Men's and Women's Abuse Talk in Group Therapy: A Discourse Analysis

Zverina, Michaela

Men's and Women's Abuse Talk in Group Therapy: A Discourse Analysis

atmire.migration.oldid	2391
dc.contributor.advisor	Stam, Henderikus
dc.contributor.advisor	Radtke, Lorraine
dc.contributor.author	Zverina, Michaela
dc.date.accessioned	2014-08-15T21:25:41Z
dc.date.available	2014-11-17T08:00:42Z
dc.date.issued	2014-08-15
dc.date.submitted	2014	en
dc.description.abstract	The creation of therapy groups for men who have been victims of intimate partner abuse, at times controversial, has led to a call for a contextualized understanding of men’s and women’s victimization. The nature, severity, and consequences of abuse are thought to be different for abused men compared to abused women. This project uses a discursive approach to examine how men and women participating in victim therapy groups construct and negotiate abuse accounts and their responses to abuse. My own and other previous research suggests that men in victim therapy groups must shore up their status as victim. This thesis attempts to answer how negotiations of abuse accounts compare between men’s and women’s therapy groups and how responses to abuse accounts compare between the men’s and women’s therapy groups. Two of the Calgary Counselling Centre’s 14-week therapy groups were analyzed using the theoretical and methodological discourse analytic approach: “A Turn for the Better” group for abused men, and “You Are Not Alone” group for abused women. Archived video recordings of these groups were transcribed and analyzed. The women’s and men’s constructions of abuse and the process of negotiating appropriate responses to abuse were qualitatively different. First, the men engaged in extensive rhetorical strategies to position themselves as abused, while the women oriented to safety and protection and their victim status was assumed. Second, the men negotiated the gendered dilemma of responding appropriately to a woman’s aggression without being aggressive in turn, while all women’s responses were constructed as appropriate given their function of protection. Third, for the women, the topic to which everyone oriented, both facilitators and group members, was safety. I also analyzed the therapeutic process in terms of facilitators negotiating men’s accountability for aggression, while women held themselves responsible for morally questionable acts which facilitators tended to endorse as resistance. I address how this study contributes to gender relevance in the therapeutic process of abused men and women, the existing exploratory literature on men’s abuse and therapy, and future clinical practice.	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	Zverina, M. (2014). Men's and Women's Abuse Talk in Group Therapy: A Discourse Analysis (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/26881	en_US
dc.identifier.doi	http://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/26881
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/11023/1683
dc.language.iso	eng
dc.publisher.faculty	Graduate Studies
dc.publisher.institution	University of Calgary	en
dc.publisher.place	Calgary	en
dc.rights	University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.
dc.subject	Psychology--Clinical
dc.subject.classification	discourse analysis	en_US
dc.subject.classification	Intimate partner abuse	en_US
dc.subject.classification	Group therapy	en_US
dc.title	Men's and Women's Abuse Talk in Group Therapy: A Discourse Analysis
dc.type	doctoral thesis
thesis.degree.discipline	Clinical Psychology
thesis.degree.grantor	University of Calgary
thesis.degree.name	Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
ucalgary.item.requestcopy	true