Behavioral Addiction Theory

Improved Essays
Abstract: Addiction is often framed as something people experience between themselves and a substance. However, the DSM-IV-TR defined behavioral addiction formally as a disease, like substance addiction. According to research performed for the International Journal of Preventative Medicine, Behavioral addiction such as relationship addiction is like a substance addiction except, the individual is not addicted to a substance but the behavior or the feeling brought about by engaging in the behavior they are addicted to. My claim is that behavioral addiction to intimate relationships occur and that the effects of such an addiction can be particularly ruinous to men as a result of patriarchal toxic masculinity increasing men’s vulnerability to …show more content…
One can then extrapolate that depressed and otherwise downtrodden people are at much higher risk of being involved in IPV relationships. These people question their own worth and then do not stop to think if their needs are being met. Perpetrators of IPV build up the victim’s self-esteem before introducing the abuse. “They accept it as the price of intimacy.” Craig Malkin, of the Harvard Medical School corroborates my assertion that an abusive relationship functions like another behavioral addiction, gambling addiction: “The person being abused is focused on the positive and waiting for the next positive. There’s a psychological effect like gambling: the moments of tenderness and intimacy are unpredictable, but they are so intense and fulfilling that the victim winds up staying in the hopes that a moment like that will happen again.”, this kind of conditioning is well documented and the use of Skinner Box style systems to create a pattern of behavior in its victims is well documented and recognized as a large enough concern to require regulation. Slot machines, being the the key example here. However, we cannot regulate the actions of abusers as we do the placement of slot …show more content…
Kupers in his 2005 article, “Toxic Masculinity as a Barrier to Mental Health Treatment in Prison” is a pattern of socially regressive male traits that serve to proliferate the domination and devaluation of women, homophobia, and physical violence. This Toxic Masculinity demands that boys don’t cry, that men show no emotion and the very idea that the women that men are expected to be dominating would be capable of causing harm and emotional distress to men creates an issue of underreporting in cases of men as victims in intimate relationship violence. It would be emasculating to even acknowledge that abuse had occurred (Denise Hines). These expectations can prevent men from seeking help out of fear of ridicule and not being taken seriously. This lack of conceptualization of female on male abuse has lead to a skewing of the data, however when we view “slapping, pushing and emotional abuse” as serious abuse we find that the rates of Intimate Partner Violence are roughly 25-50% Men, not the infinitesimal numbers we usually see in representation of male victims of Intimate Partner Violence. (Carlotta

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    According to Amy Holtzworth-Monroe and Gregory Stuart (1994), there are three types of abusive men. These types include family-only offenders who are poor communicators and lack social skills, dysphoric or borderline offenders who display negative attitudes towards women and positive attitudes towards violence, and generally violent or antisocial offenders who view violence as an appropriate response to any provocation. Additionally, male abusers are extremely jealous and have low self-esteem, personality dysfunction, and dependence on the victim. It is also probable that they lack support, empathy, impulse control, income, and social skills (Gosselin, 2014, p.…

    • 2377 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The feminization of poverty refers to the rate at which women are more likely to be in poverty than men due to various factors such as wage disparities, sexism in the workplace, intimate partner violence, and the prevalence of female-headed single parent families. In Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed, Ehrenreich witnessed the hardships that her working-poor coworkers went through everyday. Ehrenreich noticed that gender-specific work had lower wages than men’s work and that sexism in the workplace put women at the mercy of their bosses whim and to fear possible retaliation if they reported bad behavior. Intimate partner violence is a method for men to control the social and economic well beings of their partners and to steer them toward…

    • 1264 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Analysis Of Tough Guise 2

    • 1486 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Half of all women in Canada have experienced at least one incident of physical or sexual violence since the age of 16 ("Facts about violence against women - Canadianwomen.org"). In today’s society, men committing violence against women is quite prevalent, and we need to understand why it is happening and how we can prevent it. In this essay, I will discuss the key societal and environmental factors that contribute to why men commit violence as shown in the film Tough Guise 2, the concept of violent masculinity and rehabilitation options shown in the reading by Allen and Kivel, and the resources men and women have to seek help particularly in London, Ontario. This is an important issue because we see violence daily in the news, it is present in our lives, in all realms of…

    • 1486 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Brilliant Essays

    Mental Health Of Men Essay

    • 1731 Words
    • 7 Pages

    28–36. doi:10.1177/1557988311414045. This article shows facts and figures about the correlation between men and women 's health, specifically in regards to abuse cases. Also talks about the long term effects abuse has on mental health. 4.…

    • 1731 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Brilliant Essays
  • Improved Essays

    An article in the Social Science & Medicine discusses the variance between males and female victims, and their abusers. According to their studies, results varied depending on the source of data. When collecting data from the justice system and police, they found intimate partner violence to be higher among females. However, when analyzing results within communities, women are the same if not more likely than men to instigate one act of physical aggression towards a male counterpart in their lifespan. This demonstrates the natural tendencies females have towards violence as…

