Why do people remain in abusive relationships?

Increasingly ministers and pastoral counselors are being consulted by people who are in abusive relationships. Consequently, it is important for all ministers and pastoral counselors to develop both an intellectual and an emotional appreciation for the complexities involved in remaining in, or leaving, abusive relationships. This article discusses six basic reasons why people choose to remain in abusive relationships, and concludes with three pastoral implications for ministers who counsel people in such relationships.     

Theological reflections on violence and abuse

This article examines the contemporary problem of intimate violence and sexual assault within a larger theoretical and theological context. It does so by tracing two trajectories in theological thinking: first, that suffering is sent from God and requires obedience; and, second, that the roles of men and women are not only specific and hierarchical but must remain so lest society risk moral chaos. It argues that many messages from traditional Christian theology continue to haunt abused women in such a way as to at times facilitate domestic violence. It offers suggestions for transforming common theological interpretations in ways that are empowering for battered women. These recommendations include attempts to emphasize resources within a tradition that may help transform unjust power relations like those in abusive relationships.     

Self‐Esteem and Ethics: A Phenomenological View

This paper aims to provide an account of the relationship between self‐esteem and moral experience. In particular, drawing on feminist and phenomenological accounts of affectivity and ethics, I argue that self‐esteem has a primary role in moral epistemology and moral action. I start by providing a characterization of self‐esteem, suggesting in particular that it can be best understood through the phenomenological notion of “existential feeling.” Examining the dynamics characteristic of the so‐called “impostor phenomenon” and the experience of women who are involved in abusive relationships, I then claim that self‐esteem fundamentally shapes the way in which self and others are conceived, and the ethical demands and obligations to which they are considered to be subjected. More specifically, I argue that low self‐esteem—which in the experience of women may be rooted in particular assumptions regarding gender roles and stereotyping—can hinder autonomy, make it difficult to question other people's evaluative perspectives and behaviors, and attribute to others responsibility for their actions.     

Clinically abusive relationships in an unselected birth cohort: men's and women's participation and developmental antecedents

In an unselected birth cohort (N=980, age 24-26 years), individuals in abusive relationships causing injury and/or official intervention (9% prevalence) were compared with participants reporting physical abuse without clinical consequences and with control participants who reported no abuse, on current characteristics and prospective developmental risks. In nonclinically abusive relationships, perpetrators were primarily women. In clinically abusive relationships, men and women used physical abuse, although more women needed medical treatment for injury. Women in clinically abusive relationships had childhood family adversity, adolescent conduct problems, and aggressive personality; men had disinhibitory psychopathology since childhood and extensive personality deviance. These findings counter the hibitory assumption that if clinical abuse was ascertained in epidemiological samples, it would be primarily man-to-woman, explained by patriarchy rather than psychopathology.     

Abusive supervision and subordinate emotional labor: The moderating role of openness personality

We investigated the differential relationships between abusive supervision and two emotional labor strategies used by subordinates (surface acting and deep acting). Furthermore, we examined whether subordinates' openness personality moderated the above relationships. Using the questionnaire survey method, we collected data from 210 employees in China. The results of hierarchical regression showed that abusive supervision related positively to surface acting (regulating facial expression) but negatively to deep acting (regulating inner feeling). Openness personality moderated the relationships between abusive supervision and the two emotional labor strategies, such that the relationships were stronger for employees with lower openness. Findings of our study contribute to the literature on workplace emotions and negative leadership.     

