Children’s Critical Thinking When Learning from Others.docx

Children’s Critical Thinking When Learning from Others:
A Critique Submitted by
XXXXXXXXX
El Centro College
Psychology 2301, Section 53xxx, Spring 2013
Running head: CHILDREN AND CRITICAL THINKING
1
Running head: CHIDREN AND CRITICAL THINKING
1
Abstract
Children’s Critical Thinking When Learning from Others
Introduction
Everyday children must decide for themselves about what is a
reliable source of information. They must critically evaluate a
source, be it a cartoon watched on television or a conversation
held with another child or adult. Children must also determine if
a resource is reliable and credible or if it is lacking in real
information, then think critically about the information that is
given. Heyman’s (2008) meta-analytic study explores how
critical thinking skills can be taught to children and defines
critical thinking and analyses how early and how well these
critical thinking skills develop in children. Heyman (2008) also
explores how social experiences shape the development of these
skills, including a comparison of responses in Chinese and

American children. The researcher hopes that information from
this study, and prior studies discussed in this article, can be
used by parents as a means for guiding their children along a
path toward critical thinking (Heyman, 2008). ReviewCritique
CHILDREN AND CRITICAL THINKING
4
References
Heyman, G. D. (2008). Children’s critical thinking when
learning from others. Current Directions in Psychological
Science, 17(5), pp. 344-347.
ABBREVIATED TITLE IN CAPITAL LETTERS 4
Full Title in Upper and Lower Case Letters
A Critiqué Submitted by
Name of Student
El Centro College
Psychology 2301, Section 53005, Spring 2012

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REVIEW
Addressing Sexual and Relationship Violence
in the LGBT Community Using a Bystander
Framework
Sharyn J. Potter, PhD, MPH, Kim Fountain, PhD, and Jane G.
Stapleton, MA
Sexual and relationship violence are two major public health
issues that affect an alarming number
of undergraduate students. As a result, many colleges and
universities have protocols to serve
victims of these forms of violence. Despite federal legislation
stating that all students should have
equitable experiences, current protocols and programs focus
primarily on heterosexual
students. College student victims of sexual and relationship
violence who identify as lesbian, gay,
bisexual, or transgender can face particular challenges,
including disclosure of their sexual
and gender orientations, and revictimization when seeking
services. In recent years an
increasing number of campuses have adopted bystander
prevention strategies to address sexual
and relationship violence. These strategies seek to engage
community members in the prevention
of sexual and relationship violence by training them to identify
and safely intervene in situations
where sexual or relationship violence is about to occur, is
occurring, or has occurred. In this article

we review published bystander prevention strategies that focus
on preventing sexual and
relationship violence in the campus community, and discuss
how bystander strategies are
addressing or can address relationship and sexual violence in
the LGBT community. (HARV REV
PSYCHIATRY 2012;20:201–208.)
Keywords: bisexual. bystander prevention strategies,
college, gay, lesbian, relationship and sexual
violence, transgender
From the Department of Sociology (Dr. Potter) and Women’s
Stud-
ies Program (Dr. Fountain and Ms. Stapleton), University of
New
Hampshire.
Original manuscript received 18 August 2011; revised
manuscript
received 17 December 2011, accepted for publication subject to
re-
vision 17 January 2012; revised manuscript received 9 February
2012.
Correspondence: Sharyn J. Potter, PhD, MPH, Department of
Sociol-
ogy, University of New Hampshire, 20 Academic Way, Durham,
NH
03824. Correspondence: [email protected]
© 2012 President and Fellows of Harvard College
DOI: 10.3109/10673229.2012.712838
Sexual assault of women is the most common violent crime
committed on college campuses today; one in four college

