Verbal abuse

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Verbal abuse (also known as verbal aggression, verbal attack, verbal violence, verbal assault, psychic aggression, or psychic violence) is a type of psychological/mental abuse that involves the use of oral, gestured, and written language directed to a victim. [1] Verbal abuse can include the act of harassing, labeling, insulting, scolding, rebuking, or excessive yelling towards an individual. [2] [3] It can also include the use of derogatory terms, the delivery of statements intended to frighten, humiliate, denigrate, or belittle a person. [1] [4] [5] These kinds of attacks may result in mental and/or emotional distress for the victim. [1]

Contents

Verbal aggression and abuse affects all populations, cultures, and individuals. These actions are psychologically damaging and are considered forms of emotional and physical harm to the victim. [6] This type of behavior leaves individuals feeling poorly about themselves and can lead to the developing numerous negative health issues and disorders such as suicidal thoughts, depression, poor physical health, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive behaviors, personality disorders, and aggression. [6] [7] [8]

Types

Victims of verbal abuse may display abusive behaviors towards other individuals. Verbal abuse and verbal aggression can take form in many ways. When individuals understand how verbal abuse may be presented, they can better analyze and act accordingly in certain situations. Verbal aggression can be defined as a characteristic or trait that drives a person to attack the self-values and concepts of others in addition to, or instead of, their own values and concepts.

Impacts

Age

Children and adolescents

Research shows that if a young child has been constantly verbally abused over the years they begin to develop constant feelings of mistrust, shame, doubt, guilt, and inferiority. [7] Studies show that two out of three American children are victims of experiencing verbal aggression from their parents. [6] This can affect their mental, social, and interpersonal development during the most critical psychological developmental years which are generally between 2 and 19 years of age. [16] [6] It has been found that verbally abusive behaviors in young children are generally learned through an adult role model such as a parent or caregiver. [17] There are various ways a caregiver can use verbal communication to abuse a child: rejection of a child's worth, isolating a child from social experiences, terrorizing a child with verbal assaults, ignoring a child's needs, corrupting a child's views of the world and teaching them that delinquent activity is normal, verbally assaulting a child, and over-pressuring a child to mature faster than the normal rate of maturity for the child's age. [17] Children who have experienced maternal verbal abuse have been more likely to develop personality disorders in their adolescent and young adult years, they have also been known to develop obsessive-compulsive characteristics and narcissistic behaviors. [7]

College students

It has been found that verbal abuse damages the self-esteem of students, places irrational blame onto themselves, and affects mental health and social interaction abilities in the students; this type of abuse in students can be projected through their peers and professors. [8] The effects of experiencing verbal abuse as a young child – developing negative feelings and in some occurrences, mental disorders – bled onto young adulthood and when they are moving onto higher education and becoming a young adult, they are more prone to experience more of these negative feelings, disorders, and even have an increased chance of drug use in adulthood. [8] [7] In the college population, research has shown that one of the most impactful forms of verbal abuse was peer-related verbal abuse which started with a student blaming another peer for something they did not do and escalated to yelling, cursing, and using derogatory terms; this type of abuse has been associated with increasing the risks of the student falling into a depressive mood, developing anxiety, anger-hostility, and other emotional barriers. [8]

Gender

Research has shown that in some grade-school scenarios – specifically middle school – verbal aggression is prevalent between boys and girls in different ways. Boys experienced insults and threats to a greater extent, while girls experienced sexual name-calling to a greater extent. [18] Boys were often verbally abusive towards other boys and girls, this showed researchers that these characteristics were used to build masculinity amongst themselves. Often, boys are portrayed as needing to be "tough" or masculine, to be able to paint this image, they often resort to verbal abuse, which in turn, made them unfavorable to girls. [18] Verbally abusive girls' reasoning for their actions of abuse was that they, in turn, were victims of bullying and/or verbal abuse by their peers and/or instructors because some of the girls would display the wrong kind of sexuality, femininity, and social age – according to their peers' and instructors' judgments. [18]

In some instances, the victims can become the perpetrators. It has been shown that Hispanic women who have experienced verbal conflicts and/or abuse with their father also go on to have verbal conflicts and/or abuse with their daughter. When Hispanic mothers exert a high level of verbal conflicts and/or abuse towards her husband, their daughter most likely will have a conflict with them – her parents - as well, when this happens it is also predicted that the daughter will go on to have the same conflicts with her partner. [19] In America, a vulnerable group for verbal aggression are college-aged women. 80% of these women are aware that verbal abuse is a serious ongoing issue and 25% of them have reported to have experienced verbal abuse in an intimate relationship. [19] In other instances, 65% of 358 low-income pregnant women claimed to have experienced verbal or physical abuse during their pregnancies, with younger women experiencing significantly higher rates of this abuse. [20]

Abuse in the workplace

The workplace can be a breeding ground for verbal aggression. Slurs, racist comments, and derogatory terms have been used against ethnic minorities. [6] Although it seems like this issue has resolved in the workplace because we are becoming more inclusive as a society, aggressors still have found ways to abuse ethnic minorities verbally and nonverbally in the office. It is more discrete, but aggressors are still deeply wounding ethnic minorities in the workplace with slurs and derogatory comments toward them. All of these things also apply to non-minorities, as they can experience just as much verbal abuse. [6] In a study where 1000 nurses received a questionnaire and 46% responded, 91% of them claimed that they had experienced verbal abuse within the past month and more than 50% of them said that they did not feel capable of responding to the abuse. [21] Adults who have been victims of verbal abuse and workplace mistreatment have been more susceptible to suffer from mental health illnesses and social disorders. [8]

Relationships

In romantic relationships, specifically physically and verbally abusive ones, it has been found that when the couple has a conflict, 53% of the victims to this abuse say that physical aggression was the factor that started the conflict while 33% of the aggressors, in this case, claim that verbal aggression was the factor that ignited the issue. [6] It is not a surprise that both the victim and the aggressor have different points of views as to what caused the abuse to escalate. In marital relationships, it is common to see that if one individual – whether it be the husband or wife – has trouble communicating their needs and expectations to their partner, instead of having "healthy" argumentation, they resort to using verbal aggression against their partner which in turn causes more distress and conflict in the relationship. [6] Just like in the workplace, adults who have experienced intimate partner violence have also had their mental health and brain morphology be affected. [8]

Related Research Articles

Violence is often defined as the use of physical force to cause harm to people, or non-human life, such as pain, injury, death, damage, or destruction, but some definitions are somewhat broader, such as the World Health Organization's definition, 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."

Abuse is the improper usage or treatment of a person or thing, often to unfairly or improperly gain benefit. Abuse can come in many forms, such as: physical or verbal maltreatment, injury, assault, violation, rape, unjust practices, crimes, or other types of aggression. To these descriptions, one can also add the Kantian notion of the wrongness of using another human being as means to an end rather than as ends in themselves. Some sources describe abuse as "socially constructed", which means there may be more or less recognition of the suffering of a victim at different times and societies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bullying</span> Use of force or coercion to abuse or intimidate others

Bullying is the use of force, coercion, hurtful teasing or threat, to abuse, aggressively dominate or intimidate. The behavior is often repeated and habitual. One essential prerequisite is the perception of an imbalance of physical or social power. This imbalance distinguishes bullying from conflict. Bullying is a subcategory of aggressive behavior characterized by hostile intent, imbalance of power and repetition over a period of time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Physical abuse</span> Medical condition

Physical abuse is any intentional act causing injury or trauma to another person or animal by way of bodily contact. In most cases, children are the victims of physical abuse, but adults can also be victims, as in cases of domestic violence or workplace aggression. Alternative terms sometimes used include physical assault or physical violence, and may also include sexual abuse. Physical abuse may involve more than one abuser, and more than one victim.

Psychological abuse, often known as emotional abuse or mental abuse or psychological violence, is a form of abuse characterized by a person subjecting or exposing another person to a behavior that may result in psychological trauma, including anxiety, chronic depression, clinical depression or post-traumatic stress disorder amongst other psychological problems.

Gaslighting is a colloquialism, defined as manipulating someone into questioning their own perception of reality. The expression, which derives from the title of the 1944 film Gaslight, became popular in the mid-2010s. Merriam-Webster cites deception of one's memory, perception of reality, or mental stability. According to a 2022 Washington Post report, it had become a "trendy buzzword" frequently improperly used to describe ordinary disagreements, rather than those situations that align with the word's historical definition.

Workplace bullying is a persistent pattern of mistreatment from others in the workplace that causes either physical or emotional harm. The tactics it may include are verbal, nonverbal, psychological, and physical abuse, as well as humiliation. This type of workplace aggression is particularly difficult because, unlike typical school bullies, workplace bullies often operate within the established rules and policies of both their organization and society. In most cases, workplace bullying is reported as being carried out by someone who is in a position of authority over the victim. However, bullies can also be peers or subordinates. When subordinates participate in bullying, this is referred to as ‘upwards bullying.’ The least visible form of workplace bullying involves upwards bullying where bullying tactics are manipulated and applied against a superior, often for strategically motivated outcomes.

Sibling abuse includes the physical, psychological, or sexual abuse of one sibling by another. More often than not, the younger sibling is abused by the older sibling. Sibling abuse is the most common of family violence in the US, but the least reported. As opposed to sibling rivalry, sibling abuse is characterized by the one-sided treatment of one sibling to another.

Workplace aggression is a specific type of aggression which occurs in the workplace. Workplace aggression is any type of hostile behavior that occurs in the workplace. It can range from verbal insults and threats to physical violence, and it can occur between coworkers, supervisors, and subordinates. Common examples of workplace aggression include gossiping, bullying, intimidation, sabotage, sexual harassment, and physical violence. These behaviors can have serious consequences, including reduced productivity, increased stress, and decreased morale.

Workplace safety in healthcare settings is similar to the workplace safety concerns in most occupations, but there are some unique risk factors, such as chemical exposures, and the distribution of injuries is somewhat different from the average of all occupations. Injuries to workers in healthcare settings usually involve overexertion or falling, such as strained muscles from lifting a patient or slipping on a wet floor. There is a higher than average risk of violence from other people, and a lower than average risk of transportation-related injuries.

Harassment covers a wide range of behaviors of offensive nature. It is commonly understood as behavior that demeans, humiliates, and intimidates a person, and it is characteristically identified by its unlikelihood in terms of social and moral reasonableness. In the legal sense, these are behaviors that appear to be disturbing, upsetting or threatening. Traditional forms evolve from discriminatory grounds, and have an effect of nullifying a person's rights or impairing a person from benefiting from their rights. When these behaviors become repetitive, it is defined as bullying. The continuity or repetitiveness and the aspect of distressing, alarming or threatening may distinguish it from insult, It also constitutes a tactic of coercive control, deployed by an abusive spouse in a context of domestic violence. Harassment is a specific form of discrimination, and occurs when a person is the victim of unwanted intimidating, offensive, repeated or humiliating comments or behavior. To qualify as harassment, there must be a connection between the harassing behavior and a person's protected personal characteristics or prohibited grounds of discrimination, and the harassment must occur in a protected area. Although harassment typically involves behavior that persists over time, serious and malicious one-off incidents are also considered harassment in some cases.

Professional abuse is "a pattern of conduct in which a person abuses, violates, or takes advantage of a victim within the context of the abuser's profession." This typically involves a violation of the relevant professional organization's code of ethics. Organizational ethics or standards of behavior require the maintenance of professional boundaries and the treatment of people with respect and dignity.

Trauma bonds are emotional bonds that arise from a cyclical pattern of abuse. A trauma bond occurs in an abusive relationship, wherein the victim forms an emotional bond with the perpetrator. The concept was developed by psychologists Donald Dutton and Susan Painter.

The effects of domestic violence on children have a tremendous impact on the well-being and developmental growth of children witnessing it. Children can be exposed to domestic violence in a multitude of ways and goes beyond witnessing or overhearing, although there is disagreement in how it should be measured. Children who are exposed to domestic violence in the home often believe that they are to blame, live in a constant state of fear, and are 15 times more likely to be victims of child abuse. Close observation during an interaction can alert providers to the need for further investigation and intervention, such as dysfunctions in the physical, behavioral, emotional, and social areas of life, and can aid in early intervention and assistance for child victims.

Verbal self-defense or verbal aikido is the art of using one's words to prevent, de-escalate, or end an attempted verbal or physical assault.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sexual bullying</span> Bullying associated with sexual activity or orientation

Sexual bullying is a form of bullying or harassment in connection with a person's sex, body, sexual orientation or with sexual activity. It can be physical, verbal or emotional in nature, and occurs in various settings, including schools, workplaces, and online platforms. Sexual bullying can have serious and lasting effects on the mental and emotional well-being of victims.

Workplace harassment is the belittling or threatening behavior directed at an individual worker or a group of workers.

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to domestic violence:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Verbal aggression</span> Personality trait or a mainly destructive form of communication

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.

Controlling behavior in relationships are behaviors exhibited by a individual who seeks to gain and maintain control over another person. Abusers may utilize tactics such as intimidation or coercion, and may seek personal gain, personal gratification, and the enjoyment of exercising power and control. The victims of this behavior are often subject to psychological, physical, sexual, or financial abuse.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Boltz M, Hoffman D (2017). Institutional Mistreatment: Abuse and Neglect (Report).
  2. ↑ Rosenthal LJ, Byerly A, Taylor AD, Martinovich Z (November 2018). "Impact and Prevalence of Physical and Verbal Violence Toward Healthcare Workers". Psychosomatics. 59 (6): 584–590. doi:10.1016/j.psym.2018.04.007. PMID   29909013. S2CID   49269673.
  3. ↑ Lawson, David M. (January 2003). "Incidence, Explanations, and Treatment of Partner Violence". Journal of Counseling & Development. 81 (1): 19–32. doi:10.1002/j.1556-6678.2003.tb00221.x.
  4. ↑ Koller, Pavel; Darida, Petr (16 November 2020). "Emotional Behavior with Verbal Violence: Problems and Solutions". Interdisciplinary Journal Papier Human Review. 1 (2): 1–6. doi: 10.47667/ijphr.v1i2.41 . S2CID   228818487.
  5. ↑ "Verbal assault". TheFreeDictionary.com. Retrieved 8 August 2021.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Moyer-Gusé, Emily; Giles, Howard; Linz, Daniel (2008). "Communication Studies, Overview". Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace, & Conflict. pp. 368–379. doi:10.1016/b978-012373985-8.00032-5. ISBN   978-0-12-373985-8.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Johnson, Jeffrey G.; Cohen, Patricia; Smailes, Elizabeth M.; Skodol, Andrew E.; Brown, Jocelyn; Oldham, John M. (2001). "Childhood verbal abuse and risk for personality disorders during adolescence and early adulthood". Comprehensive Psychiatry. 42 (1): 16–23. doi:10.1053/comp.2001.19755. PMID   11154711.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Yun, Je-Yeon; Shim, Geumsook; Jeong, Bumseok (4 April 2019). "Verbal Abuse Related to Self-Esteem Damage and Unjust Blame Harms Mental Health and Social Interaction in College Population". Scientific Reports. 9 (1): 5655. Bibcode:2019NatSR...9.5655Y. doi:10.1038/s41598-019-42199-6. PMC   6449380 . PMID   30948757.
  9. 1 2 Jewkes, Yvonne; Bennett, Jamie, eds. (2013). Dictionary of Prisons and Punishment. doi:10.4324/9781843926009. ISBN   978-1-134-01183-4.[ page needed ]
  10. ↑ Portnow, Kathryn (1996). Dialogues of Doubt: The Psychology of Self-doubt and Emotional Gaslighting in Adult Women and Men (Thesis). OCLC   36674740.
  11. ↑ Huizen, Jennifer (18 December 2019). "Verbal abuse: What to know". Medical and health information. Retrieved 4 August 2023.
  12. ↑ Castor, Theresa (2015). "Accusatory Discourse". The International Encyclopedia of Language and Social Interaction. pp. 1–5. doi:10.1002/9781118611463.wbielsi052. ISBN   978-1-118-61110-4.
  13. ↑ Hetherton, Jacquie (February 1999). "The idealization of women: its role in the minimization of child sexual abuse by females". Child Abuse & Neglect. 23 (2): 161–174. doi:10.1016/s0145-2134(98)00119-7. PMID   10075185.
  14. ↑ Adams, Michael (2015). "Language Ideologies and The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Evidence from Motive, Structure, and Design". Dictionaries: Journal of the Dictionary Society of North America. 36 (1): 17–46. doi:10.1353/dic.2015.0013. S2CID   146645144.
  15. ↑ "Lessons in On-Line Reference Publishing, Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Thesaurus. Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Encyclopedia. Merriam-Webster". The Library Quarterly. 71 (3): 392–399. 2001. doi:10.1086/603287. S2CID   148183387.
  16. ↑ "Why Ages 2-7 Matter So Much for Brain Development". Edutopia. Retrieved 26 April 2022.
  17. 1 2 Helen., Roth, Debra (2004). Adult Reflections on Childhood Verbal Abuse. University of Saskatchewan. OCLC   1007593163.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  18. 1 2 3 Kuiper, Koenraad (2008). "Verbal Abuse in School: Constructing Gender and Age in Social Interaction by Miriam A. Eliasson". Journal of Sociolinguistics. 12 (2): 254–257. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9841.2008.00365_2.x.
  19. 1 2 Oramas, Laura A.; Stephens, Dionne P.; Whiddon, Melody (2017). "Influence of Parental Conflict Resolution Strategies on Hispanic College Women's Experiences With Verbal Aggression". Journal of Interpersonal Violence. 32 (19): 2908–2928. doi:10.1177/0886260515596333. PMID   26246116. S2CID   28801696.
  20. ↑ O'Campo, Patricia; Gielen, Andrea C.; Faden, Ruth R.; Kass, Nancy (1994). "Verbal abuse and physical violence among a cohort of low-income pregnant women". Women's Health Issues. 4 (1): 29–37. doi:10.1016/s1049-3867(05)80107-0. PMID   8186724.
  21. ↑ Sofield, Laura; Salmond, Susan W. (2003). "Workplace Violence". Orthopaedic Nursing. 22 (4): 274–283. doi:10.1097/00006416-200307000-00008. PMID   12961971. S2CID   30218546.
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