Abusive families and character formation

Family research studies confirm that abusive parents tend to be undifferentiated partners who compete with each other and with their children for attention and nurturance. More or less healthy parents make demands on children to counteract their own injured narcissism, but they do so largely without devaluation and the sadistic use of projective identification. Under sufficient stress abusive parents attack the child who fails to gratify their needs, thereby giving vent to longstanding frustrations and feelings of being threatened by the child's individuation and competency. The emotional atmosphere in such families facilitates ego deficits like those of the borderline personality as it molds the child's efforts to avoid anxiety. Devaluation, loss, and defenses against mourning partially account for depression and paranoid traits in abused youngsters. Early neglect and abuse exposes them to influential models who act out rage and primitive defenses. Some abused individuals project their rage and later become paranoid or antisocial, whereas others fragment or retain infantile defenses. The destructiveness of severe psychological abuse lies in the constriction of the experiencing self and healthy character development, together with the conditioning to repeat abusive relationships and to avoid intimacy. Achieving individuation under these circumstances entails overcoming the internalized abusive relationships and relinquishing the unconscious wish to be transformed from the abused into the abuser.     

Abusive supervision,leader-member exchange,and moral disengagement: A moderated-mediation model of organizational deviance

This paper draws from social exchange theory and social cognitive theory to explore moral disengagement as a potential mediator of the relationship between abusive supervision and organizational deviance. We also explore the moderating effect of leader-member exchange (LMX) on this mediated relationship. Results indicate that employees with abusive supervisors engaged in moral disengagement strategies and subsequently in organizational deviance behaviors. Additionally, this relationship was stronger for those higher in LMX. Important implications for management research and practice are discussed.     

Power Imbalance and Employee Silence: The Role of Abusive Leadership,Power Distance Orientation,and Perceived Organisational Politics

Employee silence is a costly but omnipresent phenomenon in modern organisations. In this study, we focus on two forms of silence: defensive silence based on fear and acquiescent silence based on resignation. Given the power imbalance in supervisor–subordinate relationships, we hypothesise that abusive supervision is an antecedent of subordinates’ defensive silence and that a subordinate’s power distance orientation affects acquiescent silence. We investigate the interaction effects of abusive supervision and power distance orientation on these two types of silence. Perceived organisational politics may also aggravate such interactive effects. Based on data collected from 159 junior employees in China in two periods, we find that abusive supervision is associated with employee defensive silence and moderates high-power-distance employees’ tendency to engage in acquiescent silence. When perceiving high politics in the organisation, high-power-distance employees are more sensitive to abusive supervision and engage in more defensive silence. A highly political organisational context also accentuates abusive supervision’s moderating effect on the relation between employees’ power distance orientation and acquiescent silence. We conclude with theoretical and practical implications for the silence literature.     

The Buffering Role of Social Support Perceptions in Relation to Eating Disturbances among Women in Abusive Dating Relationships

Abuse is often associated with diminished social support networks, which typically serve to buffer individuals against stress-related outcomes, including eating disorders. The goal of the present study was to examine whether eating disturbances among women in abusive dating relationships varied as function of perceived social support. Although both physical and psychological aggression in women's (N=83) dating relationships was associated with symptomatic dieting and bulimic symptoms, only psychological aggression predicted unique variance. Although psychological aggression was directly related to eating symptoms, support from friends diminished the relation to bulimic symptoms, possibly because such support facilitated women's ability to distract themselves from their abusive situations. In contrast, perceived parental support buffered women in physically abusive relationships from disturbed eating patterns. Thus, depending on the nature of abuse women experienced, social support resources were differentially effective in buffering women from eating disturbances.     

On Some Recent Attempts to Resolve the Debate between Internalists and Externalists

An important debate in moral philosophy concerns the thesis of internalism, of which the characteristic idea is that there is a conceptual link between moral judgment and motivation. According to the internalist, to judge that something is right is to be motivated to do it (at least under certain conditions). Externalists are those who deny the truth of internalism. There are two ways that either party to this debate may argue for their preferred position. The indirect approach requires defending an account of moral judgment and showing (for internalists) that it entails there is a conceptual link between moral judgment and motivation or (for externalists) that it entails there is no such link. In contrast, the direct approach requires arguing in favor of one position without assuming any particular account of moral judgment. In this paper, I examine two attempts—one by Michael Smith and one by Sigrún Svavarsdóttir—to resolve this debate between internalists and externalists by using the direct approach. Smith attempts to do so in favor of internalism while Svavarsdóttir makes the attempt in favor of externalism. I conclude that both attempts fail.     

