Psychologiczne uwarunkowania przemocy w rodzinie : charakterystyka sprawców

Abstract

The aim of the work was the analysis of psychological conditions of violence in family. The author of the work was trying to find out which factors influence violence in family. The attempt to explain the causes of the very phenomenon was made from the perspective of its perpetrators. Little is known about the personality of violence perpetrators, mechanisms and motives of their behaviour. A characteristic of a typical profile and mechanisms of the functioning of violence perpetrators, especially in close partner relationships is not an easy thing to do. Family aggressors are unwilling to take tests, even if forced to do so by, for instance, the court. The aim of the research derived also from the necessity to verify the existing data produced by the western authors in the conditions of the Polish economiccultural reality. The very task seemed very important, because the majority of studies on the characteristic and conditions of violence in family was conducted in the Western Europe or the United States of America. Because of the cultural differences and, above all, economic ones (a weaker material-living support of the family) the risk factors of violence occurrence and its conditions were supposed to shape differently. In the research conducted, according to the theoretical assumptions, the attempt was made to differentiate the types of violence perpetrators among the group of 325 subjects, on the basis of the profile of selected personality features and temperament. The statistical analysis was made to differentiate the group of perpetrators in terms of individual variables. Finally, four groups of perpetrator types differing from one another as to personality features and temperament were distinguished. Group A included reactively aggressive ones, group B constituted those of low preventive competences, group C was composed of psychopathicretaliatory cases and group D involved the ones with a big adjustment potential. Each group was characterized by a certain system of features. A characteristic of the very types of violence perpetrators in family was made, taking into consideration, the course and conditions of the process of their socialisation, as well as social, biopsychic and situational conditions of their functioning. Also, the attempt was made to define the risk factors of violence perpetrators in each group differentiated on the basis of the personality profile. An important research task was to make analyses explaining the causes of violence development in family in the whole group of violence perpetrators. In so doing, the analysis of paths in the explorative version was used. The choice of variables was inspired by the research results reported on in the theoretical part and constituting the basis for the model of the research in question. The results allowed for defining direct and indirect effects combining the variables and make a causal interpretation of the influences between them in the environment of violence acts in family. What was very important was a definition of the mechanisms of physical and psychic violence development in family relations in a particular difficult situation: marriage conflicts, adaptation problems, professional problems as well as economic and living problems. The results obtained can be regarded important because they constitute a step ahead in understanding the mechanisms conditioning physical and psychic violence in family. Essential findings derived from the analyses conducted concern (1) the empirical analyses explaining violence development from the perspective of violence perpetrators in family (little is known about the mechanisms and motives of aggressor’s behaviour); (2) a distinction and characteristic of types of men using violence against women in terms of personality features and temper of the former, and the analyses of the mechanisms of the functioning of violence perpetrators in different life situations; (3) the collection of the first empirical data to be found in the Polish context on risk factors of the occurrence of the level of physical and psychic violence in groups of perpetrator types differentiated on the basis of their personality types; (4) a differentiation of important factors determining violence in family, depending on personality features of violence perpetrator, type of situation, and evaluation of difficult situations by violence perpetrator, and their strategy of dealing with a given situation. The very work does not exhaust all problems connected with an attempt to answer the question on factors conditioning violence occurrence in family. There are many research areas which, when examined, could allow for deepening the knowledge on the predeterminants of the occurrence of violence acts. These involve searching for the factors shaping script experiences of violence perpetrators and their influence on perception of marriage conflicts and ways of dealing with them, as well as looking for the factors shaping particular personality types of aggressors. The studies on the regulation of violence perpetrator behaviour and their inclination for aggressive behaviours should also refer to the value systems of aggressors. It is also necessary to conduct the research on the specific dynamics of the relationship between the victim and the perpetrator from the perspective of the victim and violence perpetrator.