Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Coercive control in intimate partner violence

Coercive control in intimate partner relationships:
What role does CC play in IPV partner relationships and how can it be addressed?

Multimedia presentation (3 min)

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Overview

• Explain and describe Coercive Control in intimate partner relationships (illustrate the following three concepts with a case study examples and definitions)
• Identify the predictors and indicators of Coercive Control in intimate partner relationships
• Explore some of the motivations and behaviours associated with coercive control in intimate partner violence
• Summarise the effects of Coercive Control in intimate partner relationships for perpetrators and victim-survivors (support this with a discussion on intersectionality, using quantitative analysis and recommendations from the research)
• Summarise current evidenced based strategies employed to address coercive control in intimate partner violence
• Provide accessible links and support resources for perpetrators, victim-survivors, and support networks, engaging with Coercive Control in intimate partner relationships

 Comment case study very long and may overwhelm the reader. Consider making more concise

Case Study (Maria) Background: Maria has lived in Australia for two years with her husband, Santiago (Santi). Their country of birth is Chile. Maria and Santi do not have any children, although Maria has a dog named Javier (pronounced Harvey-air) whom she considers her 'baby'. On Friday morning, Maria visits her local Community Centre, with her dog Javier. (Maria is known to the service already, having previously visited with Santi to access migrant support services). However, until today, Maria has never disclosed that she is experiencing intimate partner violence at home with Santi. Maria intends to maintain her relationship with Santi. On arrival at the Community Centre, Maria was welcomed into the service by a familiar social worker. Maria told the social worker "I haven’t spoken about this to anyone really before. I’m kind of embarrassed to talk about it, but I just don’t know what to do anymore. I don't know about how it works here in Australia. Back home in Chile, I would stay with my family until things settled down; and my family would talk to him, and try to convince him to stop.” Maria then continued, “Last night my husband Santi came home really angry and straight away punched a hole in the front door. I asked him what was wrong and tried to calm him, but things just escalated so quickly, and the next thing I knew, he was hurting me, and he wouldn’t stop. I managed to get away and ran into the spare room and locked the door. I woke up some time after and the house sounded really quiet. I opened the door and saw him asleep on the couch in the lounge room, so I ran upstairs, grabbed my bag, car keys and Javier, and I drove away. I didn’t have anywhere to go so I drove around for a bit until I found a spot in a church car park that felt safe and slept there. I drove here this morning.” “I have 150 missed calls and 55 texts from Santi today, all saying he is sorry. He promises that he won’t do that again and that he was stressed with work, but I just need a plan to keep safe and know what I can do if I do leave for good. I have no money, nowhere to go, no job ... and who will look after Javier? Can you help me?” After further discussion, the social worker took down the following case notes about Maria's situation: Maria locked herself in the room whilst her husband calmed down. Maria hit her head, and was still bleeding. Maria doesn't want to see a doctor because she is afraid that will make Santi angry, and she has no money to afford the appointment. Maria claims she feels tired, but otherwise ok. Maria feels like she has no friends and her one sister in Australia, lives interstate in Melbourne. Maria is experiencing emotional, financial, physical and social abuse. Santi controls all their the money and Maria does not work. Santi wants Maria to stay at home and tend to the house, to support him. Maria receives an allowance from Santi of $50 each week to buy groceries, and $25 each week to buy Javier's food, pay for her own haircuts, buy her own clothes and any other 'luxuries' such as her mobile phone. Maria takes Javier everywhere, and is afraid Santi might hurt him. Maria has no access to the couple's money and plans to return to the relationship later today. Maria has 150 missed calls and 55 texts from Santi all apologising for his behaviour, and explaingin, “he was stressed with work.” Maria has no friends or family she can visit or stay with. Maria hasn’t accessed services for Intimate Partner Violence before. Maria has a safety bag with $15 cash in savings, some clothes, and a couple of things for Javier. (She saw the 'safety bag idea' on a video on social media, and found that helpful).

Figure 1. Gender neutral Power and Control Wheel. Based on Duluth's model.

Task

Think about the different elements of Maria's situation.

Which aspects of her experience align with the Power and Control Wheel?

Is Maria experiencing Coercive Control in her intimate partner relationship?

Why? or Why not?

Discussion

What other important factors might the social worker need to consider when supporting Maria?

