Intimate Partner Violence Perpetration: Insights from the Science of Self-Regulation

Intimate partner violence (IPV) refers to any behavior carried out with the primary proximal intent to cause physical harm to a romantic partner who is motivated to avoid being harmed. Research on IPV rose to prominence in the 1970s and has flourished ever since. As I reviewed this body of research recently (Finkel, 2007a, 2007b), one aspect of it that struck me is the meagerness of the social psychological contributions relative to the contributions from other disci­ plines. After all, social psychologists generally pride ourselves on our talents in studying interpersonal processes, and hundreds of us have devoted large swaths of our careers to investigating such processes as they pertain to conflictual or otherwise aversive interpersonal processes. For example, other chapters in this volume investigate the expression of negative emotion in romantic relationships (see Chapter 11 in this volume), attention to desired-sex partners outside of one’s committed romantic relationship (see Chapter 19 in this volume), punishment and forgiveness in romantic relationships (see Chapter 15 in this volume), rela­ tional ostracism (see Chapter 18 in this volume), competition among siblings (see Chapter 14 in this volume), the negative evaluations individuals form about their relationships when in a bad mood (see Chapter 12 in this volume), and even the potentially destructive consequences (at least for men) of talking about one’s romantic relationship (see Chapter 7 in this volume).