A Phenomenological Study of Women’s Lived Experiences of domestic violence during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Assistant Professor, Educational Psychology, Shahid Beheshti University.

2 Assistant Professor,General Psychology, Payam Noor university,Tehran ,Iran.

3 M.A in General Psychology, Shahid Beheshti University.

Abstract

Aim: Past studies investigating the phenomenon of Intimate Partner Violence[Mw1]  against women employed mainly quantitative methods, yielding significant findings in prevalence rates and causes of this experience. However, there is a need for more qualitative studies to provide the rich details in order to develop more congruent concept of domestic violence during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Method: A phenomenological design was used in this study to investigate women’s' “lived experiences” of domestic violence and how they managed these experiences. The sample consisted of 25 women victims of domestic violence who referred to a counseling center in Tehran for counseling services. The data were collected through online in-depth semi-structured individual interviews. After recording and rewriting the interviews, the available data were analyzed by the application of Colaizzi’s method. Results: Two major themes were extracted from the analysis, including the autonomous motivation orientation and controlled motivation orientation toward romantic relationships. In addition, based on the results, subthemes of the aforementioned major themes were as follows: causal attributions, goal orientations, emotion regulation, eempathetic response, cognitive appraisals, assertiveness, social problem solving, positive perception of others, positive feelings for others, coping and mental sets. Conclusion: The results showed that in a situation where the family is under pressure, for some men the only way to take care of their powerful position, is to seek harsh and authoritarian methods. Therefore, the use of interventions based on social empowerment to strengthen men's psychological capital and skill treasury has an important role.


 

Keywords

References

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Applied Psychology
Volume 15, Issue 3 - Serial Number 59
October 2021
Pages 402-381

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