| Summary: | This dissertation examined how psychological variables associated with selfcontrol
related to abusiveness in situations of intimate conflict. The variables of interest
were efficacy, need for power and responsibility. These variables were examined relative
to other predictors of abuse such as the Abusive Personality (Dutton, 1994b), a construct
of personality features that predispose some men to intensely aversive emotional arousal
in their intimate relationship, leading to abusiveness. The research is relevant to the
experience of those men with the characteristics of Abusive Personality, as well as those
who may not have those predispositional features.
The first step of the project was the development of the Power, Conflict Efficacy
and Responsibility Questionnaire (PCERQ), with its four sub-scales: (1) Conflict
Ineffectiveness (CI; lack of conflict efficacy), (2) N-Power (NP; need for power), (3)
Standards of Non-Abusiveness (SNA; one part of responsibility), and (4) Exonerative
Rationalizations (ER; cognitions complicit with inconsistent self-control - a second part
of responsibility). These sub-scales were developed on the basis of data collected from
samples of undergraduate males in dating relationships (n = 147), men in treatment
groups for wife assault (n = 50), and a community sample of men (n = 27).
Results from regression equations predicting self-reported abuse with the PCERQ
sub-scales, along with other theoretically-relevant measures, found that CI was a
prominent and consistent predictor of both verbal and physical abuse. The interaction of
the NP and ER sub-scales significantly predicted physical abuse, as did the interaction of
the CI sub-scale with the Abusive Personality (the most abusive participants had the
highest scores on both Abusive Personality and Conflict Ineffectiveness). These results
show the importance of considering both situational conflict experiences, along with
personality and life history variables, when examining wife assault. === Arts, Faculty of === Psychology, Department of === Graduate
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