中国社区道德状况分析及对策

和谐社区是和谐社会建设的,在和谐社区建设中,不仅要形成一个社会福利服务、社区互助服务与市场有偿服务相结合的多类型多层次覆盖的社区服务网络,而且要形成一个社区道德文明建设网络,使社区成员之间形成互动与互助、邻里亲善、守望相助、疾病扶持的良好人际关系,构建温馨、祥和的社区氛围。     

Abusive supervision and subordinate supervisor‐directed deviance: The moderating role of traditional values and the mediating role of revenge cognitions

This study examined the link between abusive supervision and subordinate supervisor‐directed deviance by focusing on the moderating role of traditionality and the mediating role of revenge cognitions directed towards supervisors. The results of analysing 283 supervisor–subordinate dyads in six private electronic companies and 222 supervisor–subordinate dyads in two state‐owned oil and gas companies in the People's Republic of China showed that abusive supervision was positively related to revenge cognitions directed towards supervisors and to supervisor‐directed deviance. In addition, traditionality moderated the above relationships such that they were stronger among low traditionalists than among high ones, while revenge cognitions mediated the main effect of abusive supervision and the interactive effect of abusive supervision and traditionality on supervisor‐directed deviance.     

Effects of abusive supervision on employees’ innovative behavior: The role of job insecurity and locus of control

Drawing on the Conservation of Resources Theory by Hobfoll, we examined the relationships between abusive supervision, job insecurity, locus of control, and employees’ innovative behavior. Using self‐reported data collected from employees among four enterprises in China (N = 641), we found that abusive supervision was positively correlated with job insecurity. In contrast, both job insecurity and abusive supervision were negatively correlated with employees’ innovative behavior, with the impact of abusive supervision on innovative behavior being mediated by its effect on job insecurity. Having an external locus of control that served as a buffering factor for employees, mitigating the relationship between abusive supervision and job insecurity. These findings complement the existing research on the impacts of abusive leadership, providing practical information for enterprises on how to enhance levels of innovation and vitality among employees.     

Abusive Supervision in Advising Relationships: Investigating the Role of Social Support

The present study examines the consequences of abusive supervision in an educational setting. The study contrasts the cross-domain stress-buffering hypothesis with the within-domain stress exacerbation hypothesis in examining the moderating role of advisor and team member support on the relationship between abusive supervision and student outcomes in student–advisor relationships. Using a temporal research design, results provided support for both hypotheses. In support of the stress exacerbation hypothesis, in the presence of high advisor support, there was a significant positive relationship between abusive supervision and anxiety, and a significant negative association between abusive supervision and psychological well-being. Consistent with the stress-buffering hypothesis, in the presence of high team member support, there was a negligible association between abusive supervision and satisfaction and anxiety.     

The Harmful Influence of Decision Theory on Ethics

In the last half century, decision theory has had a deep influence on moral theory. Its impact has largely been beneficial. However, it has also given rise to some problems, two of which are discussed here. First, issues such as risk-taking and risk imposition have been left out of ethics since they are believed to belong to decision theory, and consequently the ethical aspects of these issues have not been treated in either discipline. Secondly, ethics has adopted the decision-theoretical idea that action-guidance has to be based on cause–effect or means–ends relationships between an individual action and its possible outcomes. This is problematic since the morally relevant connections between an action and future events are not fully covered by such relationships. In response to the first problem it is proposed that moral theory should deal directly and extensively with issues such as risk-taking and risk imposition, thereby intruding unabashedly into the traditional territory of decision theory. As a partial response to the second problem it is proposed that moral theorizing should release itself from the decision-theoretical requirement that the moral status of an action has to be derivable from the consequences (or other properties) that are assignable to that action alone. In particular, the effects that an action can have in combination with other actions by the same or other agents are valid arguments in an action-guiding moral discourse, even if its contribution to these combined consequences cannot be isolated and evaluated separately.     

