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Violence
Introduction to
Psychology
Aneeb Nabi Ahmad
15006005003
BBA(H) Batch 6

What is psychological violence?

Psychological violence at work occurs when a person or group uses hostile
behavior (gestures, words, and writing) to undermine or cause emotional
damage to a co-worker.
Psychological violence is often concealed. It can comprise some or all of the
following:
Relationship between aggressor and victim
Repeated abuse: harassment
Attack on dignity and integrity
Work environment deterioration
Employment in jeopardy

What are the various forms of psychological violence?

As identified by UQAM (University du Qubec Montral) Professor Angelo
Soars, a workplace sociologist, psychological violence at work can be: moral
harassment, racial harassment or criminal harassment.

Warning! Another form of psychological violence is now being increasingly

recognized: psychological assault, an isolated act that is not harassment.
For example: a manager or colleague aggressively singles out an employee in
front of a group. This incident may be considered violence or psychological
assault if it has the immediate effect of frightening and shaming the victim,
if it affects the victims previous trust in the aggressor, if it makes witnesses
uncomfortable and if, in turn, its disrupts the work climate.
Harassment should not be confused with workplace dynamics!

Workplace Dynamics

Harassment

Workplace dynamics, i.e., the

interaction and opposition of forces
within an organization, are
characterized by differing opinions,
rivalry, competition and momentary
conflict. These factors lead to
changes in assignments and
personnel that require adjustment
on the part of the company.

Harassment, or the act of subjecting

someone to repeated and constant
attacks, or tormenting, following or
tracking someone, generates
repeated violence that lasts for some
time. Accordingly, the dynamics of
the work environment are disrupted,
and adjustment is difficult.

Speaking to its representatives, the RCMP explained that the routine

exercise of responsibilities and authority associated with giving advice,
assigning tasks, providing guidance, appraising performance, and other
supervisory functions does not constitute harassment.
Harassment is a repetitious act. The frequency and intensity of the behavior
is the benchmark for differentiating between joke and contempt, between
frequent interruptions and constant put-downs, and between exclusion from
activities and the feeling of being consistently rejected or isolated.
Warning! An objective outtake of events may be affected by your own
perception. You should not only rely on your own judgment but on a
trustworthy person in order to ascertain if you are truly being the victim of
harassment.

Factors influencing violent behavior

Television and Video Violence
Virtually since the dawn of television, parents, teachers, legislators and
mental health professionals have wanted to understand the impact of
television programs, particularly on children. Of special concern has been
the portrayal of violence, particularly given psychologist Albert Bandura's

work in the 1970s on social learning and the tendency of children to imitate
what they see.
As a result of 15 years of consistently disturbing findings about the violent
content of children's programs, the Surgeon General's Scientific Advisory
Committee on Television and Social Behavior was formed in 1969 to assess
the impact of violence on the attitudes, values and behavior of viewers. The
resulting report and a follow-up report in 1982 by the National Institute of
Mental Health identified these major effects of seeing violence on
television:
Children may become less sensitive to the pain and suffering of others.
Children may be more fearful of the world around them.
Children may be more likely to behave in aggressive or harmful ways toward
others.
Research by psychologists L. Rowell Hussmann, Leonard Erin and others
starting in the 1980s found that children who watched many hours of
violence on television when they were in elementary school tended to show
higher levels of aggressive behavior when they became teenagers. By
observing these participants into adulthood, Huesmann and Eron found that
the ones who'd watched a lot of TV violence when they were 8 years old
were more likely to be arrested and prosecuted for criminal acts as adults.
Interestingly, being aggressive as a child did not predict watching more
violent TV as a teenager, suggesting that TV watching could be a cause
rather than a consequence of aggressive behavior. However, later research
by psychologists Douglas Gentile and Brad Bushman, among others,
suggested that exposure to media violence is just one of several factors that
can contribute to aggressive behavior.
Other research has found that exposure to media violence can desensitize
people to violence in the real world and that, for some people, watching
violence in the media becomes enjoyable and does not result in the anxious
arousal that would be expected from seeing such imagery.

Video Game Violence

The advent of video games raised new questions about the potential impact
of media violence, since the video game player is an active participant
rather than merely a viewer. Ninety-seven percent of adolescents age 12-17
play video games on a computer, on consoles such as the Wii, PlayStation
and Xbox, or on portable devices such as Gameboys, smartphones and
tablets. A Pew Research Center survey in 2008 found that half of all teens
reported playing a video game yesterday, and those who played every day
typically did so for an hour or more.
Many of the most popular video games, such as Call of Duty and Grand
Theft Auto, are violent; however, as video game technology is relatively
new, there are fewer empirical studies of video game violence than other
forms of media violence. Still, several meta-analytic reviews have reported
negative effects of exposure to violence in video games.
A 2010 review by psychologist Craig A. Anderson and others concluded that
the evidence strongly suggests that exposure to violent video games is a
causal risk factor for increased aggressive behavior, aggressive cognition,
and aggressive affect and for decreased empathy and prosaically behavior.
Andersons earlier research showed that playing violent video games can
increase a person's aggressive thoughts, feelings and behavior both in
laboratory settings and in daily life. "One major conclusion from this and
other research on violent entertainment media is that content matters,"
says Anderson.
Other researchers, including psychologist Christopher J. Ferguson,
have challenged the position that video game violence harms children.
While his own 2009 metaanalytic review reported results similar to
Andersons, Ferguson contends that laboratory results have not translated
into real world, meaningful effects. He also claims that much of the
research into video game violence has failed to control for other variables
such as mental health and family life, which may have impacted the results.