Definitions

Terminology	Meaning
Coercive Control	meaning/define
Intimate Partner	meaning
Victim Survivor	meaning
Intersectionality	meaning

Add to table: Gaslighting, feigning distress, love bombing, manipulation to obtain or avoid abandonment, intimidation, isolation from support network, surveillance.

Introduction

To date, there is neither a universally accepted definition of IPV, nor is there a conceptual framework that would comprehensively capture the the complexities of coercive control.

Duluth's Wheel

Coercive Control can be insidious and therefore hard to detect - (Duluth's Wheel)

Focus Questions What are the internal process that give rise to Coercive Control in intimate partner relationships? How does energy, direction, and persistence present, as indicators of Coercive Control in intimate partner relationships? How are needs, cognitions and emotions related to Coercive Control in intimate partner relationships? What can be done to address Coercive Control in intimate partner relationships?

Psychological Theories (Motivation and Behaviour)

Seligman's Theory of Learned Helplessness

The learned helplessness phenomenon is proposed as a model for the emotional numbing and maladaptive passivity sometimes following victimization (Seligman,1983).

• Trauma bonding and cycles of negative reinforcement (Focus Question 1). Trauma bonding can lead to a “Stockholm syndrome” like effect. Victim - survivors may develop strong emotional ties with their abuser due to cycles of abuse, and hot and cold behaviour. Recognising patterns can be crucial for developing strategies to help victim-survivors break these bonds and support their recovery.
• Cycles of abuse and CC in IPV can lead to learned helplessness making help-seeking hard and difficult for the survivor to escape the situation and seek support.
• Learned Helplessness Theory can provide insights into why victim-survivors might feel powerless and not engage in help-seeking, and may help design interventions and support options on how to empower them effectively in recovery efforts.

Bandura's Social Learning Theory

We actually know very little about occasions of IPV, especially how conflicts escalate into IPV. This is because there are relatively few multi-method or multiagent longitudinal studies, which would require evidenced based approaches such as observing couple's interactions, whilst engaged in community or clinically controlled trials.

• Energy, direction and persistence (Focus Question 2)
  • Child adjustment and attachment (Bowlby and Ainsworth)
  • Social variables and behavioural predictability (e.g. witnessed IPV growing up etc.)
  • Bandura’s Social Learning Theory suggests that coercive control in IPV may be learned through family modelling. This insight can be used to design interventions that promote unlearning harmful patterns and adopting healthier relationship dynamics.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs & Deci and Ryan's Self Determination Theory

• Needs, cognitions, and emotions (Focus Question 3)
• Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs & Deci and Ryan's Self-Determination Theory can inform recovery interventions for victim-survivors by focusing on their autonomy, competence, and relatedness; all of which are key psychological needs that help reduce distress and promote recovery and self- efficacy, (this also links to learned helplessness).

Therapy and Safety Planning

We know more about risk factors than about protective factors. This is an area of great importance for further research; particularly, as attention paid to these may provide important leverage for prevention.

• Feminist Theory - acknowledging the relationship is abusive
  • According to the Control Motive Theory, when men use violence against their female partners, their goal is to influence their current or future behaviour (Johnson, 1995).
  • They use violence for control largely because they have been socialised in a patriarchal society to believe that males are supposed to be dominant in the family (Felson, R. and Messner, S., 2000)
• Cognitive Dissonance Theory (Festinger) can help when working with perpetrators by addressing the mismatch between their self-image as good people and their abusive behaviours, motivating them to change.
• Cognitive Behaviour Therapy - Person centred interventions for victim-survivors
• Trauma Informed Care (safety/risk screening, safety plans etc)

Case Study (Corey)

content

Research and Legislation

Quantitative Analysis

We know many of the risk factors for IPV and that it is a complex issue with multiple determinants. We know much less however about the moderators on these risk factors - for example, gender, race, age, SES level, level of social support, and the role that the presence of children in the relationship plays (Capaldi et al., 2012).

• A systematic review or meta-analyses that looks into the most efficacious interventions for victim-survivors and perpetrators
  • Research into CC in IPV can increase awareness and understanding about CC in IPV for the public and people in these relationships.
  • Positives = recognition of triggers and signs of CC in IPV for those within these relationships
    • increasing public attention and potential downstream funding on this issue.
    • a better understanding and awareness of CC in IPV can have flow on effects from police to law, to case workers, to health services, to organisations, to education, all the way to the public.

