anyways due to her concern for Greta. If she leaves for household or pharmacy work, its wrong for John to interfere as he is not assisting her in this, whereas, he should. Conclusion As there are long-term effects of domestic violence on the behavior of adults and children alike and they also lead to health problems both physically, psychologically, and socially. Thus, there is need of early interventions to prevent the problems from aggravating further. The family needs to assess these social and psychological impacts and work on improving their condition by working on it. Especially, the kids need to be taken much care of (Kagan 2014). References Carter, M. J., 2014. Gender Socialization and Identity Theory. Social Sciences, 3, 242263; doi:10.3390/socsci3020242. Donovan, J., 2012. Feminist Theory, Fourth Edition: The Intellectual Traditions, Bloomsbury Publishing USA. Fagot, B. I., Rodgers, C. S., Leinbach, M. D., 2012. Theories of gender socialization. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA. Howell, K.H., 2011. 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