Essay: Depression and Masochism as Causes for Domestic Violence

Sample Essay

Most of the widely accepted theories regarding Domestic Violence are ones that base their explanations on the principles of social psychology. While theories that came forth earlier were based on the principles of depression and masochism, theories that came forth in the last decade or so have taken on a position whereby they argue against a perceived tendency to exercise feminism based perspectives when understanding domestic violence through the concepts of social psychology (Wilson, 2005). According to this new perspective, the male is perceived to be harboring a specific psychopathology to which the violent behavior can be attributed. Other perspectives perceive the cause of violent behavior in men to be explainable through borderline, antisocial and compulsive behavior.

Yet another social psychological model takes on the perspective that violence in men is instilled as a by-product of the experiences that they go through during their upbringing (Reiss & Roth, 1996). In this regard, it is not necessary for a male to be subjected to domestic violence in order to acquire violent personality characteristics but the observation has been proven to be sufficient for instilling violent characteristics.

“As we observe people, we form ideas about how human beings think about, influence, and relate to one another” (Myers, 2003).

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