Loreen Olson

Last updated
Loreen Olson
Academic background
Education St. Cloud State University (BA)
University of California, Davis (MA)
University of Nebraska–Lincoln (PhD)
Academic work
Discipline Communications
Sub-discipline Interpersonal communication
Family communication
"Dark side" of communication
Institutions

Loreen Olson is an American scholar of family communication, with an emphasis on gender, communication, and violence. She is an assistant professor for the Communication Studies department at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She teaches graduate and undergraduate classes on communication theory, gender communication, relational communication, family communication, qualitative research methods, and interpersonal communication theory. Olson and co-authors Elizabeth A. Baiocchi-Wagner, Jessica M. Wilson-Kratzer, and Sarah E. Symonds published a book entitled The Dark Side of Family Communication. Loreen Olson is also the current editor of the Journal of Family Communication. [1]

Contents

Education

Loreen Olson received her Bachelor of Arts degree at St. Cloud State University. She then went on to receive her master's degree at the University of California, Davis, and later received her Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. [2]

Career

Olson was previously an associate professor at the University of Missouri, an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota, a graduate teaching assistant at the University of Nebraska, and a project coordinator at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. Her main focus of research is on interpersonal communication and organizational communication. Her other scholarly interests include the dark side of family and close relationships, intimate partner violence, and the luring communication of child sex predators. [1]

Scholarly work

One of Loreen Olson's most noteworthy research publications is the book, The Dark Side of Family Communication. This book combines research and theories that look into the dark side of family communication, which involves the verbal and nonverbal messages that are deemed harmful, morally suspect, and/or socially unacceptable. Olson points out every family experiences some type of darkness in various degrees, which she refers to as "shades of darkness". The dark side of communication includes dark topics such as family incest, sibling violence, and intimate partner violence. Other topics that are deemed as less dark are also looked into such as parent/child conflict and the impact of narcissism on family members communicative behaviors. The text uses examples that show how negative interactions between family members may co-exist with positive ones or they might function in ways that are both positive and negative. Olson also examines the darkness at a dynamic level including the role of religion, traditional family values, the media, and the morality of family life. [3]

Loreen Olson also published an important scholarly journal article titled, Conflict and control: Examining the association between exposure to television portraying interpersonal conflict and the use of controlling behaviors in romantic relationships. The journal article presented a study that investigated the link between exposure to television that is high in interpersonal conflict and viewers' use of control in their romantic relationships. The results showed a relationship between exposure to interpersonal conflict television and relational control. The results also showed that the main relationship was moderated by what the viewers' perceived as realism on television. [4]

Olson also published the book chapter, "Violence, Aggression, and Abuse", in the International encyclopedia of interpersonal communication. The text looked into interpersonal aggression which includes acts of violence, emotional/psychological abuse, verbal aggression, rape, battering, bullying, incest, neglect, stalking, coercion, entrapment, and harassment. Interpersonal aggression is considered to be different examples of the dark side of interpersonal communication. Many times the terms abuse, aggression, and violence are used interchangeably. Due to this, Olson examined the different ways in which scholars understand and form ideas about abuse, aggression, and violence. [5]

Awards and honors

Bibliography

Books

Journals

Afifi, T. D., & Olson, L. (2005). The Chilling Effect in Families and the Pressure to Conceal Secrets. Communication Monographs,72(2), 192–216. doi:10.1080/03637750500111906

Aubrey, J. S., Click, M. A., Dougherty, D. S., Fine, M. A., Kramer, M. W., Meisenbach, R. J., . . . Smythe, M. (2008). We Do Babies! The Trials, Tribulations, and Triumphs of Pregnancy and Parenting in the Academy. Women's Studies in Communication,31(2), 186–195. doi:10.1080/07491409.2008.10162531

Aubrey, J. S., Olson, L., Fine, M., Hauser, T., Rhea, D., Kaylor, B., & Yang, A. (2012). Investigating Personality and Viewing-Motivation Correlates of Reality Television Exposure. Communication Quarterly,60(1), 80–102. doi:10.1080/01463373.2012.641830

Aubrey, J. S., Rhea, D. M., Olson, L. N., & Fine, M. (2013). Conflict and Control: Examining the Association Between Exposure to Television Portraying Interpersonal Conflict and the Use of Controlling Behaviors in Romantic Relationships. Communication Studies,64(1), 106–124. doi:10.1080/10510974.2012.731465

Baiocchi-Wagner, E. A., & Olson, L. N. (2016). Motherhood and Family Health Advocacy in Nutrition and Exercise: “Doing the Tradition”. Journal of Family Communication,16(2), 128–142. doi:10.1080/15267431.2016.1146283

Henson, J., & Olson, L. (2010). The Monster Within: How Male Serial Killers Discursively Manage Their Stigmatized Identities. Communication Quarterly,58(3), 341–364. doi:10.1080/01463373.2010.503176

Hunnicutt, G., Lundgren, K., Murray, C., & Olson, L. (2016). The Intersection of Intimate Partner Violence and Traumatic Brain Injury: A Call for Interdisciplinary Research. Journal of Family Violence. doi:10.1007/s10896-016-9854-7

King, K., Murray, C. E., Crowe, A., Hunnicutt, G.**, Lundgren, K.**, & Olson, L.** (accepted). The costs of recovery: Intimate partner violence survivors' experiences of financial recovery from abuse. The Family Journal.

Murray, C. E., Lundgren, K., Olson, L. N., & Hunnicutt, G. (2016). Practice Update. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse,17(3), 298–305. doi:10.1177/1524838015584364

Olson, L. N., Coffelt, T. A., Ray, E. B., Rudd, J., Botta, R., Ray, G., & Kopfman, J. E. (2008). “I'm all for equal rights, but don't call me a feminist”: Identity Dilemmas in Young Adults' Discursive Representations of Being a Feminist. Women's Studies in Communication,31(1), 104–132. doi:10.1080/07491409.2008.10162524

Olson, L. N., Daggs, J. L., Ellevold, B. L., & Rogers, T. K. (2007). Entrapping the Innocent: Toward a Theory of Child Sexual Predators? Luring Communication. Communication Theory,17(3), 231–251. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2885.2007.00294.x

Olson, L. N., & Lloyd, S. A. (2005). “It Depends on What You Mean by Starting”: An Exploration of How Women Define Initiation of Aggression and Their Motives for Behaving Aggressively. Sex Roles,53(7–8), 603–617. doi:10.1007/s11199-005-7145-5

Olson, L. (2004). Relational Control-Motivated Aggression: A Theoretically-Based Typology of Intimate Violence. Journal of Family Communication,4(3), 209–233. doi:10.1207/s15327698jfc0403&4_7

Rill, L., Baiocchi, E., Hopper, M., Denker, K., & Olson, L. N. (2009). Exploration of the Relationship between Self-Esteem, Commitment, and Verbal Aggressiveness in Romantic Dating Relationships. Communication Reports,22(2), 102–113. doi:10.1080/08934210903061587

Other

Olson, L. N. (2009). Deviance and human relationships. In H. T. Reis & S. Sprecher (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Human Relationships. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Olson, L. N. & Fine, M. A. (Eds.) (under contract). Examining the darkness of family communication: The harmful, the morally suspect, and the socially inappropriate. Peter Lang.

Olson, L. N. & Mobley, S. (2009). “It can’t be domestic violence…. We’re just dating”: Keia's story. In E. L. Kirby & M. C. McBride (Eds.), Gender actualized: Cases in communicatively constructing realities (pp. 71–77). Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt Publishing.

Olson, L. N., & Rauscher, E. (in press). “It can’t be domestic violence; We’re not married!” The many faces of intimate partner violence. In D. O. Braithwaite & J. T. Wood (Eds.), Casing Interpersonal communication: Case studies in personal and social relationship (2nd ed.). Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt.

Olson, L. N. Violence, aggression, and abuse. In C. Berger & M. Roloff (Eds.), International encyclopedia of interpersonal communication. WileyBlackwell.

Silvey, J. (2012, Oct 24). Ruling revives professor's discrimination suit against MU. Columbia Daily Tribune

See also

Related Research Articles

Violence Use of physical force or power with the intent to inflict harm

Violence is the use of physical force so as to injure, abuse, damage, or destroy. Other definitions are also used, such as the World Health Organization's definition of violence as "the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, which either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment, or deprivation."

The concept of interpersonal relationship involves social associations, connections, or affiliations between two or more people. Interpersonal relationships vary in their degree of intimacy or self-disclosure, but also in their duration, in their reciprocity and in their power distribution, to name only a few dimensions. The context can vary from family or kinship relations, friendship, marriage, relations with associates, work, clubs, neighborhoods, and places of worship. Relationships may be regulated by law, custom, or mutual agreement, and form the basis of social groups and of society as a whole.

