Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Semester of Degree Completion

1981

Thesis Director

James E. Kantner

Abstract

The physical and mental abuse of women as wives and lovers is a largely unrecognized crime of violence just beginning to receive attention in the United States. The extent of wifebeating is difficult to determine since, although it occurs in every strata of society and every age group, it is underreported for a variety of reasons. The motives for wife abuse are complex. There are several social and psychological explanations that have been suggested as the underlying rationale for wifebeating. Psychological testing with battered women is rare and what testing that has been done has been limited to interviews and paper and pencil tests. Projective personality measures have not yet been explored. Results from other assessment devices are contradictory, reflecting the confusion and controversy that exists concerning this issue.

The Hand Test was selected as the personality assessment technique in this exploratory study of battered and nonbattered women because of the nature of the projective stimulus (pictures of hands) and its relationship to women who have been physically abused. Furthermore, an Acting Out Ratio (AOR) and an Aggression (AGG) score, among other variables, are used to assess an individuals' potential anger and tendency to act-out. Also, since the Hand Test purports to be optimally sensitive to the subjects' immediate psychological state, it seems particularly relevant to assess the battered woman who is presently in a crisis situation that may evoke a variety of psychological reactions. It was hypothesized that a significant difference would be found between groups in responses to the Hand Test variables; specifically, women in residential treatment centers would show a greater number of responses to those variables which contribute to the total Acting Out Ratio of the Hand Test.

Initially, participants consisted of 26 women (battered group) who were temporarily residing in two midwest shelters for battered women and 26 women (non-battered) attending adult education classes at a local community college. Once testing was initiated with the non-battered group, it was discovered that 9 of the 26 women had been battered. Consequently, these 9 persons constituted a third group referred to as "community battered". All participants, who were volunteers, were first administered the Quick Test of Intelligence (QT) as a control variable and the Hand Test, a projective personality technique that has been significantly proven to predict overt aggressive behavior. To predict such behavior an Acting Out Score is computed. Volunteers were not informed of the purpose of the testing but were merely asked if they had been or were presently in a battering situation. After the testing was completed the author spent approximately 15 minutes to 3 hours with the participant discussing the purposes of the investigation, answering any questions and listening to any personal concerns or problems the woman was experiencing. Each woman was asked several demographic questions and other questions pertaining to the battering situation, if present.

A Kruskal-Wallis One-Way Analysis of Variance was computed on the 24 variables contained in the Hand Test to determine if a difference existed between the three groups, and a chi-square was computed to compare the three groups, non-battered, community battered, and battered, respectively. There was no significant age difference between the groups and results from the Quick Test of intelligence indicate no significant difference in IQ.

The results supported the hypotheses that women in residential treatment centers would show a greater number of responses to those variables which contribute to the total Acting Out Ratio. In addition, a positive relationship was found on both the Aggression (AGG) variable and the Sum of Interpersonal Category (INT) between the three groups, with the battered and community battered groups showing a significantly higher number of AGG responses than the non-battered group. An inverse relationship was found to exist on both the Active (ACT) variable and the Sum of Environmental Category (ENV) for the three groups, with battered women reporting the least number of ACT and ENV responses and nonbattered women scoring significantly higher on these two variables.

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