Social Learning Theory: The Psychological Theories Of Domestic Violence

Battered Woman Syndrome While living in the modern-day busy world, men and women experience many problems, challenges and distress that negatively affect their mental and psychological health. However, both genders still have different rates of mental health problems interfering with their daily life and professional activity. Women are more likely to experience mental health issues and psychological problems compared to men, mostly due to domestic violence or intimate partner abuse becoming common social concerns in modern society. Majority of the time a female is the victim and males are the abusers.

(Ravelli and Webber 2016: 203). Throughout this paper I will be talking about how advertising makes gender codes and if they affect how I view individuals, and if they affect the way people view me. I will also be addressing if there are different codes, like class codes that may affect the way others and/or I view individuals. Lastly, I will be explaining how using a sociological perspective can help to think outside of gender codes and realize that it is not something that should be seen as normal.

Gender inequality is a social justice issue that is prominent in several societies as it is a direct reflection of the systematic power distribution amongst the two binary genders. This form of inequality is reflected through a set of adverse behaviours projected from one individual to another, known as domestic violence. Individuals perform the identities that is associated with their gender role because it is what is culturally acceptable within their given society. Judith Butler’s theory of ‘Gender as a Performance’ depicts that the practices that individuals repeat and perform assure the elements that an identity is composed of. This theory is an embodiment of domestic violence as it establishes the inequality amongst the different genders, by allowing the male to perform his dominance, causing the female to feel inferior to this.

Some of these roles are that women have to emotional, and moody while men have to be strict and independent. Junot Diaz, the author of the short story “How to Date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie”, gives insight into society's ideology concerning attraction and the social standard of physical beauty. Supporting a similar concept of gender identity,

Minority perspectives provides educators with tools to oppose the policies and practices from dominant groups and questions their knowledge. Furthermore, interpretation is useful because understanding the problems of race needs to be perceptive from different academic subjects. We rely on our racial background and experiences to make sense of it and provide

Young’s “Throwing Like a Girl” is said to be a philosophical investigation consisting of phenomenological evidence of how we live in our bodies. Young seeks to look at what is deemed as forced embodiment. Young argues that within our bodies we pay close attention to what we want to do through them instead of directing our attention to make sure that they are doing what we actually wish them to do. We experience our bodies as a weakening handicap rather than using them for good. Iris Marion Young believes that after examining the various ways that both men and women embody their bodies, we will be able to gain insight into the way gendered differences unfold within our society, essentially damaging women.

But after Mariam had a miscarriage everything changed. Rasheed became more sensitive and he seems to have a problem with his temper. The spousal abuse started with verbal taunting such as Rasheed mocking Mariam for not knowing simpal things such as knowing meaning of words. Khaled Hosseini uses the theme of domestic abuse to highlight the issue of social justice among women in Afghanistan. The protagonists in the novel are constantly being abused physically and mentally by their cynical husband.

It is the juxtaposition of these two characters that shows the reality of this fiction tale: that woman in the process and aftermath of war face a particular level of oppression and are in fear of a particular level of terrorism. This level of oppression in terror is in part due to the culture of war and the socialization of the oppressors- the men in war. The effects of this on women are rape, violence, need for food, shelter, etc. In Savage Content states “ Rape has always been associated with warfare in general. The more brutal the war, the more likely to involve the rape of enemy women.”

All the way through time and history, women have been treated as a subject of persecution and oppression in many societies. The manner in which men have controlled, used and abused women has been reinforced into a movement of human rights. Such treatment is fought against in the civilized societies with equality and freedom in the center of it. Clearly, it has been obvious in Shakespeare 's plays how women have been viewed and treated by the characters. He has demonstrated for us how women are in the center of domination and control (Dorn, 1999).

Domestic violence against women affects the emotional such as, feelings, behaviors and can impact one’s mental stability. Increased anxiety, post - traumatic stress disorder and depression symptoms are commonly observed among survivors of domestic violence. The study of Thananowan and Kaesornsamut shows that women who experience violence during pregnancy has higher stress and depressive symptom, less social support, and lower self -

Walker within her book The Battered Woman (1979). Among the exhausted topics and details within Walker’s work I found her theory on “The Cycle of Violence” (Walker, 55) inflicted by the abuser to be very important in understanding domestic violence. This theory is broken down into three phases. The first phase is referred to as the “tension-building stage” (Walker, 56). Here minor outbursts of anger and rage are exhibited by the abuser.

Victims of spousal abuse not only have an immediate exposure to physical danger, but many lasting mental effects as a response. For instance, many individuals suffering from abuse by an intimate partner experience Post Traumatic Stress Disorder caused by traumatic, uncontrollable thoughts about the incident. Additionally, depression remains as the most common symptom in victims. As much as 60% of abused women claimed they felt sad or depressed. In the same way, dissociation is commonly linked with spousal abuse.

Gender Roles and its Construction in Society  In "Night to His Day" The Social Construction of Gender," Lorber says that gender "is such a familiar part of daily life that it usually takes a deliberate disruption of our expectations of how women and men are supposed to act to pay attention to how it is produced" (324). We do not think about gender roles in regular basis until we notice that either a man or a woman is not acting how society expects his/her to act. This is when we start questioning what gender is and how it works in society.    We all are experiencing and learning about gender since we are born; we either become a girl or a boy based on our genitalia.