Abstract
Violence is an all too common feature of modern life. Media presentations are filled with images of people hurting one another, and although much attention is given to scenes depicting violence and even to perpetrators of violence, little is given to victims (Bard & Sangrey, 1979). Violence involves physical force with the intent to harm another, and from an observer’s perspective, victims’ injuries seem best measured in terms of physical harm. The plight of the victim, in other words, is generally understood in terms of physical violation. Yet injury to victims of violence involves not only physical violation but psychological violation as well. The aftermath of violence for victims must be understood by considering threats not only to their bodily integrity but to their psychological integrity. Victims are forced to confront directly the possible loss of physical functioning and even death. They are also forced to confront directly the possible breakdown of the cognitive structures that had been so instrumental in providing psychological stability.
Reprinted from S. Fisher and J. Reason (Eds.), Handbook of Life Stress, Cognition and Health (chapter 6, pp. 101–113). Copyright 1988 John Wiley & Sons Ltd., New York.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Abelson, R. P. (1981). The psychological status of the script concept. American Psychologist, 36, 715–729.
Affleck, G., Allen, D. A., Tennen, H., McGrade, B. J., Ratzan, S. (1985a). Causal and control cognitions in parent coping with a chronically ill child. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 3, 369–379.
Affleck, G., McGrade, B. J., Allen, D. A., McQueeney, M. (1985b). Mothers’ beliefs about behavioral causes for their developmentally disabled infant’s condition: What do they signify? Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 10, 193–303.
American Psychiatric Association. (1980). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders ( 3rd ed. ). Washington, DC: Author.
Averill, J. (1976). Emotion and anxiety: Sociocultural, biological, and psychological determinants. In M. Zuckerman & C. D. Spielberger (Eds.), Emotion and anxiety: New concepts, methods and applications. New York: Erlbaum-Wiley.
Bard, M., Sangrey, D. (1979). The crime victim’s book. New York: Basic Books.
Baum, A., Flemming, R., Singer, J. E. (1983). Coping with victimization by technological disaster. Journal of Social Issues, 39, 119–140.
Beck, A. T. (1967). Depression: Clinical, experimental, and theoretical aspects. New York: Harper & Row.
Bowlby, J. (1969). Attachment and loss, vol. 1: Attachment. London: Hogarth.
Bulman, R. J., Wortman, C. B. (1977). Attributions of blame and coping in the “real world”: Severe accident victims react to their lot. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 35, 351–363.
Burgess, A., Holmstrom, L. (1974). Rape trauma syndrome. American Journal of Psychiatry, 131, 981–985.
Burgess, A., Holmstrom, L. (1976). Coping behavior of the rape victim. American Journal of Psychiatry, 13, 413–417.
Burgess, A., Holmstrom, L. (1979). Adaptive strategies and recovery from rape. American Journal of Psychiatry, 136, 1278–1282.
Calhoun, K. S., Atkeson, B. M., Resick, P. A. (1982). A longitudinal examination of fear reactions in victims of rape. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 29, 665–661.
Cantor, N. (1980). Perceptions of situations: Situation prototypes and person-situation prototypes. In D. Magnusson (Ed.), The situation: An interactional perspective. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Coates, D., Winston, T. (1983). Counteracting the deviance of depression: Peer support groups for victims. Journal of Social Issues, 39, 171–196.
Eitinger, L. (1982). The effects of captivity. In F. M. Ochberg & D. A. Soskis (Eds.), Victims of terrorism. Boulder, CO: Westview.
Ellis, E., Atkeson, B., Calhoun, K. (1981). An assessment of long-term reaction to rape. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 90, 263–266.
Epstein, S. (1973). The self-concept revisited, or a theory of a theory. American Psychologist, 28, 404–416.
Epstein, S. (1979). The ecological study of emotions in humans. In P. Pilner, K. R. Blanstein, & I. M. Spigel (Eds.), Advances in the study of communication and affect, vol. 5: Perception of emotions in self and others. New York: Plenum.
Epstein, S. (1980). The self-concept: A review and the proposal of an integrated theory of personality. In E. Staub (Ed.), Personality: Basic issues and current research. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Erikson, E. (1950). Childhood and society. New York: Norton.
Erikson, E. (1968). Identity: Youth and crisis. New York: Norton.
Erikson, E. (1980). Identity and the life cycle. New York: Norton.
Fairbairn, W. R. D. (1952). An object-relations theory of the personality. New York: Basic Books.
Fischer, C. T. (1984). A phenomenological study of being criminally victimized: Contributions and constraints of qualitative research. Journal of Social Issues, 40, 161–178.
Fiske, S. T., Taylor, S. E. (1984). Social cognition. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Frederick, C. (1980). Effects of natural vs. human-induced violence. Evaluation and change. [Special issue: Services for survivors], 71–75.