women experiences completed or attempted rape during
their college years.1 The majority of these assaults are
perpetrated by the victim’s acquaintances (e.g., classmates,
residence hall neighbors, dates) or intimate partners.1−3
College women are at higher risk for sexual assault than
peers who are not in college.4 Studies show that college men
also report unwanted sexual experiences.5,6 Recent research
indicates that 25% of women and 14% of men will experience
relationship violence over the course of their lifetimes.7
Exposure to sexual and relationship violence∗ is a key public
health issue and is associated with a multiplicity of negative
outcomes, including increased substance use, depressive
symptoms, health-risk behaviors, and symptoms of
posttraumatic stress disorder among various samples of
survivors.∗ ,9−13
*We use the term sexual violence to refer to a range of
behaviors that are unwanted by the recipient, including, but not
limited to, the
following: derogatory or insulting remarks about physical
appearance; persistent sexual advances that are undesired by the
recipient;
unwanted touching; and unwanted oral, anal, or vaginal
penetration. These behaviors could be initiated by someone
either known or
unknown to the recipient, including someone in an existing
relationship with the recipient. We use the term relationship
violence to refer to
a range of behaviors experienced in the context of any type of
intimate relationship or friendship. These behaviors include use
of physical
force or threats of force against a partner, such as slapping,
punching, throwing objects, threatening with weapons, or
threatening any
kind of physical harm. It can also include extreme emotional
abuse such as intimidation, blaming, putting down, making fun

of, and name
calling.
∗ Although the terms victim and survivor are often used
interchangeably,7 in the legal definition the term victim rather
than survivor is
used to describe a person following an assault.8
201
mailto:[email protected]
Harv Rev Psychiatry
July/August 2012
Addressing Sexual and Relationship Violence in the LGBT
Community 202
The extent to which campuses are working to prevent
these problems varies widely.4 Most efforts are aimed at
heterosexual women—statistically, the most highly
represented group. But this population is not the only one
for which sexual and relationship violence is an issue.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students
represent a marginalized population at the same14 or at
higher risk for sexual and relationship violence15−18 as their
heterosexual peers. Yet the 5%–10% of undergraduate
student populations who identify as LGBT19,20 are signif-
icantly underserved by colleges’ prevention strategies for
sexual and relationship violence.
Campus efforts to combat such violence have demon-
strated mixed results regarding effectiveness, particularly
over time.21 Some prevention strategies have been viewed as
directly or indirectly victim blaming.22 Others have focused

too much on individuals or small groups (such as athletes or
fraternity members), or on criminal justice policies rather
than wider social change.23,24 Some campuses have therefore
begun to utilize a bystander approach to engage the broader
campus community—in particular, bystanders—in efforts to
reduce sexual and relationship violence on campus. In this
article we examine the extent to which the published by-
stander prevention strategies have addressed sexual and re-
lationship violence in the LGBT community, and we provide
suggestions to improve bystander-intervention frameworks.
SEXUAL AND RELATIONSHIP VIOLENCE
EXPERIENCED BY LGBT COLLEGE STUDENTS
Campus Climate for Students Who Identify as LGBT
Sociocultural bias against LGBT people and cultures, known
as heterosexism and homophobia, can frame LGBT identi-
ties as sinful, sick, perverted, and a threat to the traditional
family.25−27 When heterosexuality is posited as the norm,
acts of violence at every level of society perpetrated against
LGBT people are justified or explained through reference to
such negative constructions.28 The climate of LGBT intol-
erance on college campuses has been well documented by
researchers.29−34 For LGBT students, college campuses are
often unwelcoming, unsafe environments, where they expe-
rience harassment,29−31 isolation, ostracization,32 and phys-
ical violence.33 LGBT students can face discrimination or
harassment from their peers (e.g., roommates, classmates,
teammates) and other members of the campus community,
including the professional staff (e.g., coaches, hall directors,
professors, administrators, campus safety, health services
staff). Harassment and discrimination from campus com-
munity members can not only make LGBT students feel
unwelcome but also reduce their self-esteem and prevent
them from seeking help from campus professionals.32,33,35

