Myths about battered women : a just world explanation

Lacey, Beth (1982) Myths about battered women : a just world explanation. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

People appear to believe that battered women are low income, masochistic women with no desire to leave their husbands, while research in the area indicates that these beliefs are largely untrue. An explanation for these incorrect beliefs may be found in Lerner’s Just World Hypothesis (1965). -- To test the application of this hypothesis to battered women, 234 subjects were each given a case study of a battered woman. The independent variables were Responsibility (High, Low and Undetermined) for the battering and Severity (More and less). Case studies of three separate women were crossed with each of these conditions for a total of 18 cases. The dependent variables were 10 bipolar adjectives weighted for likability. -- It was predicted that women in the Low Responsibility condition would be more negatively evaluated than women in the High Responsibility condition. This prediction was supported. As well, it was predicted that the more severe the harm, the more responsible the woman would be rated. While this prediction was not supported, it was found that for the More Severe harm condition, the husband was attributed more responsibility. Reasons are discussed.

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