Date of Award

Winter 3-1-2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Counseling and Human Services

First Advisor

Walter Buboltz

Abstract

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is a phenomenon found across cultures, genders, and sexualities. Those who are victimized are more likely to experience negative health and psychological outcomes than those who have not and are also at an increased risk for becoming perpetrators themselves. This has resulted in a significant need to identify the risk factors associated with perpetrators, so cycles of violence can be broken and violence can be prevented. Previous research has utilized a predominately feminist perspective to understand IPV perpetration risk factors and has focused predominately on exclusively male samples. Additional research is needed to develop a broader understanding of the interactive processes that lead individuals to become IPV perpetrators. Using psychological reactance theory as a framework, the purpose of this study was to investigate if empathy moderates the relationship between psychological reactance and IPV perpetration. This study surveyed 278 participants recruited through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk) survey platform. Results found verbal psychological reactance to be higher in those who did not endorse IPV perpetration and behavioral psychological reactance to be higher in participants who endorsed IPV perpetration. Empathy was not shown to be statistically significantly related to verbal or behavioral reactance and was also not found to moderate the relationship between reactance and IPV perpetration. Overall, the findings suggest that although there is a link between reactance and IPV perpetration, empathy does not strengthen or moderate the relationship between psychological reactance and IPV perpetration.

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