Perpetrator Tactics
Perpetrators most commonly use two tactics to control their
victims: threatening to or actually revealing the victim’s sex-
uality to others (“outing” the victim), or isolating the victim.
For many lesbians who report abuse, the abuse occurs dur-
ing their first relationship, when they are most vulnerable to
batterers who have the capacity to control or manipulate
information.36 For students the impact of outing may be dev-
astating and may occur on several different levels. Many stu-
dents experiment with their sexuality or come out in college.
They may not tell their parents for any number of reasons,
including being cut off from financial and emotional support,
losing parental housing during school breaks, or losing jobs
that might be their only form of support.37−40 The college
environment can offer students the opportunity to explore
same-sex relationships,36 but many such first relationships
are at high risk for relationship violence because the victims
want both to confirm their sense of self and sexual identity,
and to “fit in.” The victims may also lack confidence in what
behaviors are acceptable in intimate same-sex relationships
and may have no or minimal contact with LGBT friend-
ship/community networks, within which they could air their
concerns. The desire to fit in leaves victims vulnerable be-
cause they may take risks, explain away the violence, or lack
the vocabulary or life skills to identify, name, and act on the
violence. For those who might possess such skills and sup-
port and who might even be out, the embarrassment behind
feeling that they somehow are not expressing their sexual or
gender identities “correctly” contributes to their silence
around relationship violence and sexual assaults. These fac-
tors and the perpetrators’ awareness of them increase the
likelihood of relationship violence.41
Isolation—one of the most effective and common tactics

that batterers resort to in heterosexual relationships42—is
often easy to use against LGBT victims because they may
not be open about their sexuality and are therefore socially
isolated. Alternatively, they may have come out but been
rejected by their social groups or families. A variation on this
theme is for batterers to limit the circle of people who are
allowed to know about the relationship, as the batterer
claims that they are not “out.”41
Harv Rev Psychiatry
Volume 20, Number 4
Community 203
Barriers to Seeking Help and Reporting
The consequences and implications of sexual and relation-
ship violence in LGBT communities are both similar to, and
different from, those of the heterosexual community. Both
heterosexual and LGBT victims of sexual and relationship
violence who seek help must disclose the crime. Students
who identify as LGBT, however, may feel uncomfortable do-
ing so; the disclosure of the crime may also involve the dis-
closure of their sexual identities or gender orientations. For
students who are not out, their perceived need to hide their
sexual identities can be a barrier to seeking services. Peo-
ple who are just coming out or who are not accustomed to
talking about their sexual orientations may find the lan-
guage required to discuss their experiences inaccessible.43
Indeed, the language of sexual and relationship violence
tends to be extraordinarily gendered; female victims are
“attacked” or “abused” by male perpetrators, but fewer ex-
pressions are available to describe same-sex assaults. This

linguistic shortfall reflects common thinking; for instance,
some people cannot fathom or may explicitly deny that a
man can sexually assault another man. Even those who are
accustomed to speaking about same-sex situations on a va-
riety of levels may find it difficult to cross the linguistic gap
after a traumatic event. It can be all the more difficult for
someone who has not yet developed the confidence, let alone
the language related to his or her LGBT identity, to make a
report.
Male victims of sexual and relationship violence are often
blamed for not stopping an attack—which makes it difficult
for young men to speak of sexual or relationship violence
perpetrated by other men. Reporting requires them not only
to reveal very personal information but to frame acts of vio-
lence in a manner that makes sense in heterosexist culture,
in which victims are presumed to be heterosexual women.
Indeed, the current reauthorization of the Violence Against
Women Act faces opposition—for the first time—in large
part due to the addition of provisions for services address-
ing the LGBT communities. A gay man just coming to terms
with his sexuality may find it overwhelming to negotiate a
linguistic terrain that clearly marks him as gay and as a
victim of sexual assault.
LGBT individuals who identify as members of a racial or
ethnic minority can face additional burdens in facing stereo-
types of LGBT people as white and from Western cultures
when seeking help.44,45 Similarly, they face accusations of
being traitors to their racial or cultural identities for taking
on the LGBT identity.
Although all victims may face retribution from their
friends for seeking help or reporting the crime, on many
campuses the LGBT communities are small and insulated,
and the fear of retribution can be compounded. The actual

or perceived homophobia on college campuses may
prevent LGBT undergraduate victims of sexual and
relationship violence from seeking help.
As with other marginalized groups, LGBT victims may
choose not to report violence, thereby avoiding
further stigmatization of the LGBT community.46,47
Victims may be concerned that the identification and
labeling of same-sex perpetrators will further compromise
the perception of relationships that already involve
negative stereotyping.48 As members of marginalized
communities, LGBT individuals—for fear of
discrimination or harassment—often have serious
reservations about accessing authority figures or disclosing
their sexuality.49 Many LGBT youth attempt to access
services or safety nets such as religious figures, school
counselors, or the police, only to be told that their sexuality
—not the actual perpetration of the violence—is the issue.
For some victims the inability to obtain support from the
system only underscores their isolation and vulnerability.47
Existing Treatments
Services for LGBT and heterosexual victims of relationship
and sexual violence commonly take the form of one-on-
one counseling, advocacy efforts, and education. On college
campuses, collaborations with medical facilities,
law enforcement, and campus judicial boards may be
part of these services. In the United States, services for
victims of sexual and relationship violence are rarely fully
inclusive, and the funding of services to meet the needs
of LGBT victims, in particular, is typically
inadequate.47 At the present time lesbian victims of
relationship violence have fewer options than
heterosexual victims for accessing safe and effective
services.49 Other studies have shown that some crisis staff

view same-sex relationship violence as less harmful
than heterosexual violence—a result of the
stereotypes that men can defend themselves and women
are not violent.50 Because LGBT victims are often unwilling
to report violence, statistical data reflect lower rates
of incidence than would otherwise be the case, leading
to minimal funding for direct services, advocacy, and
prevention for LGBT communities. To be most responsive
and effective, direct services, advocacy, and prevention
efforts must proactively respond to the range of
vulnerabilities that offenders exploit.51,52
Harv Rev Psychiatry
July/August 2012
Community 204
USING BYSTANDER PROGRAMS TO ADDRESS
SEXUAL AND RELATIONSHIP VIOLENCE IN THE
LGBT COMMUNITY
In the social psychology literature, bystanders are defined
as individuals who witness criminal acts, emergency
situations, or instances where community norms are
violated.53−55 A bystander’s action or lack of action can
worsen, maintain, or improve the situation. Using research
on the effectiveness of prevention efforts, scholars and
practitioners have tried to engage bystanders as allies in
preventing sexual and relationship violence. Further
impetus for engaging bystanders comes from
research on perpetrator characteristics (e.g., hostility
toward women, victimization experiences)56 and situational
factors, such as community norms or community tolerance

toward sexual and relationship violence that can facilitate
or inhibit perpetrator behaviors;57−60 indeed, violence
occurs when there are motivated perpetrators, vulnerable
potential victims, and the absence of community
members who can or will intervene.61 Attention to both
perpetrator behavior and community responsibility can
facilitate effective community-level prevention efforts.
Bystander models focus on teaching bystanders active,
helpful behaviors to safely intervene in situations that
involve sexual and relationship violence.62
Although the use of bystander prevention strategies on
college campuses is growing, the majority of bystander
programs have not been formally evaluated, largely as a
result of limited funding and administrative time.63,64 Five
bystander programs for preventing sexual violence, as well
as one social-marketing campaign, have had evaluations
published in the peer-reviewed literature.65 The programs,
each of which utilizes a different approach, are currently in
place on college campuses in the United States and Canada.
The Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP) model developed
by Katz in 1993 is one of the first violence prevention
programs using a bystander framework.66 The MVP pro-
gram, in addition to being used on college campuses, is used
with sports teams and with members of the U.S. military.
The program utilizes sports metaphors (e.g., a playbook) to
engage men in preventing violence against women.66 Since
its inception, the program has looked at the harassment of
gays and lesbians, and also at other heterosexist behaviors.
The occurrence of domestic violence and sexual assault in
same-sex couples is addressed, but the scenarios in the
playbook do not yet deal with bystander intervention
when the abuse is within LGBT relationships themselves
—but only when heterosexuals are abusing, harassing, or
talking in degrading ways about LGBT people (Jackson
Katz, personal communication).

The InterACT Sexual Assault Prevention Program is an
interactive skill-building program that seeks to increase
participants’ knowledge on the importance and effec-
tiveness of bystander interventions in preventing sexual
assault.67 While relationship and sexual violence within the
LGBT community is not a main focus, this phenomenon is
addressed during the program’s facilitated-discussion
component. InterACT has a separate program that is used to
address homophobia; its main focus is violence and bullying
aimed at LGBT people by heterosexuals, rather than
violence within the LGBT community (Marc Rich and
Courtney Ahrens, personal communication).
The Men’s Project68 incorporates discussion of bystander
techniques and utilizes a social-norms model of change,69,70
where peers’ perceptions of their peers’ attitudes and actions
are used to influence behavioral change. At the present time
this program does not address relationship and sexual vio-
lence in the LGBT community (Christine Gidycz, personal
communication).
The Men’s Program,71 a bystander program that utilizes
a film discussing a male-on-male rape as its focal point, does
not address sexual and relationship violence in same-sex
relationships (John Foubert, personal communication).
The Bringing in the BystanderTM in-person prevention
program trains participants to safely intervene when sexual
assault or relationship abuse is about to occur, is occurring,
or has occurred.62 The facilitator guide for this program in-
structs peer facilitators to explain that perpetrators and vic-
tims of sexual and relationship violence are not restricted to
particular sexual identities, relationships, or socioeconomic
backgrounds. “Its perpetrators and victims may be women or
men, young or old, gay, lesbian, straight or bisexual. Re-

lationship abuse affects people of all races, socioeconomic
backgrounds, and educational levels.”72
Most of the educational strategies for preventing sexual
and relationship violence are in the form of in-person pre-
vention programs, and the Know Your PowerTM Bystander
Social Marketing Campaign (developed in 2004) utilizes the
main tenets of the Bringing in the Bystander in-person
prevention program, in particular. The model of a social-
marketing campaign engages bystander behaviors when
sexual assault, relationship violence, or stalking is occur-
ring, is about to occur, and has occurred. The campaign, ad-
ministered campus-wide for a six-week period, utilizes 11' x
17' posters, bookmarks, table tents, full-side bus wraps,
computer pop-up screens, and products distributed with the
campaign logo.73 Studies have shown that participants who
have been exposed to, and who identified with, the
campaign images (compared to participants who report not
identifying with the images) were more likely both to believe
that they had a role to play in reducing sexual and
relationship violence and to have engaged in bystander
behaviors.73−75
During the running of a campaign, the images that ad-
dress relationship and sexual violence in the heterosexual
community (16 images) and the LGBT community (4 images)
are displayed together; the goal is to recognize that sexual
and relationship violence is not limited to heterosexual
relationships and to engage all community members to
Harv Rev Psychiatry
Volume 20, Number 4

Community 205
acknowledge and safely intervene in these situations. The
first LGBT image, developed in 2006, has two scenes. In the
first scene two friends realize that another friend is lying
about the source of the bruises on his arms. The friends
realize that the bruising is not the result of a skateboard-
ing accident but has been inflicted by the victim’s abusive
boyfriend. In the next scene one friend offers to take the
victim to the campus rape crisis center. In the second LGBT
image, developed in 2009, there are three scenes that il-
lustrate bystanders supporting their friends after the oc-
currence of a sexual assault. The first two scenes highlight
female victims. In the third scene a male victim discloses
that he has been sexually assaulted. His male friend tells
him that he believes him. In the third LGBT image, devel-
oped in 2011, a college party scene is taking place; a female
is being emotionally abusive to her girlfriend. In the image
the bystanders identify and label the abuse and devise a
strategy to safely intervene to help their friend. In the
fourth LGBT image, also developed in 2011, two friends are
sitting in a local pizza shop. One of them, a potential per-
petrator, describes how he has met a man online and that
he plans on “hooking up” with this man, regardless of what
the man wants. The friend labels his friend’s plan as the
perpetration of a sexual assault and tries to convince him to
change his mind.
The nascent field of engaging community members as
active bystanders to recognize and safely intervene when
they anticipate or witness sexual and relationship violence
provides an opportunity to prevent violence not only in the
majority campus community but also in marginalized cam-
pus communities (e.g., LGBTs and the disabled). Programs
that engage community members as both bystanders and
victims work to break down the isolation that threatens

potential victims.76 Anti-LGBT stigma may prevent non-
LGBT students from intervening, because of either fears of
association or an inability to identify violence in a situation
involving LGBT students. As college and university officials
continue to develop strategies to address relationship and
sexual violence in the heterosexual and non-heterosexual
communities, care must be taken that all members of the
larger community feel comfortable providing and seeking
help.
PROPOSED DIRECTIONS FOR THE FIELD, AND
CONCLUSION
Any bystander, whether LGBT or heterosexual, who en-
counters an instance of sexual or relationship violence in
the LGBT community should be able to recognize the vi-
olence and to intervene in situations where violence is
occurring—regardless of the sexual orientation of the vic-
tims and perpetrators. Bystanders who intervene must also
be taught, however, how to explain their empathic behavior
to their peers and family members (by suggesting, for exam-
ple, that LGBT relationships can be healthy and should be
respected), who may otherwise ridicule their choice to inter-
vene and may even see their advocacy as going against social
norms and supporting such relationships.77,78 Intervening
bystanders may be required to cope with guilt by association,
including potential violence directed toward them. In fact,
because of the potential for violence, agencies such as the
New York City Gay and Lesbian Anti-violence Project send
outreach workers into the field in pairs (or more) as a safety
measure.
As college administrators implement prevention strate-
gies to reduce sexual and relationship violence in the LGBT
community, it must be remembered that these two types of

violence are not the same as hate violence. That said, within
marginalized communities, all three types of violence can be
intertwined; research indicates the prevalence of hate
crime–related sexual assault among gay or bisexual men
ranges from 3.0% to 19.8% of all such assaults and among
lesbian or bisexual women, from 1% to 12.3%.79 Sexual and
relationship violence and hate violence require unique
approaches, each with its own appropriate messaging and
effective interventions. While the strategies addressing the
different forms of violence cannot be interchanged, neither
should they be developed in isolation. Only if campus
administrators address these issues will all students be free
to pursue their optimal intellectual and emotional growth
during their college or university years.
Although some of the bystander prevention strategies ad-
dress the discrimination and bullying that is faced by LGBT
students,66,67 most do not. There are a few exceptions.62,73
These findings are problematic considering the prevalence of
sexual and relationship violence in the LGBT undergraduate
community and the unique barriers that LGBT students face
when seeking help. The use of strategies to engage members
of the broader community in preventing sexual and
relationship violence within and against the LGBT com-
munity needs to be increased. Furthermore, when victims
who identify as LGBT seek help, they often find counselors
that are ill equipped to offer support;14,48,80 counselors must
be trained to provide professional and culturally competent
services to LGBT victims. Finally, since the LGBT
community is heterogeneous, efforts need to be made to
understand why some groups access support and others do
not.81
Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of
interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content
and writing of the article.

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SEXUAL AND RELATIONSHIP VIOLENCE EXPERIENCED
BY LGBT COLLEGE STUDENTSCampus Climate for Students
Who Identify as LGBTPerpetrator TacticsBarriers to Seeking
Help and ReportingExisting TreatmentsUSING BYSTANDER
PROGRAMS TO ADDRESS SEXUAL AND RELATIONSHIP
VIOLENCE IN THE LGBT COMMUNITYPROPOSED
DIRECTIONS FOR THE FIELD, AND
CONCLUSIONREFERENCES
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Predicting Officer Physical Assaults at Domestic
Assault Calls
Richard R. Johnson
Published online: 18 January 2011
# Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011
Abstract Police work is rife with the potential for physical
harm, and domestic assault calls are one source of assaults on
officers. Inability to accurately predict what circumstances
might lead to an attack is one cause of officer cynicism and
paranoia. Having the ability to identify which suspects pose
the greatest threat of assault would allow officers to take
appropriate protective measures. Using data collected from
1,951 domestic assault calls across three cities, the present
study compared characteristics and behaviors of the batterers
with whether or not the batterers physically assaulted the
responding officers. Findings revealed five significant batterer
characteristics (employment status, shared residence with
abuse victim, alcohol consumption, property damage, and
hostile demeanor toward officers) that successfully predicted

