An Experiment: Why Abused Women Don't Leave!?


                The following has been excerpted from the book,
                The Battered Woman, by clinical psychologist,
                Dr. Lenore E. Walker (1979), who is known as the 
                mother of "The Battered Woman Syndrome."  We 
                thank Dr. Walker for this very important research.

                Dr. Walker is a full Professor at Nova Southeastern
                University for Psychological Studies in Florida and
                heads the Forensic Psychology Department in the 
                doctoral program.  She is the supervisor in the 
                practicum program for forensic students at various 
                sites in Broward and Miami/Dade Counties and has 
                worked closely with the courts of therapeutic 
                jurisprudence, especially the nation's first mental
                health court.  She is the author of 13 books 
                (Walker website 2004)

                Dr. Walker summarizes the research of American 
                experimental psychologist, Martin E. P. Seligman,
                who was born on August 12, 1942, in Albany, New 
                York.  He is an authority on depression, abnormal
                psychology, optimism and pessimism, and the theory
                of "learned helplessness."  He is the father of 
                Positive Psychology, the director of the Positive 
                Psychology Center, and Albert A. Fox Leadership 
                Professor of Psychology in the Department of 
                Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania.  
                Dr. Seligman has written more than 20 books and
                170 articles on motivation and personality.  
                We thank Dr. Seligman for this very important 
                research (Seligman website 2007).

In The Battered Woman, Dr. Walker explains a theory about battered women based on three years of exhaustive case studies.  She explicates how the three-stage battering cycle, together with the "learned helplessness" syndrome, keeps the battered woman trapped in her abusive situation.  Dr. Walker discovered that the battered woman can be almost ANY woman - she is not some neurotic who wants to be beaten.  But all too often she tends to remain in the battering relationship because, much like Pavlov's dogs (Ivan Pavlov, the Russian physiologist, serendipitously discovered a type of learning known as "classical conditioning."), she has become trapped in a "learned helplessness" syndrome.  The victim is convinced that nothing she does can help her, so she rarely even tries to get out of the abusive relationship.

(I.) The following is a reasonable facsimile of Martin Seligman's experiments of "learned helplessness:" 

   (A.)  Dr. Seligman and his researchers placed dogs in cages and administered electrical shocks to the dogs at random and varied intervals.  These dogs quickly learned that no matter what they did, they could not escape the shock.
  • At first the dogs tried to escape the shocks through various movements.  When nothing they did stopped the shocks, the dogs stopped trying to escape.  They became passive and submissive.
  • When the researchers tried to teach the dogs that they could escape by crossing to the other side of the cage, the dogs still did not respond.
  • Even when the doors of the cages were left open and the dogs were shown the way out, they remained passive.  They did not leave.  And, they did not avoid the shock.
  • It took repeated dragging of the dogs through the opened doors of the cages to teach them how to leave the cages again.
  • The earlier in life that the dogs received the abusive treatment, the longer it took to overcome the effects of the so-called "learned helplessness."
  • Once the dogs learned that they could escape the shock (the abuse), the helplessness that they had learned disappeared.

    (B.)  Similar experiments have been performed on other species, including cats, fish, rodents, birds, primates, and humans, with the same kind of results.  The following experiment demonstrating "learned helplessness" occurred in rats.

Newborn rats were held in the experimenter's hand until all attempts to escape stopped.  The rats were then released.  This procedure was repeated several more times.

The rats were then placed in a vat of water:

  • Within 30 minutes, the rats subjected to the "learned helplessness" drowned.
  • Many did not even attempt to swim, and sank to the bottom of the vat immediately.
  • Untreated rats can swim up to 60 hours before drowning.
  • Since the rats were all physically capable of learning to swim to stay alive, it was believed that the rats drowned because of the psychological effect - they had learned from their abuse to be helpless - they had "learned helplessness."

This concept helps in understanding why battered women do not attempt to free themselves from the battering situation (besides fearing being maimed or killed).  Once abused women, or abused men, are operating from a belief of "helplessness," the belief becomes real and they become passive and submissive - helpless.  The battered victim's behavior appears similar to Dr. Seligman's dogs and rats.

(Today, such experiments would not be done on dogs... because it would be considered animal cruelty.)

(II.)  Battered women are not constantly being abused.  One of the most striking discoveries in Dr. Walker's research interviews was a definite battering cycle that battered women experience.  The 3 clear phases of the battering cycle are:

  • the tension-building phase
  • the explosion or acute battering incident
  • the calm, loving respite, the period of reconciliation, "the honeymoon stage," during which the contrite batterer seduces his victim into remaining with him by showering her with gifts, affection, and tearful promises never to do it again - she is, after all, his only hope!!!

And the cycle begins again.... 

(We think the moral of the story is: The earlier in life a victim is in an abusive relationship, and the longer a victim is in an abusive relationship, the more difficult it is to get out!)
Posted by Caleigh Brooks at 5/14/2009 7:49 PM
Categories: Violence Against Women
Tags: martin seligman experiments university of pennsylvania abuse violence against women battered woman battered woman syndrome lenore walker physical abuse learned helplessness victim psychology
 

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