Chapter 15 Family Stress and Crisis Violence among Intimates The Nature of Stress and Crisis Family members fall into predictable and comfortable routines for everyday events like dividing household chores taking vacations and spending saving money a family crisis can uproot all of those routines Crisis a critical change of events that disrupts the functioning of a person s life Family stress tensions that test a family s emotional resources differs from other types of stress because events that affect one family member can ripple through the entire family Stress can be acute short term or chronic long term Responses to stress o General adaptation syndrome GAS 1 alarm reaction the brain perceives a stressor and sends a message to the body resulting in immediate changes in neurological and physiological states fight or flight metabolism increases and hormone levels rise to give us increased energy and the feeling of anxiety 2 resistance body continues to battle the stressor by maintaining its elevate state of alert can wreak havoc on the immune system 3 exhaustion chronic stress over long periods can be dangerous and can lead to depression fatigue frequent headaches panic attacks insomnia and eating disorders The social readjustment rating scale a scale of major life events which is assigned a point value the higher the score the greater the chance of having a serious illness involved Patterns of family crisis 1 the event that causes the crisis 2 the period of disorganization that follows 3 the reorganization that takes place afterward 15 no change 18 increased functioning 5 decreased functioning 11 mixed 51 roller coaster of events The ABC X model a model designed to help us understand the variation in the ways that families cope with stress and crisis A factors are the initial event causing the crisis B factors are the resources a family has to meet the demands of the crisis C factors are the meanings families ascribe to the event X factors depend on the combination of the ABC factors the outcome Double ABC X model a model designed to help us understand the effects of the accumulation of stresses and crises and how families adapt to them when it rains it pours Double A factor refers not only to the initial event but also to the family life changes and transitions that take place because of it Double B factor includes both the resources the family already has and the new coping resources the family obtains because of the stress of crisis Double C factor takes into account not only the family s perception of the stressor itself but also their perceptions of the aftermath Power Control and Decision Making Each situation is related to the balance of power in the relationship Power the ability to exercise your will Personal power the degree of autonomy a person has to exercise his or her will Social power the ability to exercise your will over another person Intimate partner power conjugal power involves decision making among intimate partners their division of labor and their sense of entitlement Coercive power based on the ability to achieve your will by force either psychological or physical Reward power the ability to offer material or nonmaterial benefit to achieve your goal Expert power stems from a person s special knowledge or ability Informational power the information that a person may use to persuade another to do something he or she wouldn t otherwise do Referent power the emotional identification of the less dominant person toward the more dominant person Legitimate power based on a person s claim of authority or the right to exercise his or her will Theories of power o Resource theory Suggests that they spouse with the more prestigious or higher paying job can use that advantage to generate more power in the relationship and thereby influence decision making A problem with resource theory is that reality doesn t reflect this pattern no matter the occupational status of the husband wives continue to have less power in marriage even if they hold a higher position of income o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o Principle of least interest The partner with the least commitment to the relationships has more power the one with more to lose really does have more to lose Relative love and need theory Suggests that each partner being resources to the relationship looks at the way love itself is feminized defined and interpreted Doing gender A theory of power that suggests that we take power differentials between men and women for granted and continue to reproduce them simply because they are so ingrained into our society Power and control in gay and lesbian relationships Homosexual couples face power struggles just as much as heterosexual couples do Same sex couples are more upbeat in the face of conflict They use fewer controlling hostile and emotional tactics and communication They re less likely to take an argument personally and show lower levels of physiological arousal Intimate Partner Violence Intimate partner violence IPV violence between those who are physically and sexually intimate such as spouses or partners The violence can encompass physical economic sexual or psychological abuse How we define and measure intimate partner violence Conflict tactics scale CTS a scale based on how people deal with disagreements in relationships ranges from discussed an issue calmly to used a knife Are women more likely to be victims bias and the CTS men are less likely than women to remember their own acts of violence or may not perceive their actions as abusive CTS responders are asked to tell their researcher how they responded to a situation of conflict of disagreement which may lead to an underreporting of violence Women are more likely to experience the most extreme forms of violence some of which the CTS doesn t even list such as murder or extreme beatings More recent studies show that women are more likely to be victims of intimate partner violence than men however this does not mean that partner violence against men is rare or inconsequential Frequency of intimate partner violence Somewhere between 1 4 and 4 3 million women are victims of IPV annually The overall ate of IPC has declined by 64 between 1994 and 2010 o o o More than 1 of 3 women is likely to have been a result of IPV in her life it is 1 in every 4 for men o Women are more likely to be victims than are men regardless of ethnic or racial background o o Women are more vulnerable when pregnant o Multicultural
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