Freud, S. (1959). Inhibitions, symptoms, and anxiety. In J. Strachey (Ed. and Trans.), The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. 20 ). London: Hogarth. ( Original work published 1959 ).
Frieze, I. H: (1979). Perceptions of battered wives. In I. H. Frieze, D. Bar-Tal, & J. S. Carroll (Eds.), New approaches to social problems: Applications of attribution theory. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Frieze, I. H., Hymer, S., Greenberg, M. S. (1984). Describing the victims of crime and violence. In S. S. Kahn (Ed.), Victims of crime and violence: Final report of the APA task force on the victims of crime and violence. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Geis, G. (1981). Victims of crimes of violence and the criminal justice system. In B. Galway & J. Hudson (Eds.), Perspectives on crime victims. St. Louis, MO: Mosby.
Hilberman, E., Munson, K. (1978). Sixty battered women. Victimology, 2, 460–471.
Horney, K. (1937). The neurotic personality of our time. New York: Norton.
Horney, K. (1939). New ways in psychoanalysis. New York: Norton.
Horowitz, M. (1976). Stress response syndromes. New York: Aronson.
Horowitz, M. (1980). Psychological response to serious life events. In V. Hamilton & D. Warburton (Eds.), Human stress and cognition. New York: Wiley.
Horowitz, M. J. (1982). Stress response syndromes and their treatment. In L. Goldberger & S. Breznitz (Eds.), Handbook of stress. New York: Free Press.
Horowitz, M. J., Wilner, N., Mannar, C., Krupnick, J. (1980). Pathological grief and the activation of latent self-images. American Journal of Psychiatry, 137, 1137–1162.
Janoff-Bulman, R. (1979). Characterological versus behavioral self-blame: Inquiries into depression and rape. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37 (10), 1798–1809.
Janoff-Bulman, R. (1985). Criminal vs. non-criminal victimization: Victims’ reactions. Victimology, 10, 498–511.
Janoff-Bulman, R., Frieze, I. H. (1983). A theoretical perspective for understanding reactions to victimization. Journal of Social Issues, 39, 1–17.
Janoff-Bulman, R., Lang-Gunn, L. (1988). Coping with disease and accidents: The role of self-blame attributions. In L. Y. Abramson (Ed.), Social cognition and clinical psychology (pp. 116–147 ). New York: Guilford.
Janoff-Bulman, R., Timko, C. (1987). Coping with traumatic life events: The role of denial in light of people’s assumptive worlds. In C. R. Snyder & C. Ford (Eds.), Coping with negative life events: Clinical and social psychological perspectives. New York: Plenum.
Kahneman, D., Tversky, A. (1973). On the psychology of prediction. Psychological Review, 80, 237–251.
Kiecolt-Glaser, J. K., Williams, D. (1987). Self-blame, compliance, and distress among burn patients. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57, 187–193.
Kilpatrick, D. G., Veronen, L. J., Resick, P. A. (1979). The aftermath of rape: Recent empirical findings. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 49, 658–669.
Krupnick, J. (1980). Brief psychotherapy with victims of violent crime. Victimology, 5, 347–354.
Krupnick, J., Horowitz, M. (1980). Victims of violence: Psychological responses, treatment implications. Evaluation and change [Special issue: Services for survivors], 42–46.
Kuhn, T. S. (1962). The structure of scientific revolutions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Lakatos, I. (1974). Falsification and the methodology of scientific research programs. In I. Lakatos & A. Musgrave (Eds.), Criticism and the growth of knowledge. London. Cambridge University Press.
Lazarus, R. S., Averill, J. R. (1972). Emotion and cognition: With special reference to anxiety. In C. D. Spielberger (Ed.), Anxiety: Current trends in theory and research. New York: Academic Press.
Lerner, M. J. (1980). The belief in a just world. New York: Plenum.
Lifton, R. J. (1967). Death in life: Survivors of Hiroshima. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Lifton, R. J., Olson, E. (1976). Death imprint in Buffalo Creek syndrome: Symptoms and character change after a major disaster. In H. J. Parad, H. L. P. Resnik, & L. G. Parad (Eds.), Emergency and disaster management. Bowie, MD: Charles.
Markus, H. (1977). Self-schemata and processing information about the self. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 35, 63–78.
Marris, P. (1975). Loss and change. Garden City, NY: Anchor/Doubleday.
Medea, A., Thompson, K. (1974). Against rape. New York: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux.
Meyer, C. B., Taylor, S. E. (1986). Adjustment to rape. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50, 1226–1234.
Miller, W. R., Williams, M., Bernstein, M. H. (1982). The effects of rape on marital and sexual adjustment. American Journal of Family Therapy, 10, 51–58.
Nadelson, C. C., Notman, M. T. (1984). Psychodynamics of sexual assault experiences. In I. R. Stuart & J. G. Greer (Eds.), Victims of sexual aggression: Treatment of children, women, and men. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.