Psychological abuse, often called emotional abuse, is a form of abuse, characterized by a person subjecting or exposing another person to behavior that may result in psychological trauma, including anxiety, chronic depression, or post-traumatic stress disorder. It is often associated with situations of power imbalance in abusive relationships, and may include bullying, gaslighting, and abuse in the workplace. It also may be perpetrated by persons conducting torture, other violence, acute or prolonged human rights abuse, particularly without legal redress such as detention without trial, false accusations, false convictions and extreme defamation such as where perpetrated by state and media.

Haptic communication Branch of nonverbal communication that refers to the ways in which people and animals communicate, and interact via the sense of touch

Haptic communication is a branch of nonverbal communication that refers to the ways in which people and animals communicate and interact via the sense of touch. Touch is the most sophisticated and intimate of the five senses. Touch or haptics, from the ancient Greek word haptikos is extremely important for communication; it is vital for survival.

Cycle of abuse

The cycle of abuse is a social cycle theory developed in 1979 by Lenore E. Walker to explain patterns of behavior in an abusive relationship. The phrase is also used more generally to describe any set of conditions which perpetuate abusive and dysfunctional relationships, such as in poor child rearing practices which tend to get passed down. Walker used the term more narrowly, to describe the cycling patterns of calm, violence, and reconciliation within an abusive relationship. Critics suggest the theory was based on inadequate research criteria, and cannot therefore be generalized upon.

The term cycle of violence refers to repeated and dangerous acts of violence as a cyclical pattern, associated with high emotions and doctrines of retribution or revenge. The pattern, or cycle, repeats and can happen many times during a relationship. Each phase may last a different length of time, and over time the level of violence may increase. The phrase has been increasingly widespread since first popularised in the 1970s.

The studies of violence in mass media analyzes the degree of correlation between themes of violence in media sources with real-world aggression and violence over time. Many social scientists support the correlation. However, some scholars argue that media research has methodological problems and that findings are exaggerated.(Ferguson & Kilburn, 2009; Freedman, 2002; Pinker 2002; Savage, 2004)

The conflict tactics scale (CTS), created by Murray A. Straus in 1979, is the "most widely used instrument in research on family violence." There are two versions of the CTS; the CTS2 and the CTSPC. As of 2005, the CTS has been used in about 600 peer reviewed scientific or scholarly papers, including longitudinal birth-cohort studies. National surveys conducted in the USA include two National Family Violence Surveys, the National Violence Against Women Survey (1998), which, according to Straus, used a "feminist version" of the CTS in order to minimize data on female perpetration of intimate partner violence (IPV), and the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being. A major international survey to use the CTS was the 2006 International Dating Violence Study, which investigated IPV amongst 13,601 college students across thirty-two different countries.

Sibling abuse includes the physical, psychological, or sexual abuse of one sibling by another. A fourth category that brought attention from researchers during the first decade of the 21st century is sibling relational abuse, which derives from relational aggression.

Intimate partner violence Domestic violence by a spouse or intimate partner against the other spouse or partner

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is domestic violence by a current or former spouse or partner in an intimate relationship against the other spouse or partner. IPV can take a number of forms, including physical, verbal, emotional, economic and sexual abuse. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines IPV as "... any behaviour within an intimate relationship that causes physical, psychological or sexual harm to those in the relationship, including acts of physical aggression, sexual coercion, psychological abuse and controlling behaviors."

Domestic violence Pattern of behavior involving abuse of members of the same family

Domestic violence is violence or other abuse in a domestic setting, such as in marriage or cohabitation. Domestic violence is often used as a synonym for intimate partner violence, which is committed by a spouse or partner in an intimate relationship against the other spouse or partner, and can take place in heterosexual or same-sex relationships, or between former spouses or partners. In its broadest sense, domestic violence also involves violence against children, teenagers, parents, or the elderly. It takes a number of forms, including physical, verbal, emotional, economic, religious, reproductive, and sexual abuse, which can range from subtle, coercive forms to marital rape and to violent physical abuse such as choking, beating, female genital mutilation, and acid throwing that results in disfigurement or death. Domestic murders include stoning, bride burning, honor killings, and dowry deaths.

Interpersonal communication

Interpersonal communication is an exchange of information between two or more people. It is also an area of research that seeks to understand how humans use verbal and nonverbal cues to accomplish a number of personal and relational goals.

Verbal aggressiveness

Verbal aggressiveness in communication has been studied to examine the underlying message of how the aggressive communicator gains control over different things that occur, through the usage of verbal aggressiveness. Scholars have identified that individuals who express verbal aggressiveness have the goal of controlling and manipulating others through language. Infante and Wigley defined verbal aggressiveness as "a personality trait that predisposes persons to attack the self-concepts of other people instead of, or in addition to, their positions on topics of communication". Self-concept can be described as a group of values and beliefs that one has. Verbal aggressiveness is thought to be mainly a destructive form of communication, but it can produce positive outcomes. Infante and Wigley described aggressive behavior in interpersonal communication as products of individual's aggressive traits and the way the person perceives the aggressive circumstances that prevents them or something in a situation.

