Abstract
The escalatory dynamics of partner conflicts promotes the use of increasingly severe violence: a verbal exchange that deteriorates to verbal aggression, followed by implicit or explicit threats of physical aggression, which continue into mild and then severe physical violence. Thus, escalatory dynamics of conflict is a key factor in understanding partner violence. Yet, this dynamics has received little theoretical and empirical attention. The first part of this chapter uses theory, research, and case descriptions to identify and describe the structure and content of escalatory partner conflict. It provides a detailed description of the mental and behavioral aspects promoting this dynamics. The second part of this chapter yet again employs theory, research and case descriptions to examine two major mechanisms that regulate partner conflicts in an escalatory manner: the cost–benefit mechanism and the sensitivity-to-harm mechanism. This lays initial theoretical foundations for the study of escalatory dynamics of partner conflicts.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Allen, C. T., & Swan, S. C. (2009). Gender symmetry, sexism, and intimate partner violence. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 24(11), 1816–1834.
Axelrod, R. (1980). More effective choice in the prisoner’s dilemma. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 24, 379–403.
Axelrod, R. (1987). The evolution of strategies in the iterated prisoners’ dilemma. In L. Davis (Ed.), Genetic algorithms and simulated annealing. Los Altos, CA: Morgan Kaufmann.
Bandura, A. (1973). Aggression: A social learning analysis. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Berkowitz, L. (1978). Whatever happened to the frustration-aggression hypothesis? American Behavioral Scientist, 32, 691–708.
Browne, A. (1987). When battered women kill. New York: Macmillan. Coleman.
Chase, K. A., O’Leary, K. D., & Heyman, R. E. (2001). Categorizing partner-violent men within the reactive-proactive typology model. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 69, 567–572.
Crick, N. R., & Dodge, K. A. (1994). A review and reformulation of social information processing mechanisms in children’s adjustment. Psychological Bulletin, 115, 74–101.
Dobash, R. E., & Dobash, R. P. (1979). Violence against wives: A case against patriarchy. New York: Free Press.
Dobash, R. P., & Dobash, R. E. (2004). Women’s violence in intimate relationships: Working on a puzzle. British Journal of Criminology, 44, 324–349.
Dollard, J., Doob, C. W., Miller, N. E., Mowrer, O. H., & Sears, R. R. (1939). Frustration and aggression. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Dutton, D. G. (1988). The domestic assault of woman: Psychological and criminal justice perspectives. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Eisikovits, Z., & Buchbinder, E. (2000). Locked in a violent embrace. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Eisikovits, Z., Goldblatt, H., & Winstok, Z. (1999). Partner accounts of intimate violence: Towards a theoretical model. Families in Society, 80, 606–619.
Eisikovits, Z., Winstok, Z., & Gelles, R. (2002). Structure and dynamics of escalation from the victim’s perspective. Families in Society, 83(2), 142–152.
Eisikovits, Z., Winstok, Z., & Fishman, G. (2004). The first Israeli national survey on domestic violence: major findings. Violence Against Women, 10(7), 729–748.
Felson, R. B., & Messner, S. F. (2000). The control motive in intimate partner violence. Social Psychology Quarterly, 63, 86–94.
Glick, P., & Fiske, S. T. (1996). The ambivalent sexism inventory: differentiating hostile and benevolent sexism. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70, 491–512.
Holtzworth-Munroe, A., Meehan, J. C., Herron, K., Rehman, U., & Stuart, G. L. (2000). Testing the Holtzworth-Munroe and Stuart (1994) batterer typology. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 68, 1000–1019.
Jenkins, A. (1990). Invitations to responsibility: The therapeutic engagement of men who are violent and abusive. Adelaide, South Australia: Dulwich Centre Publications.
Johnson, M. P. (2001). Conflict and control: Symmetry and asymmetry in domestic violence. In A. Booth, A. C. Crouter, & M. Clements (Eds.), Couples in conflict (pp. 95–104). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Polit, D. F., & Beck, C. T. (2010). Generalization in quantitative and qualitative research: myths and strategies. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 47(11), 1451–1458.
Saunders, D. G. (2002). Are physical assaults by wives and girlfriends a major social problem? A review of the literature. Violence Against Women, 8, 1424–1448.
Sellers, C. S. (1999). Self-control and intimate violence: An examination of the scope and specification of the general theory of crime. Criminology, 37, 375–404.
Shergill, S. S., Bays, P. M., Frith, C. D., & Wolpert, D. M. (2003). Two eyes for an eye: The neuroscience of force escalation. Science, 301, 1187–1187.
Stets, J. E. (1994). The relationship between job control and spousal control: A compensatory process. Paper presented at the American Sociological Association Meetings, Los Angeles, CA.
Stets, J. E. (1995). Modeling control in relationships. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 57, 489–501.
Stith, S. M., & McCollum, E. E. (2011). Conjoint treatment of couples who have experienced intimate partner violence. Journal of Aggression and Violent Behavior, 16(4), 312–318.
Stuart, G. L., & Holtzworth-Munroe, A. (2005). Testing a theoretical model of the relationship between impulsivity, mediating variables, and husband violence. Journal of Family Violence, 20, 291–303.
Tweed, R., & Dutton, D. G. (1998). A comparison of impulsive and instrumental subgroups of batterers. Violence and Victims, 13, 217–230.
Winstok, Z. (2007). Toward an interactional perspective on intimate partner violence. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 12(3), 348–363.
Winstok, Z. (2008). Conflict escalation to violence and escalation of violent conflicts in intimate relationships. Children and Youth Service Review, 30(3), 297–310.
Winstok, Z. (2011). The paradigmatic cleavage on gender differences in partner violence perpetration and victimization. Journal of Aggression and Violent Behavior, 16(4), 303–311.
Winstok, Z., & Perkis, E. (2009). Women’s perspective on men’s control and aggression in intimate relationships. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 79, 169–180.
Winstok, Z., Eisikovits, Z., & Gelles, R. (2002). Structure and dynamics of escalation from the batterer’s perspective. Families in Society, 83(2), 129–141.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Winstok, Z. (2013). Partner Conflict Dynamics. In: Partner Violence. The Springer Series on Human Exceptionality. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-4568-5_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-4568-5_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-4567-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-4568-5
eBook Packages: Behavioral ScienceBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)