Nadelson, C. C., Notman, M. T., Jackson, H., Garnick, J. (1982). A follow-up study of rape victims. American Journal of Psychiatry, 139, 1266–1270.
Nisbett, R. E., Ross, L. (1980). Human inference: Strategies and shortcomings of social judgment. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Notman, M. T., Nadelson, C. C. (1976). The rape victim: Psychodynamic considerations. American Journal of Psychiatry, 133, 408–413.
Ochberg, F. (1986). The victim of terrorism. In R. H. Moos (Ed.), Coping with life crises. New York: Plenum.
Parkes, C. M. (1971). Psycho-social transitions: A field of study. Social Science and Medicine, 5, 101–115.
Parkes, C. M. (1975). What becomes of redundant world models? A contribution to the study of adaptation to change. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 48, 131–137.
Perloff, L. S. (1983). Perceptions of vulnerability to victimization. Journal of Social Issues, 39 (2), 41–62.
Peterson, C., Schwartz, S. M., Seligman, M. E. P. (1981). Self-blame and depressive symptoms. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 41, 253–259.
Piaget, J. (1971). The construction of reality in the child. New York: Basic Books.
Rachman, S. J. (1978). Fear and courage. San Francisco: Freeman.
Sales, E., Baum, M., Shore, B. (1984). Victim readjustment following assault. Journal of Social Issues, 40, 117–136.
Seligman, M. E. P. (1975). Helplessness: On depression, development, and death. San Francisco: Freeman.
Silver, R. L., Wortman, C. B. (1980). Coping with undesirable life events. In J. Garber & M. E. P. Seligman (Eds.), Human helplessness: Theory and application. New York: Academic Press.
Strentz, T. (1982). The Stockholm syndrome: Law enforcement policy and hostage behavior. In F. M. Ochberg & D. A. Soskis (Eds.), Victims of terrorism. Boulder, CO: Westview.
Sullivan, H. S. (1940). Conceptions of modern psychiatry. New York: Norton.
Sullivan, H. S. (1953). The interpersonal theory of psychiatry. New York: Norton.
Symonds, M. (1982). Victim responses to terror: Understanding and treatment. In F. M. Ochberg & D. A. Soskis (Eds.), Victims of terrorism. Boulder, CO: Westview.
Taylor, S. E. (1983). Adjustment to threatening events: A theory of cognitive adaptation. American Psychologist, 38, 1161–1173.
Taylor, S. E., Wood, J. V., Lichtman, R. R. (1983). It could be worse: Selective evaluation as a response to victimization. Journal of Social Issues, 39 (2), 19–40.
Tennen, H., Affleck, G., Gerschman, K. (1986). Self-blame among parents of infants with perinatal complications: The role of self-protective motives. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50, 690–696.
Tennen, H., Affleck, G., Allen, D. A., McGrade, B. J., Ratzan, S. (1984). Causal attributions and coping with insulin-dependent diabetes. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 5, 131–142.
Timko, C., Janoff-Bulman, R. (1985). Attributions, vulnerability, and psychological adjustment: The case of breast cancer. Health Psychology, 4, 521–544.
Titchener, J. L., Kapp, F. T., Winget, C. (1976). The Buffalo Creek syndrome: Symptoms and character change after a major disaster. In H. J. Parad, H. L. P. Resnik & L. G. Parad (Eds.), Emergency and disaster management. Bowie, MD: Charles.
Walker, L. E. (1979). The battered woman. New York: Harper & Row.
Weinstein, N. D. (1980). Unrealistic optimism about future life events. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39, 806–820.
Weinstein, N. D., Lachendro, E. (1982). Egocentrism as a source of unrealistic optimism. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 8, 195–200.
Weis, K., Weis, S. (1975). Victimology and the justification of rape. In I. Drapkin & E. Viano (Eds.), Victintology: A new focus (Vol. 3). Lexington, MA: Lexington Books.
Weisman, A. D. (1979). Coping with cancer. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Witenberg, S. H., Blanchard, E. B., Suls, J., Tennen, H., McCoy, G., McGoldrick, M. D. (1983). Perceptions of control and causality as predictors of compliance and coping in hemodialysis. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 40, 650–663.
Wolfenstein, M. (1957). Disaster: A psychological essay. Glencoe, IL: Free Press.
Wortman, C. B. (1976). Causal attributions and personal control. In J. H. Harvey, W. J. Ickes, & R. F. Kidd (Eds.), New directions in attributions research (Vol. 1). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Wortman, C. B., Dunkel-Schetter, C. (1979). Interpersonal relationships and cancer: A theoretical analysis. Journal of Social Issues, 3 (5), 120–155.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1995 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Janoff-Bulman, R. (1995). Victims of Violence. In: Everly, G.S., Lating, J.M. (eds) Psychotraumatology. The Springer Series on Stress and Coping. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-1034-9_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-1034-9_5
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-0-306-44783-9
Online ISBN: 978-1-4899-1034-9
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive