Intimate partner violence
asia904
Directions
Psychologists and sociologists have developed several theories that explain the causes and dynamics of intimate partner and family violence so that we can protect victims, help change abusers and yet hold them accountable for their actions. This forum asks you to take the role of either a psychologist or a sociologist and apply a theory from the assigned discipline to the case of Yeardley Love. Read the Wikipedia page on the Murder of Yeardley Love (Links to an external site.).
For your post, read about "systems theory" below Then present your assigned theory and show how that theory would explain Yeardley Love's murder.
Systems theory, a paradigmatic framework for both sociology and social work, has been applied to intimate partner violence by sociologists including [27], [16], and [13]. Straus was the first to propose the application of systems theory to family violence. In his seminal theory, he espouses the fundamental tenet of the family violence perspective: that violence within a family is the norm, not the exception. Violent conflict is seen as a systemic product that is common to the point of being "almost universal" (p. 105) and not indicative of individual or family pathology. Put succinctly, "The starting point for this theory was the heuristic assumption that violence between members of a family is a 'systemic product' rather than a chance aberration or a product of inadequate socialization or a warped or psychotic personality" (p. 114). Straus proposes that systems respond to feedback from interactions within the system; in the context of family violence, positive feedback increases or amplifies violence, negative feedback decreases or controls violence. In her book, [16], Giles-Sims concisely summarizes the central tenets of systems theory: "Social systems are complex interrelated networks of mutually causal elements with relatively stable patterns of relationships. Systems theory interprets cause-effect links as elements in a cycle of behavior, which includes feedback responses and behavioral reactions" (p. 18). Like Straus, Giles-Sims also advocates for the use of systems theory in understanding intimate partner violence because the theory accounts for the complex causality of the problem, asserting that single-factor linear causal approaches "cannot capture the complexity of social behavior" (p. 18). She also notes that systems theory is based on the family violence perspective that conflict within the family system is normal and inevitable, and how the family system manages the conflict is the key to understanding why violence is used. According to Giles-Sims, systems theory provides a basis for examining how feedback and response can escalate into violence or maintain nonviolence. In looking at the causes of family violence, systems theory goes beyond explanations that focus solely on individual or structural characteristics to include the fundamental importance of the characteristics of the family system in which individuals exist and interact. Many characteristics of family structure (including socialization, time spent together, and stress level) impact the potential for violence in the system
Submission
Initial responses and replies should be at least 150 words and of high quality.
In your initial post you MUST:
- Use only the assigned article for information about the theory for the initial post.
- Support your ideas with evidence and examples from the article.
- Use APA style for all references and in-text citations.