Legislation and Policy (Keep this brief)

Coercive Control in intimate partner violence is [now widely] recognised in both healthcare and socio-legal contexts (Gulina et al., 2018).

• Recent legislative changes related to coercive control in IPV.
  • The NSW Government has made amendments to the Family Law Act (1975), and has proposed updates to the Crimes Act (1914) Cth.
  • The National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children (2010-2022) has shown a recent focus on the broader subject area.
  • Increases in funding, streamlined protection orders, explicit training programs for frontline workers, and community awareness campaigns.

Conclusion

We know that this [intimate partner violence] violence is almost always underpinned by coercive control, and has traumatic and pervasive immediate and long term impacts on victim survivors, their families and communities (Commonwealth of Australia, Attorney-General's Department, 2023). Although it appears that the existing theories of coercive control in IPV are limited in their ability to improve the clinical efficacy of IPV interventions, as well as provide sufficient basis for conducting research.

Some theoretical frameworks of Coercive Control in IPV provide a number of potential 'answers' over others; however their empirical validity is yet to be determined. Thus, we find ourselves still in need of sufficient research reliability and validity in the filed, in order to systematically examine the context and complexities that the elements of Coercive Control in IPV, present in both theory and practice.

Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Coercive control in intimate partner violence

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The Overview is typically consists of one to four paragraphs inbetween the scenario and focus questions. Suggested word count aim for the Overview: 180 to 330 words.

Suggestions for this section: Engage the reader with a scenario, example, or case study, and an accompanying image Explain the problem and why it is important Outline how psychological science can help Present focus questions

Focus questions: Break the problem (i.e., the sub-title) down into three to five focus questions. Focus questions can also be used as top-level headings. What is the first focus question? What is the second focus question? What is the third focus question? Ask open-ended focus questions. For example: Is there a relationship between motivation and success? (closed-ended) What is the relationship between motivation and success? (open-ended)

Headings

• Aim for three to six main headings inbetween the Overview and Conclusion
• Sub-headings can also be used, but
  • avoid having sections with only one sub-heading
  • provide an introductory paragraph before breaking into sub-sections

Key points

• Provide at least three bullet-points per headingʔ and sub-heading, including for the Overview and Conclusion
• Include key citations

Figures

Figure 2. Example of an image with a descriptive caption.

• Use figures to illustrate concepts, add interest, and to serve as examples
• Figures can show photos, diagrams, graphs, video, audio, etcetera
• Embed figures throughout the chapter, including the Overview section
• Figures should be captioned (using Figure #. and a caption). Use captions to explain the relevance of the image to the text/
• Wikimedia Commons provides a library of embeddable images
• Images can also be uploaded to Wikimedia Commons if they are openly licensed
• Refer to each figure at least once in the main text (e.g., see Figure 2)

Learning features

Interactive learning features help to bring online book chapters to life and can be embedded throughout the chapter.

Scenarios

• Scenarios or case studies describe applied/real-world examples of concepts in action
• Case studies can be real or fictional
• A case study could be split into multiple boxes throughout a chapter (e.g., to illustrate different theories or stages)
• It is often helpful to present case studies using feature boxes.

Feature boxes

• Important content can be highlighted in a feature box. But don't overuse feature boxes, otherwise they lose their effect.
• Consider using feature boxes for:
  • Scenarios, case studies, or examples
  • Focus questions
  • Tips
  • Quiz questions
  • Take-home messages

Links

• When key words are introduced, use interwiki links to:
  • Wikipedia (e.g., Sigmund Freud wrote about (e.g., dreams) or
  • Related book chapters (e.g., writer's block)

Tables

• Use to organise and summarise information
• As with figures, tables should be captioned
• Refer to each table at least once in the main text (e.g., see Table 1)
• Example 3 x 3 tables which could be adapted

Table 1. Descriptive Caption Which Explains The Table and its Relevant to the Text - Johari Window Model

	Known to self	Not known to self
Known to others	Open area	Blind spot
Not known to others	Hidden area	Unknown

Quizzes

• Using one or two review questions per major section is usually better than a long quiz at the end
• Quiz conceptual understanding, rather than trivia
• Don't make quizzes too hard
• Different types of quiz questions are possible; see Quiz

Example simple quiz questions. Choose your answers and click "Submit":

