Abstract
The common definition of violence leads to observations based on one single and out-of-context behavior (individual behavioral observation unit). It is a static point of view, reducing the phenomenon to one single, isolated act, independent of its causes and implications, independent of the roles of the partners before, during, and after the conflict, independent of the personal and interpersonal context, and even of the broader social situation. To overcome these limitations, at least in part, this chapter proposes an approach, general guidelines, and principles, which are the first step towards implementing the interactional observation unit in research as an alternative to single and out-of-context behavioral observation. This alternative observation is rooted in a theoretical framework of partner conflict dynamics, specifically in conflicts that escalate to violence and in conflicts in which violence escalates. In the first part of this chapter, the individual behavioral observation unit of partner violence is critically presented. In the second part, the interactional observation unit of partner violence is presented and described and in the third part, an example of its potential implementation in research is provided.
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Winstok, Z. (2013). Observation Units of Partner Violence. In: Partner Violence. The Springer Series on Human Exceptionality. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-4568-5_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-4568-5_8
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