Introduction
Physical abuse in intimate relationships is a serious societal and psychological problem that a number of people encounter throughout their lives. The mechanisms that form abusers and the impact of such experience on the abused attracted researchers’ attention due to its ubiquity and scale that this public health issue reached. Its continual growth and the need for more substantial communal attention obtained recognition from the World Health Organization (Tan, 2018). Virginia T. Tan (2018), in her study “Sleeping With My Abuser: A Qualitative Study on the Development of Transferred Aggression Expression among Battered Women,” aims to analyze and synthesize the experience of women, who once found themselves in physically abusive intimate relationships. The research’s principal question is what experience battered women undergo; based on the information gathered apropos of the issue, Tan (2018) strived to construct a transferred aggression expression model. The literature selected for the study revolved around women’s perpetration of aggression. Nonetheless, varying points of view (Bandura’s social learning theory, for instance) were incorporated to exclude the possibility of selection bias. This paper aims to summarize and analyze Tan’s study (2018), addressing its research methods and analytical approaches.
Summary of Methods
The study under consideration used Strauss and Corbin’s theoretical framework for developing a grounded theory as a foundation for its research design to extract interpretations from the collected data. Due to research’s geographical consideration, eighteen Philippine women were selected to participate. Non-probability sampling was applied, as the participants were chosen considering whether they had lived with an abusive partner, had a child, and were disposed to tell their stories. The interview served as the primary data collection instrument and was conducted in two parts. Firstly, the women’s demographic information was accumulated, and, secondly, a questionnaire regarding life in abusive intimate relationships was distributed. Since the questionnaire was initially developed in English, translation to Filipino, and then back to English was required. Such research methods as bracketing, epoché, or reflexivity were not mentioned in the study in question. On the other hand, open, axial, and selective coding were used in the data analysis; the codes were organized and categorized, reflecting themes that repeatedly arose from the women’s testimonies. In addition to various coding procedures, sorting and comparison were employed.
To ensure the research’s credibility, dependability, and adherence to principles of the grounded theory that Strauss and Corbin outlined, respondent validation was performed. After certain stages of the research were completed, the participants were contacted and provided with an overview of the responses. Consequently, they were asked to confirm that the results coincided with their experiences: the women compared the responses and stated that they were precise. This supplementary attention to the alignment between the data and the women’s perception of their experience may signify the study’s reliability.
Summary of Findings
According to the gathered data, Tan delineated how, after experiencing intimate partner violence, women manage and direct aggressive impulses – the issue constitutes the study’s central theme. As the final result, a theoretical model regarding the problem was elaborated: the model of transferred aggression expression encompasses the behavior of women after surviving abusive partnership and measures the likelihood of instances of aggression. The model has six stages (enduring, inhibiting, placating, reciprocating, aggressing, and retaliating), each describing psychological mechanisms and mental states that accompany women in the course of an abusive relationship. With the purpose of defending the model, parts of women’s’ testimonies are implemented in corresponding sections. The included phrases are supposed to provide evidence for interpretations that constitute Tan’s model (2018). Almost every part of the analysis is corroborated with the extracts from the interviews. The evidence is of inductive nature, conjuring generalizations from specific situations. Therefore, the qualitative data seems sufficient as it directly supports the conclusions drawn regarding the emotions reported.
Ethical Aspects
The paper contains a section dedicated to ethical considerations explicitly addressing them. Despite the fact that Institutional Review Board is not mentioned in the research, ethical clearance was obtained from the women’s desk office of Graduate School of the University of Santo Tomas, Philippines, that manages domestic violence reporting (Tan, 2018). The women’s desk connected the researcher with potential willing participants. Informed consent was signed after the aim, procedures, and risks of the research were acknowledged – the procedure ensured women’s confidentiality and granted them access to the study’s results. On the contrary, similar research conducted by Pitagora (2015) did not include a segment on the ethicality of the study, although it contains separate mentions addressing the documental aspect of the problem, such as signing consent forms. The article’s section on data collection, procedure, and ethical consideration contains enough proof that the participants recognized safety issues and benefits that the research entails, and that it did not include morally questionable practices.
Evaluation of Study
An in-depth interview is one of the essential methods of qualitative research. Tan’s study is based on this method, as it is optimized for research of this type (2018). To assemble data regarding personal experiences and histories, especially when sensitive themes are involved, interviews are seemingly the most applicable (Dowling et al., 2016). As this semi-structured method is often used to explore a phenomenon, transferred aggression expression, in this case, it was used appropriately in the study (Howitt, 2019). The descriptive nature and the variety of age in the sample size could be considered the research’s advantages. The study’s principal goal, to create a transferred aggression expression model, necessitates it to be illustrative and incorporate demonstrative elements. The variation in age allows Tan to make more extensive generalizations and apply the elaborated model to broader demographics.
The author mentions several limitations that may slightly deteriorate the quality of the research. They include the lack of male perspective, the absence of experiences from women unwilling to share them, and partial conclusions about the abusive behavior of battered women toward their children (Tan, 2018). The author does not mention the number of women who participated as a weakness. Still, it also could be considered as one – the results obtained from interviews with eighteen persons of highly varying age may be insufficient to universalize them. Accordingly, it is proposed to include male experience in future research on the topic (Tan, 2018). In the study, the research method and design seem to correspond well to the objectives outlined and themes covered – one-on-one interviews and questionnaires are suitable for exploring research topics in psychology.
Conclusion
The research conducted by Tan seeks to investigate the widespread and acute domestic violence problem from an atypical perspective. The effect of abusive relationships on violence propagation by women appears to be a research topic with several pending questions. To create the transferred aggression expression model, the researcher explored eighteen stories provided by women who experienced abuse from an intimate partner. The two-part interview was a suitable method for the purpose, and a questionnaire served as a primary data collection instrument. The follow-up study could include a more significant number of participants or focus on the specific age group to ensure that overarching results are obtained. The effect of aggression transfer on the women’s children is a research question that seems particularly topical and could be expanded in future research.
References
Dowling, R., Lloyd, K., & Suchet-Pearson, S. (2016). Qualitative methods 1. Progress in Human Geography, 40(5), 679–686.
Howitt, D. (2019). Introduction to qualitative research methods in psychology: Putting theory into practice. Pearson.
Pitagora, D. (2015). Intimate partner violence in sadomasochistic relationships. Sexual and Relationship Therapy, 31(1), 95–108.
Tan, V. T. (2018). Sleeping with my abuser: A qualitative study on the development of transferred aggression expression among battered women. IAFOR Journal of Psychology & the Behavioral Sciences, 4(1), 75-96.