Females Appraisal Distortions in Intimate Partner Relationships

Intimate partner violence (IPV) initiated by women is vastly under researched compared\r\nto violence initiated by men. Socially, the quest to understand IPV has almost exclusively\r\nfocused on violence perpetrated by men and the bulk of research on the topic has followed suite\r\n(Heise et al., 1999\; Williams, 2004) Data indicates that most violence occurring within\r\nheterosexual relationships is bidirectional. (Hines, 2007\; Hamby, 2009). The aim of this thesis is\r\nto examine the common themes and distortions that occur as women engage in violence within\r\ntheir relationships. Building on the existing work, this work specifically looks at appraisal\r\ndistortions of women during IPV. Researchers recruited participants for this study using\r\nsnowball sampling. The participants for this study consisted of 13 African American women\r\n(n=13) using a semi-structured interview procedure to examine their cognitive processes while\r\nusing violence. Interviews of participants were conducted by phone and the interviews were\r\nrecorded and coded for themes. The analysis of the results revealed that the most common\r\nappraisal distortions were rationalization and blaming. Implications for further research with\r\ndiverse populations, interventions that promote empathy and increasing skills in recognizing the\r\ninfluence of emotional processing and cognitive distortions are discussed