This is Not Just My Story; It's Part of Who I Am

295 Pages·2017·6.48 MB·English

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Dissertations Graduate College
4-2013
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Jessica Edel Harrelson
Western Michigan University, [email protected]
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Edel Harrelson, Jessica, ""This is Not Just My Story; It's Part of Who I Am": A Symbolic Interactionist
Perspective of Battered Women's Identity Negotiations" (2013). Dissertations. 144.
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“THIS IS NOT JUST MY STORY; IT’S PART OF WHO I AM”: A SYMBOLIC
INTERACTIONIST PERSPECTIVE OF BATTERED WOMEN’S IDENTITY
NEGOTIATIONS

by

Jessica Edel Harrelson

A dissertation submitted to the Graduate College
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
Sociology
Western Michigan University
April 2013

Doctoral Committee:

Angie Moe, Ph.D., Chair
Zoanne Snyder, Ph.D.
Jennifer Wesely, Ph.D.
David Hartmann, Ph.D.
“THIS IS NOT JUST MY STORY; IT’S PART OF WHO I AM”: A SYMBOLIC
INTERACTIONIST PERSPECTIVE OF BATTERED WOMEN’S IDENTITY
NEGOTIATIONS

Jessica Edel Harrelson, Ph.D.

Western Michigan University, 2013

Over the past several decades, domestic violence has increasingly received
more attention from both academic and local communities. Despite this attention, it
persists as a significant social problem, suggesting that a full understanding of
battering is still lacking. This dissertation examines women’s lived experiences with
battering, what effect abuse has on how they come to define and interact with
themselves, and subsequent negotiations of identity that occur within their
relationships. To accomplish this, I conducted multiple in-depth qualitative interviews
with fourteen women that were being served by a domestic violence agency in a rural
part of the Midwest.
Within a framework of structural power connecting individual experiences to
historical configurations of social inequality and patriarchy, I employ symbolic
interactionism to examine how women define and interpret themselves and their
experiences. Results indicate that the common characteristics of battering,
particularly power and control, removal of social supports, and attenuation of
opportunities for efficacious behaviors, create a unique circumstance where the self-
concept became a reflexive process for the women in this study. Participants reported
changes to their self-concept in the form of reflected and self appraisal,
internalization of blame, and negative body identity. This internalization and the
subsequent changes to the self influence some of the choices women make within
their relationships.
This study uniquely informs the literature on battered women’s cognitive
processes by utilizing a theoretical model that is used to explain much of our
everyday behavior. This is important because battered women are not defined in
terms of difference and are not seen as defective or deficient in some way. This
approach, therefore, allows for a better conceptualization of battered women’s
cognitive processes and choices while recognizing their agency and without leading
to victim blaming. Recommendations for policy and prevention efforts that arose out
of this study are also discussed.
Copyright by
Jessica Edel Harrelson
2013
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am forever indebted and humbly grateful to so many people that have helped
me reach this point. The first of these is my committee chair, mentor, and friend, Dr.
Angie Moe, for her tireless work, support, and encouragement to keep going
(especially while nine months pregnant, when I would rather have been sleeping).
Her constructive critique over the years has helped me become a better researcher, a
better writer, and most importantly, a better advocate. I am also grateful to my
committee members, Dr. Zoanne Snyder, Dr. Jennifer Wesely, Dr. David Hartmann,
and Dr. Susan Caringella, all of whom helped shape this project from inception to
completion and each put in many hours reading, reviewing, and offering suggestions.
This dissertation would absolutely not have been possible without the support
and dedication of my friends and family. I owe my deepest gratitude to my husband
Erik Harrelson, whose most frequently heard line during our marriage has been,
“Sorry, I can’t. I have to work on my dissertation;” and to my parents, Rudi and Sandi
Edel, for their unwavering support and their frequent weekend visits to clean my
house and stock my freezer with food, all so I could spend time writing instead. I am
also grateful to my family, Danielle, Zachary, James, Erin, Phoenix, Ghannon, and
Inara; and to my in-laws, Marjie and Mike Harrelson. Thank you all for bearing with
me, my stress-induced crankiness, and missed family get-togethers over the years.
Finally, I am thankful to the furrier members of my family, Bender, Odie, and Luna,
for providing emotional support and much needed comic relief.

ii
Acknowledgments—continued

I am also grateful to my dedicated friends, Kendra Tabor, Dori Pynnonen
Hopkins, Carrie Buist, and Angie Miller, for helping to keep the momentum going
during the years it took to complete this project. They each offered their support in
different ways; late-night lectures of encouragement, a couch to sleep on, assistance
with data transcription and analysis, hours of editing and methodological suggestions,
a sounding board for ideas, or merely a listening ear and a bottle of wine.
This dissertation would not have been possible without the support and
assistance of the shelter staff where I conducted interviews. I am indebted to these
advocates for their collaboration, for opening up their facility to me, and for allowing
me to interrupt their work for the several months it took me to collect data. It was a
privilege to share this time with these advocates, who work tirelessly to help
survivors transform their lives, despite limited resources and institutional restrictions.
This project was also made possible by the financial assistance I received from the
Department of Sociology Kercher Center for Social Research and the Western
Michigan University Graduate College.
Finally, I am humbled by the fourteen women that bravely opened up their
lives to me in order to participate in this research and let their stories be told.

Jessica Edel Harrelson
iii
DEDICATION

For the survivors that shared their stories and for MLB, who originally
inspired me to work in domestic violence, and then never got a chance to become a
survivor herself.

Jessica Edel Harrelson
iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...................................................................................... ii
DEDICATION…………………………………………………………………... . iv
CHAPTER
I. INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................... 1
Overview of Research ......................................................................... 2
Summary of Chapters .......................................................................... 9
II. LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK .......... 12
Micro-Level Approaches ..................................................................... 14
Batterer Characteristics ................................................................ 14
Victim Characteristics .................................................................. 16
Relationship Characteristics: Gender Symmetry ......................... 19
Meso-Level Approaches ...................................................................... 20
Symbolic Interaction Theory ....................................................... 20
Social Learning Theory................................................................ 23
Macro-Level Approach ....................................................................... 25
Symbolic Interaction and Battering ..................................................... 30
Role-Taking ................................................................................. 32
Reflected and Self-Appraisal ....................................................... 36
Relationship between the Self and Body ..................................... 41
Chapter Summary ................................................................................ 44
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Table of Contents—continued

CHAPTER
III. METHODOLOGY ..................................................................................... 45
Positioning of Self ............................................................................... 46
Epistemological Framework ................................................................ 49
Feminist Standpoint Framework .................................................. 49
Phenomenological Framework .................................................... 51
Method ................................................................................................. 53
Research Process ................................................................................. 56
Site Selection and Sampling Procedure ....................................... 56
Sample.......................................................................................... 59
Specific Research Procedures ............................................................. 61
Gaining Access ............................................................................ 61
Participant Recruitment ............................................................... 63
Interviews ..................................................................................... 66
Field Notes ................................................................................... 73
Data Transcription ....................................................................... 74
Data Analysis Method and Procedure .......................................... 75
Axiological Assumptions ............................................................. 80
Potential Risk to Participants ....................................................... 84
Chapter Summary ................................................................................ 86
IV. CONTEXTUALIZING THE EXTERNAL: CHARACTERISTICS
OF ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIPS ............................................................. 87
Power and Control ............................................................................... 89
vi