officer assaults. These risk factors may be incorporated into
police safety training in the response to family violence calls.
Keywords Domestic violence . Officer safety. Officer
assaults
The potential for assaults on police officers handling
domestic assault calls has been the subject of some debate
over the last few decades. While some studies have found
that domestic assault calls only contribute to a very small
portion of the assaults that officers experience (Garner and
Clemmer 1986; Hirschel et al. 1994; Konstantin 1984),
studies in different communities have suggested that
domestic assault calls are one of the three most common
situations where officer assaults occur (Ellis et al. 1993;
Stanford and Mowry 1990; Uchida et al. 1987). Even if
other types of calls have higher rates of officer assault, this
does not necessarily mean that domestic assault calls are
“safe.” On the contrary, as FBI statistics indicate that from
1980 through 2003 more than 224,000 police officers in the
U.S. were assaulted while handling family disturbance calls
(Johnson 2007, 2008). Furthermore, while survival rate for
officers assaulted in the U.S. has been steadily increasing
over the last 30 years, the survival rate for officers assaulted
at domestic violence calls has failed to increase for officers
assaulted at domestic assault calls.
It is the unpredictability and constant potential for danger
in the form of a violent physical attack that distinguishes the
work environment of the police officer. Inability to accu-
rately predict what circumstances might lead to an attack is
suggested to be a primary cause of police cynicism and
officer mistrust of the public, causing officers to emphasize
keeping their guard up at all times (Barker 1999; Skolnick
1966; Wilson 1968). This is impossible to achieve, however,

and could lead to paranoia or citizen complaints for overly
aggressive behavior. Therefore, increasing an officer’s ability
to predict which domestic assault situations pose the highest
potential for assault could be very helpful. Being able to
identify for officers which circumstances pose threats of
assault would allow officers to take protective measures.
The present study sought to utilize characteristics of the
domestic batterer and the situational circumstances of the
incident to predict assaults on police officers attending
domestic assault calls. This study extended the previous
research on police officer assaults by moving beyond
simply searching for correlates of assault and developing
prediction odds ratios for assaults. A simple correlate
usually refers to a factor that occurs at the same time as
the outcome, while predictor variables predict an increased
probability of the outcome (Loeber 1990). This study
R. R. Johnson (*)
Department of Criminal Justice, University of Toledo,
2801 W. Bancroft St., Mail Stop 119,
Toledo, OH 43606-3390, USA
e-mail: [email protected]
J Fam Viol (2011) 26:163–169
DOI 10.1007/s10896-010-9346-0
sought to predict increased probabilities of assaults on
officers. Furthermore, this research targeted assaults at
domestic calls, which some previous research has suggested
occur somewhat differently than assaults on officers
performing other duties (Johnson 2007, 2008). It was
hoped that key characteristics could be identified that
would be useful in predicting the likelihood of an officer
assault and permit the utilization of proactive safety tactics

by officers.
Literature Review
While there has been a fair amount of research on the
correlates of police use of force against citizens (see for
example Alpert and Dunham 1999; Geller and Toch 1995;
Terrill and Mastrofski 2002), there has only been limited
research on the correlates of physical assaults against police
officers. Meyer et al. (1979) reviewed the characteristics of
assailants in 1,143 assaults on police officers from 37
municipal law enforcement agencies in five U.S. states. The
majority of the assailants in these assaults were young
(between ages 18 and 25), male, members of racial minority
groups, unemployed, had been consuming alcohol, and had
displayed an angry or belligerent demeanor prior to
committing the assault. A number of these individuals also
had personal problems such as a lack of a high school
education, a criminal record, and family relationship
difficulties (Meyer et al. 1979). More recently, Pinizzotto
et al. (1998) reviewed the assailant characteristics in all law
enforcement officer murders reported to the FBI from 1985
to 1994. Again they found that the majority of the assailants
were young (between the ages of 15 and 29), male,
members of racial minority groups, unemployed, low
socioeconomic status, unmarried, under the influence of
drugs or alcohol, and had a criminal record.
Other Western nations have also conducted similar
studies and identified similar assailant characteristics.
Brown (1994), Moxey and McKenzie (1993), and Noaks
and Christopher (1990) analyzed data from officer assaults
in the United Kingdom. In all three of these English studies
the assailants were found to be predominantly lower
income males who were unemployed, had a criminal
record, and were consuming alcohol at the time of the

