Moral variables before and after a court‐mandated psychological treatment of men convicted of violence against their partners: Evolution and relationship with sexist attitudes

Abstract

Assuming that some moral variables can play a role in explaining intimate partner violence (IPV) and its treatment, this study explores the evolution of the relationship between some moral variables, which have recently been connected to IPV, and sexist attitudes in 160 men convicted of violence against the partner. The general hypothesis is that the moral variables can change during psychological treatments, and therefore be intervention targets, because they are related to more traditional variables in the field of IPV, such as sexist attitudes. To test this idea, we took pretreatment and posttreatment measures on moral variables (moral absolutism and moral foundations) and sexist attitudes (benevolent and hostile sexism) and analyzed their relationships and their changes after the completion of a prescribed psychological treatment. The results showed that (a) the moral variables were significantly correlated with the sexist attitudes before and after the treatment; (b) the men convicted of violence against the partner held with less certainty their general beliefs about morality and their particular beliefs about the binding moral foundations (in-group, authority, and purity) after the unspecific psychological treatment; and (c) their moral absolutism before the treatment predicted the remaining sexist attitudes after the treatment. Practical implications can be drawn to better understand this kind of prevalent violence and eventually to improve the psychological treatments. KEYWORDS ambivalent sexism, intimate partner violence, moral absolutism, moral foundations, moral psychology ---

A systematic review of the ambivalent sexism literature: Hostile sexism protects men’s power; benevolent sexism guards traditional gender roles.

“…Articles that have examined violent attitudes and tendencies in samples of domestic violence offenders who are men, as well as evaluations of their own crimes (in terms of perceived responsibility and victim blame), are generally consistent with the HS–violence associations in these populations (Guerrero-Molina et al, 2020; Herrero et al, 2016; Juarros-Basterretxea et al, 2019; Lila et al, 2014; Loveland & Raghavan, 2017; Martin-Fernandez, Gracia, & Lila, 2018). Also, both HS and BS are associated with “morality issues” in these populations (e.g., rigid conceptions about what is right and wrong; Vecina, 2017, 2018; Vecina & Piñuela, 2017), as well as distorted thoughts about women and the use of violence (Echeburúa et al, 2016; Guerrero-Molina et al, 2021).…”

Apprivoiser les résistances en intervention auprès d’hommes en contexte d’aide contrainte

“…En état de détresse, il peut sembler naturel de demander de l'aide, mais rappelons que cette démarche va à l'encontre des principes d'une socialisation masculine qui édicte qu'un homme doit être fort, autonome et fier (Berger, Addis, Green, Mackowiak et Goldberg, 2012 ;Vecina, 2017 ;Wexler, 2014). Le fait de demander de l'aide, c'est prendre un risque, voire même empirer la situation, ce qui peut impliquer des coûts affectifs lors des premiers contacts avec l'organisme, alors que les hommes sont confrontés à un sentiment d'échec, surtout s'ils ont posé des gestes répréhensibles (L'Heureux, Tremblay, Nolet et Lusignan, 2019).…”

Posicionamientos críticos y tensiones profesionales en un servicio de atención psicosocial a la violencia de género

“…Son estudios que describen la violencia ejercida o recibida en correlación a variables como el abuso de sustancias (Tirado-Muñoz et al, 2015) y los trastornos en salud mental (Morof et al, 2014). Hay investigaciones enfocadas en evaluar el tratamiento con agresores (De los Galanes y Tabernero, 2013), estereotipos de género en hombres que ejercen violencia (Catlett et al, 2010), dinámicas relacionales de pareja (DeShong, 2015), y escalas actitudinales para evaluar creencias sexistas (Vecina, 2017).…”