Domestic violence against men

Domestic violence against men deals with domestic violence experienced by men in a domestic setting, such as in marriage or cohabitation. As with domestic violence against women, violence against men may constitute a crime, but laws vary between jurisdictions.

Management of domestic violence

The management of domestic violence deals with the treatment of victims of domestic violence and preventing repetitions of such violence. The response to domestic violence in Western countries is typically a combined effort between law enforcement, social services, and health care. The role of each has evolved as domestic violence has been brought more into public view.

Domestic violence within lesbian relationships is the pattern of violent and coercive behavior in a female same-sex relationship wherein a lesbian or other non-heterosexual woman seeks to control the thoughts, beliefs, or conduct of her female intimate partner. In the case of multiple forms of domestic partner abuse, it is also referred to as lesbian battering.

Domestic violence in same-sex relationships

Domestic violence in same-sex relationships is a pattern of violence or abuse that occurs within same-sex relationships. Domestic violence is an issue that affects people of any sexuality, but there are issues that affect victims of same-sex domestic violence specifically. These issues include homophobia, internalized homophobia, HIV and AIDS stigma, STD risk and other health issues, lack of legal support, and the violence they face being considered less serious than heterosexual domestic violence. Moreover, the issue of domestic violence in same-sex relationships has not been studied as comprehensively as domestic violence in heterosexual relationships. However, there are legal changes being made to help victims of domestic violence in same-sex relationships, as well as organizations that cater specifically to victims of domestic violence in same-sex relationships.

The culture of violence theory addresses the pervasiveness of specific violent patterns within a societal dimension. The concept of violence being ingrained in Western society and culture has been around for at least the 20th century. Developed from structural violence, as research progressed the notion that a culture can sanction violent acts developed into what we know as culture of violence theory today. Two prominent examples of culture legitimizing violence can be seen in rape myths and victim blaming. Rape myths lead to misconstrued notions of blame; it is common for the responsibility associated with the rape to be placed on the victim rather than the offender.

Intimate partner violence (IPV), is defined as physical and sexual violence or threat of violence, intimidation, or coercion that occurs between past or current intimate partners. Perpetrators of violence may use coercion tactics to keep the partner in the home. These tactics could include threatening harm to a family pet or threatening to take custody of children if the partner attempts to leave. IPV is a serious public health concern in the United States and one that has the potential to affect an individual’s medical readiness. Within the military community, intimate relationships may be particularly vulnerable to occupation-stress that is specific to military operations. These demands might include frequent moves to undesirable locations or overseas, separation from extended family for unknown lengths of time, frequent variability in work schedule, long hours, career uncertainty, mission ambiguity, training environments meant to simulate varying operational environments, and risk that is inherent to the field. Although there are programs in place designed to support the family unit, the stress of multiple deployments, combat exposure, and exposure to traumatic events cause additional strain on the family unit as service members reintegrate into the home environment following the return home from a deployment. Deployments bring additional stress on the family unit as two-parent homes transition to one-parent homes while attempting to maintain their semi-regular schedules.

Nicola Graham-Kevan is a psychologist and professor of criminal justice psychology at the University of Central Lancashire in Preston, England. She is also a professor of clinical psychology at the Mid Sweden University in Östersund, Sweden. She conducts research on aggression and domestic violence. She also works clinically designing interventions for offenders with aggression management problems.

References

  1. 1 2 "Loreen Olson | Department of Communication Studies". cst.uncg.edu. Retrieved 2017-04-26.
  2. ↑ "Loreen Olson, Ph.D." Retrieved 2020-09-07.
  3. ↑ "The Dark Side of Family Communication".
  4. ↑ Aubrey, Jennifer Stevens; Rhea, David M.; Olson, Loreen N.; Fine, Mark (2013-01-01). "Conflict and Control: Examining the Association Between Exposure to Television Portraying Interpersonal Conflict and the Use of Controlling Behaviors in Romantic Relationships" (PDF). Communication Studies. 64 (1): 106–124. doi:10.1080/10510974.2012.731465. ISSN   1051-0974. S2CID   59063236.
  5. ↑ "Past Projects: Program to Advance Community Responses to Violence Against Women | Center for Women's Health and Wellness". hhs.uncg.edu. Retrieved 2017-04-26.
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