His work has found that children who are already at risk may be more likely
to choose to play violent video games. According to Ferguson, these other
risk factors, as opposed to the games, cause aggressive and violent behavior.
The American Psychological Association launched an analysis in 2013 of peerreviewed research on the impact of media violence and is reviewing its
policy statements in the area.

Types of Violence
When someone wants to control another person, they will often use violence. There are
some types of violence that are more familiar than others, but there are some that are
not talked about so much. Below you will find descriptions of the five main types of
violence that we come across at Ash.

Physical Violence
Physical Violence is violence that is inflicted upon the body. Punching,
kicking, slapping, hair-pulling and attacking with a weapon such as a knife
or a stick are all forms of physical violence.

Verbal Violence
Verbal violence is expressed using words. It could mean shouting at
someone, calling them names or swearing at them.

Emotional and Psychological Violence

Emotional and Psychological Violence involve using manipulation to control
another person. This could include threats, intimidation, destruction of
property, harming pets, embarrassing the other person in front of friends or
family, telling the person that they are worthless, extreme possessiveness,
accusing the person of things they have not done, such as flirting with
someone else and stopping them from seeing their friends and family

Financial Violence
Financial violence is a form of control over another person, where one
person controls all the money in the relationship. In a situation of financial
violence, the other person has no access to money, which leaves them
helpless and unable to escape their circumstances.

What is Domestic Violence?

Domestic Violence takes place within intimate relationships or families and
can involve between one and all of the above types of violence.
The economical violence is the least known, but it must still be taken
seriously. This form of violence can be defined by the total control of the
finances of the family `s aggressor. He monitors how women spend their
money. He decides where money should be spent or saved. He forces her to
give him her earnings and may even stop her from working. All this leads the
woman to be dependent on her spouse.
The spiritual violence is not negligible. The aggressor can prevent the
woman to go to the church; he can denigrate religious beliefs or even
require a religious practice other than his own

What is Family Violence?

Family violence or domestic violence is the mistreatment of one
family member by another to gain power and control. The violence
can take on different forms:
Physical Abuse - slapping, punching, choking, or throwing things
Emotional Abuse - yelling, making insults or threats
Neglect - withholding affection, money, food, health care or other
needed care.

Family Violence Hurts the Whole Family

Family Violence effects everyone not just the victim. Children suffer
too. Research suggests that between 80 & 90 percent of these
children are aware of the violence. Children who grow up in violent
homes greatly risk the possibility of emotional, behavioral and
physical problems that last for a lifetime. Depression; anxiety;
violence toward peers; suicide attempt; drug & alcohol abuse and
running away from home are just some of the issues that stem from
the violence in the home. Children also can be injured as a direct
result from abuse. Batterers sometimes intentionally injure children
in an effort to intimidate and control the partners. For younger
children assaults may occur while the mother is holding her child or
for older children, injuries often occur when they try to intervene in
violent episodes. Boys are twice as likely to become batterers and
girls are more likely to find themselves in abusive relationships.
Children are fearful and powerless in violent homes. They, too, need
help and protection. Break free from violence and stop the cycle for
your children.

Ways to overcome violence

Know the signs. The first step to action is to familiarize individuals
and the community with the possible signs and indicators of
domestic violence. These signs can vary and do not always come
with physical symptoms because domestic violence is not just
limited to physical attacks such as beatings. It includes many forms
of abusive behavior enacted to control the victim in a myriad of
ways including emotional abuse, verbal abuse and economic abuse.
Domestic violence also affects every level and demographic in
society, so there is no typical victim despite the stereotypes.
Someone who may not appear to be a victim of domestic violence
may well be suffering in silence and it is important to recognize the
sign if this is the case.