Mediation and child custody issues in abusive relationships

Contested divorces and child custody cases have increased in number in recent years, and many have involved domestic violence. Victims of domestic violence need an informed legal system to help them achieve equitable settlements and safe arrangements. Two areas of concern presented in this article are mediation and joint custody. Professionals in the mental health, social service, criminal justice, and legal fields must understand the ramifications of joint custody and mediation in abusive relationships. The effects on the children and adults are discussed, and specific recommendations are presented for dealing with power and other issues in abusive relationships.     

Moral Self-Knowledge in Kantian Ethics

Kant’s duty of self-knowledge demands that one know one’s heart—the quality of one’s will in relation to duty. Self-knowledge requires that an agent subvert feelings which fuel self-aggrandizing narratives and increase self-conceit; she must adopt the standpoint of the rational agent constrained by the requirements of reason in order to gain information about her moral constitution. This is not I argue, contra Nancy Sherman, in order to assess the moral goodness of her conduct. Insofar as sound moral practice requires moral self-knowledge and moral self-knowledge requires a theoretical commitment to a conception of the moral self, sound moral agency is for Kant crucially tied to theory. Kant plausibly holds that self-knowledge is a protection against moral confusion and self-deception. I conclude that although his account relies too heavily on the awareness of moral law to explain its connection to moral development, it is insightful and important in Kantian ethics.     

Responsibility Allocation and Human Rights

How does morality allocate responsibility for what it requires? I am concerned here with one fundamental part of this question, namely, how morality determines responsibility when multiple agents are capable of contributing to or completing a moral task, and special relationships capable of generating duties with respect to the task are non-existent, insufficient as a moral response, or partly indeterminate. On one view, responsibility falls to the agents who can bear it with the least burden. I show why this is initially attractive and mistaken. Instead, I defend an equity-based approach that accommodates the intuitions that both support and trouble the least-cost principle. One upshot is that sometimes we ought prefer a distribution of responsibility that is more expensive and less local than needed to complete the task. I illustrate the practical significance of the argument in terms of the human rights of refugees.     

Moral Responsibility: Justifying Strawson and the Excuse of Peculiarly Unfortunate Formative Circumstances

P.F. Strawson’s theory of moral responsibility remains eminently influential. However, moral philosophers such as G. Watson and T.M. Scanlon have called into question it explanatory basis, which grounds moral responsibility in human nature and interpersonal relationships. They demand a deeper normative explanation for when it is appropriate to modify or mollify the reactive attitudes. In this paper, following A. Sneddon, I argue that the best interpretation of Strawson is an externalistic one which construes moral responsibility as an interpersonal social competence, as this approach uniquely satisfies Strawson’s demand that we justify the reactive attitudes from within the participant perspective. I then show that this is the only interpretation capable of preserving Strawson’s well-known excuse of being peculiarly unfortunate in one’s formative circumstances.     

Exploring Conflict Resolution and Psychological Abuse Across Romantic Relationships

Although strengthening skills is recommended to improve the effectiveness of programs to prevent dating violence, little research has analyzed how conflict resolution strategies relate to victimization/perpetration trajectories. This study explores retrospectively self-reported conflict resolution strategies (positive problem-solving, engagement, and withdrawal) across 2 romantic relationships, paying special attention to possible changes. Participants were 309 college students who had been involved in 1, 2, or no abusive relationships. Based on these experiences, they were first classified into 4 groups according to their psychological victimization (non-victimized, pre-victimized, newly-victimized, and re-victimized) in each of their 2 relationships. Subsequently, they were also classified into 4 different groups according to their perpetration (non-perpetrators, pre-perpetrators, new perpetrators, and re-perpetrators). Changes in conflict resolution strategies were self-reported by both the victims and the perpetrators with a single abusive relationship, whereas persistence was detected in those involved in either 2 abusive relationships (re-victimized and re-perpetrators) or none at all. The results can help prevent dating violence across relationships and its negative consequences for health.