1 Quizzes are an interactive learning feature:

	True
	False

2 Long quizzes are a good idea:

	True
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Conclusion

• The Conclusion is arguably the most important section
• Suggested word count: 150 to 330 words
• It should be possible for someone to only read the Overview and the Conclusion and still get a pretty good idea of the problem and what is known based on psychological science

Suggestions for this section: What is the answer to the sub-title question based on psychological theory and research? What are the answers to the focus questions? What are the practical, take-home messages? (Even for the topic development, have a go at the likely take-home message)

See also

Provide internal (wiki) links to the most relevant Wikiversity pages (esp. related motivation and emotion book chapters) and Wikipedia articles. Use these formats:

• Light triad (Book chapter, 2021)
• Collaborative authoring using wiki (Wikiversity)
• Self determination theory (Wikipedia)

Suggestions for this section: Present in alphabetical order Use sentence casing Include the source in parentheses

References

Alloy, L. B., Peterson, C., Abramson, L. Y., & Seligman, M. E. (1984). Attributional style and the generality of learned helplessness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 46(3), 681–687. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.46.3.681

A. S., Gulina, M. A., & Tikhomandritskaya, O. A. (2018). Intimate Partner Violence: An Overview of the Existing Theories, Conceptual Frameworks, and Definitions. Psychology in Russia : State of the Art, 11(3), 128–144. https://doi.org/10.11621/pir.2018.0309

Capaldi, D. M., Knoble, N. B., Shortt, J. W., & Kim, H. K. (2012). A Systematic Review of Risk Factors for Intimate Partner Violence. Partner Abuse, 3(2), 231–280. https://doi.org/10.1891/1946-6560.3.2.231

Commonwealth of Australia, Attorney-General's Department. (2023). National Principles to Address Coercive Control in Family and Domestic Violence. https://www.ag.gov.au/families-and-marriage/publications/national-principles-address-coercive-control-family-and-domestic-violence

Dichter, M. E., Thomas, K. A., Crits-Christoph, P., Ogden, S. N., & Rhodes, K. V. (2018). Coercive Control in Intimate Partner Violence: Relationship With Women’s Experience of Violence, Use of Violence, and Danger. Psychology of Violence, 8(5), 596–604. https://doi.org/10.1037/vio0000158

Felson, R. B., & Messner, S. F. (2000). The Control Motive in Intimate Partner Violence. Social Psychology Quarterly, 63(1), 86–94. https://doi.org/10.2307/2695883

Peterson, C., & Seligman, M. E. P. (1983). Learned Helplessness and Victimization. Journal of Social Issues, 39(2), 103–116. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.1983.tb00143.x

Straus, M. A., & Gozjolko, K. L. (2016). Concordance between partners in “intimate terrorism”: A comparison of two typologies. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 29, 55–60. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2016.06.003

List cited references in APA style (7th ed.) or wiki style.

APA style example:

Rosenberg, B. D., & Siegel, J. T. (2018). A 50-year review of psychological reactance theory: Do not read this article. Motivation Science, 4(4), 281–300. https://doi.org/10.1037/mot0000091

Suggestions for this section: Important aspects of APA style for references include: Wrap the set of references in the hanging indent template. Use "Edit source": {{Hanging indent|1= the full list of references}} Author surname, followed by a comma, then the author initials separated by full stops and spaces Year of publication in parentheses Title of work in lower case except first letter and proper names, ending in a full-stop Journal title in italics, volume number in italics, issue number in parentheses, first and last page numbers separated by an en-dash(–), followed by a full-stop Provide the full doi as a URL and working hyperlink The most common mistakes include: Incorrect capitalisation Incorrect italicisation Citing sources that weren't read or consulted

See also

1. Motivation and emotion/Book/2017/Intimate partner violence motivation
2. Motivation and emotion/Book/2011/Self-determination theory
3. Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Coercive control motivation in relationships
4. Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Domestic violence motivation

External links

1. Domestic and Family Violence Support (NSW Government) https://www.service.nsw.gov.au/guide/domestic-and-family-violence
2. Domestic Violence Crisis Service (ACT) https://dvcs.org.au/

Provide external links to highly relevant resources such as presentations, news articles, and professional sites. Use sentence casing. For example:

• Six top tips for writing a great essay (University of Melbourne)
• The importance of structure (skillsyouneed.com)

Suggestions for this section: Only select links to major external resources about the topic Present in alphabetical order Include the source in parentheses after the link