Get your community educated! A good start to eradicating

Domestic Violence from your community or neighborhood is to start
educating as many people as possible about Domestic Violence, its
impact and how to intervene safely. This can be done in
collaboration with your local Domestic Violence shelter or womens
organization or police community outreach officers who can work
with the community, local schools and local companies to organize
and implement talks, town hall meetings and other group sessions
to talk about this issue.
Get your community organized! There is safety and influence in
numbers when intervening to stop an abuser or making your
community a place where Domestic Violence will not be tolerated.
So just as many neighborhoods have neighborhood watch to stop
crime, start organizing a network of folks who will commit to
intervene in Domestic Violence situations, help victims leave their
abusers safely and provide a communal support structure for
survivors.
Boost your community support network with technology! If
you have a smart phone and the victim has a smart phone, consider
downloading a safety app for women, many of which have been
designed to automatically alert your support network if you are in
danger. If the victim does not have a smart phone, consider pooling
money with a few friends and neighbors to get her one and pre-load
it with a safety app that is connected to all your phones so you can
become a de facto support net for her. Free safety apps currently
available include the award-winning Circle of 6 and the
iAMDEFENDER app which you can download here.
Stopping the violence is good for business. Domestic Violence
has cost economies and companies millions of dollars in lost time,
medical care, productivity etc. In the U.S., the cost of Domestic
Violence to the economy is estimated at $8.3 billion a year. If you
are a business owner or a senior member of a company (e.g. a

director, board member, senior manager), be pro-active in getting

educated about how to intervene if you suspect or know that your
employee or staff member is facing Domestic Violence because it
will have a knock-on effect on your company. Implement HR policies
that make provisions for the potential impact of Domestic Violence.
For example, the National Bank of Australia is currently offering paid
Domestic Violence leave because the economic freedom from
remaining in paid work is regarded as vital in helping victims escape
violent relationships.
Ring the bell. If you are the neighbor of a family experiencing
Domestic Violence, please take the time to ring their bell when you
hear a violent situation happening. You could use the old neighborly
approach of asking to borrow a cup of sugar or some milk as an
excuse. If you feel that it could get dangerous, bring another person
with you so there will be more than one witness.
Bring a back-up. Intervening with Domestic Violence situations
can be dangerous especially if the abuser has a weapon (e.g. a gun)
and is intoxicated by drink or drugs. If you are unable to get help
from the local shelter or police, make sure to bring another friend or
family member along with you when you respond to the
victim/survivors call in person.
BE the back-up. If your neighbor, friend, co-worker, classmate,
mother, sister, daughter, daughter-in-law, niece or cousin is facing
Domestic Violence at home, let them know that you will be willing to
be a witness or to intervene on their behalf while you are around.
Also let them know that they are welcome to take refuge in your
home should they need somewhere to go.
Make the call, NOW. If the situation is beyond simple neighborly
intervention (e.g. the abuser has a gun and uses it during the
abuse), call the police or your local emergency services (such as
911 in the U.S.) IMMEDIATELY. Provide critical information, such as
location, names, contact number, and whether or not you wish the

remain anonymous. Do NOT intervene personally in this scenario as

it will be too dangerous to do so.
Listen to empower. If a victim of domestic violence reaches out to
you, listen. Let her know that you believe her and do not judge her
choices. Victims often feel completely isolated and are often
belittled by their partner; it is important to enable her to feel safe
when confiding in you because eventually, she may well be able to
gather enough courage to tell you exactly what is happening and to
ask for help. This intervention tip may be particularly useful for
hairdressers, nurses, human resource department personnel and
anyone working in professions that involve having to listen to
clients, customers and co-workers as part of the job.
Be on standby if you suspect your friend, co-worker, staff, or
family member of suffering from Domestic Violence, offer to be on
standby for her text or call for emergencies. Have your phone on
and fully charged at all times and keep it on you. If you have a car
and need to intervene immediately, make sure that the gas/petrol
tank is full so you can get in and drive to get the victim/survivor
immediately if need be.
Have an intervention plan. Work out a plan to get an intervention
operation in action have the following numbers on standby for
your use:
The national Domestic Violence helpline (if your country has it)
The local Domestic Violence shelter helpline wherever the
victim/survivor is located.
The local police wherever the victim/survivor is located.
Make sure to contact all of these agencies immediately should you
receive an urgent SOS from the victim/survivor or if you hear or
witness the violence begin and escalate (and in many cases, it may
escalate incredibly quickly).

Provide some relief. If you know a Domestic Violence

victim/survivor who is being kept at home without relief, do a
random act of kindness for her: Offer to babysit the children for a
few hours while the abuser is out so she can have a breather; Offer
to pick up groceries for her on your grocery run. Every small
gesture helps provide relieves and also build the victims confidence
in eventually reaching out to you for help (or accepting your help).
Check in regularly. If you fear for your friend, co-worker,
classmate, or family members life, call or text her once a day at a
random time to see if she is all right. If its your neighbor, keep an
eye out on the house and your ears pricked for any signs or sounds
of violence.
Be a resource. Help him/her find the assistance she needs,
whether it is legal information, local domestic violence programmes,
or finding a safe place through a battered womens shelter. The
greatest danger women face in these situations is often the actual
process of leaving, so finding a safe place may be key. Knowing this
information beforehand may be helpful, but assisting her in the
research and even making phone calls for her will also help speed
things up.
Document! Document! Document! Document any incidents that
you witness. Take note of dates, times, injuries, and any other
observations. Your ongoing documentation can help bolster a
victims courage and credibility when they are finally willing to
pursue legal action against their partner.