    • 729 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Men are often expected to be assertive and dominant, while women are often portrayed as vulnerable and emotional. These gender roles suggest that men are more likely than women to turn to aggression during times of anger, which has correlation to abuse against their female partners (Campbell and Muncer 286). As a result of domestic violence, women often suffer from mental and health problems such as chronic pain, traumatic brain injury, eating disorders, diabetes, asthma, and if the abuse is severe enough, even death (Tremer). Although there are already certain programs and laws that exist to help women who have experienced domestic and sexual abuse such as the Violence Against Women Act, women’s rights activists work to change traditional gender roles, educate women on how to prevent or cope with abuse, and provide support groups for individuals and families that have been victimized by abuse (Zimmerman, et al.…

    • 1304 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Cameron's Case Summary

    • 357 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Cameron describes the abuse as emotionally taxing as well as becoming eventually physical. In Cameron’s case, the abuse was physical and the violence became worse to the point that rape ensued. In Cameron’s situation dominance and control are apparent, for Cameron’s partner wanted to exert the power that she had over Cameron and Cameron’s body. Cameron’s attacker was not the phantom hiding in the bushes or a masculine figure, for it was someone they knew and a feminine counterpart. As Everhart and Hunnicutt asserts, this case distorts the perceived heteronormative ideas regarding abuse and gender dynamics within intimate partner…

    • 357 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Alternately, the misrepresentative stereotypes of the male as an aggressor may prevent both the male victims from recognizing that they are being abused and the abuse being recognized by outside observers (Duke & Davidson, 2009). Additionally, male victims may not disclose abuse because of the stigma associated with victimization as being un-masculine (Turrell et al., 2002) Again, these misperceptions stem from the myth that IPV is a heteronormative expression of sexism and not a gender neutral construct of power and domination (Allen, 2007). Barriers to services.…

    • 1408 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    In order to better service the male victims of intimate partner violence, we must first change the view of this crime. It is hard to fight a one-sided battle and we are leaving these men high and dry. It is imperative to get rid of the double standard and that we take notice that this is not the perpetrators of this crime can very well be a woman. Women are not exempt from getting angry, and a woman is not exempt…

    • 1328 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    Three themes emerge from this study; reasons for delay to seek professional help, turning points, and talking to professionals. Major underlying reasons discussed are social stigma, rigid gender roles, and marriage obligations to name a few. It focuses on socio-cultural norms of patriarchy, collectivism, and familism. This article acknowledges the need for tailored community education and social services to reduce vulnerability of those who are at-risk to be in an abusive relationship. This article can develop a strong critical analysis of how patriarchal beliefs and culture intersect as an essay argument, as posed in my research question.…

    • 1293 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    It is wildly well know that domestic violence or intimate partner violence is primarily a women’s plight in the sense that women are usually the ones in the relationship to be abused. That is completely accurate, 1 in 3 women have experience abuse of some from an intimate partner; and although it is known, many people still do not realize that men in intimate partner relationships are also victims of domestic violence. In fact, 1 in 4 men have experienced some form of abuse by an intimate partner within their lifetime (Smith). Men can be physically, emotionally and even sexually abused by an intimate partner and are often less likely to speak up about the offense than women are. For the sake of this paper, heterosexual relationships will be discussed to break the stereotypical “men are the abusers” idea and promote the fact that women can abuse and be extremely violent as well.…

    • 707 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Men Hate Crimes Essay

    • 629 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Victims of all creeds, race, or sex face a wide variety of emotional pain due to their victimization (Karmen, 2015). This is no different for men who are abused, physically and mentally, by the women in their lives. One of the main issues with this kind of category/crime is that many men are reluctant to report such occurrences of abuse due to feelings of being emasculated. Men do not want to admit to being weak, especially when it is a woman abusing them, and therefore these crimes are severely underreported. This leads to further false public perception that this type of crime is not worthy of study or examination.…

    • 629 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Any sort of abuse inflicted one someone should not be taken lightly, yet when a man cried for help after he shares about what happened, he often gets more apathy than sympathy. “Research has shown that abused men suffer from difficulty sleeping, nightmares, depression and lowering of self-esteem.” They also experience panic attacks, anxiety and live in fear; even when they are no longer in contact with their abuser. Just as any woman would feel after being hurt physically or emotionally, men feel…

    • 1591 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Understanding Addiction

    • 994 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Abstract In Understanding Addiction, we learn about the six major drug classes (Stimulants, CNS Depressants, Hallucinogens, Inhalants, Cannabinoids, and Narcotics) and what they do to the body and brain, and how history has affected drug use today. We also learned about cultural differences of drug use. To understand addiction, we need to understand how drugs work and what they do. Understanding Addiction Final Research Paper Stimulants…

    • 994 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Violence During Dating

    • 237 Words
    • 1 Pages

    n the modern society, many people, not only teenagers but also adults, have the experience of being abused during dating. According to the statistic from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one quarter of juveniles is “verbally, physically, emotionally, or sexually” (Page 69) abused by their dating partner. This high percentage of people who have got involved in dating violence indicates the how serious this issue is. Why do people have the problem of dating abuse? One of the explanations claims that abusers may come from a violent home, where the abusers obtain the distorted concept of love.…

    • 237 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays