Social psychological predictors of violence against women in honor cultures

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2016
Ceylan, Suzan
A review of literature has demonstrated that one of the most significant discussions on violence against women is how it is condoned in the eye of individuals. Accordingly, the main aim of the current thesis is to examine the role of honor-based reason (HBR, compared to a control variable, financial reason), level of honor-concern (HC: including four dimensions, namely, feminine, masculine, family, and integrity honor codes), religious orientation (RO: including four dimensions, namely, intrinsic, extrinsic, quest, and fundamentalist religious orientations), and gender in predicting the acceptance of male perpetrator behavior (APB), and acceptance of female victim behavior (AVB) in an honor culture, Turkey, through correlational, and experimental methods. Besides, the secondary aim of the thesis is to provide a tool measuring honor concern level of participants. It was mainly expected that (1) in honor-based reason condition perpetrator would elicit more positive attitudes (i.e., being seen as more reasonable), and victim would elicit more negative attitudes (i.e., being seen as more guilty), (2) honor concern would play a mediator role in the relation between religious orientation and two outcome variables, APB, and AVB, and (3) this indirect effect would be especially strong for participants in honor groups; and male participants for APB, and female participants for AVB. The hypotheses were tested with 818 university students (581 female, 237 male; Mage = 21.30) who filled in a questionnaire assessing attitudes toward a violent husband, and a victimized wife, experiencing either an honor-based or a financial conflict; in addition to Honor Concern Scale, which was adapted in the Study I, and Muslim Religious Orientation Scale. Results revealed that (1) participants in honor condition scored higher in APB, and lower in AVB compared to participants in financial conflict condition, (2) HC fully mediated the relation between RO and AVB, and (3) this mediation model was moderated by gender, namely, more powerful for males than females. Results were discussed with reference to relevant literature together with limitations, suggestions for future research, contributions to current literature, and implications.

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Citation Formats
S. Ceylan, “Social psychological predictors of violence against women in honor cultures,” Ph.D. - Doctoral Program, Middle East Technical University, 2016.