assault. Most were between the ages of 17 and 25, with an
average age of 22 years old. In Australia, Mayhew (2001)
analyzed official police reports and found similar character-
istics were prevalent in those who assaulted officers in that
nation. The Australian assailants were generally young
males of lower socioeconomic status who were intoxicated,
with aboriginals being over-represented among the assail-
ants. In Iceland, Bragason (2007) conducted a survey of
assaulted police officers who described the characteristics
of their assailants. Again it was found that those who
assaulted the officers appeared to be predominantly young
indigenous males who were unemployed, had a criminal
record, and had been consuming alcohol.
While the previous research has done a fairly good
job of describing the characteristics of the assailants who
attack police officers in many nations, they all failed to
make any attempt to predict officer assaults. While the
person who is most likely to assault police officers is
described as a lower class, adolescent male who has been
consuming alcohol, it could be argued that this descrip-
tion fits a significant proportion of the citizens with
whom the police routinely interact. Yet only small
fractions of the intoxicated, lower class, adolescent males
the police encounter actually assault them. So how do
the assailants differ from the non-assailants that officers
typically encounter? The previous literature has been
silent on this question.
Another weakness to the previous literature is an
assumption that all assault incidents are similar. Assailant
characteristics are pooled across all types of officer assault
incidents. Recently there has been evidence to suggest that
there may be differences in both offender characteristics,
and how assaults occur, across different types of officer

assault incidents (Johnson 2007). Previous studies failed to
look specifically at physical assaults of officers handling
domestic assault calls to determine what characteristics
offenders in these specific situations have, and how these
characteristics differ from batterers in domestic assault calls
who did not assault the police. The present study attempted
to fill this void in the literature.
Method
Participants
Data used came from the pooling of datasets from three
previous studies. A sample of domestic assault calls was
needed that contained descriptive information about the
batterer involved, and contained both cases that involved an
assault on an officer and cases that did not. Data from three
well known domestic violence arrest experiment studies
were used, the first being the Minneapolis Domestic
Violence Experiment (Sherman and Rogan 1984) which
involved official police reports in 1,250 domestic assault
cases handled by the Minneapolis Police Department. The
second was a replication of the Minneapolis experiment
that was conducted in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, involving
921 domestic assault cases handled by the Milwaukee
Police Department (Sherman et al. 1991). The last study
was a replication study in Miami, Florida that involved 907
164 J Fam Viol (2011) 26:163–169
domestic assault cases handled by the Metro-Dade Police
Department (Pate et al. 1991). 1
Even though these data were collected in the 1980s, they

remain relevant today for several reasons. First, they
continue to be used in research on family violence
published in prestigious social science research journals
(Garner and Maxwell 2000; Hickman 2003; Maxwell et al.
2002; Piquero et al. 2006). Second, since empirical
evidence suggests that assaults on officers at domestic
calls, and officer survival rates from these assaults, have
remained stable for more than 30 years (Johnson 2007,
2008), there is little likelihood that any possible changes in
police tactics since the 1980s has occurred with respect to
handling domestic calls. Finally, the emphasis of this
investigation rested on offender characteristics to predict
offender behavior, relating to innate human behavioral traits
that are unlikely to have evolved significantly over a few
decades.
Data collection method used in all three of these studies
was identical. The data about the domestic assault incident
came from official reports by police officers and from
interviews with the domestic abuse victims conducted by
the research team within a week after the incident.
Information about the batterer’s behaviors before the arrival
of the police was also obtained in the abuse victim
interviews. Finally, data about the batterer’s prior criminal
record was obtained from the state crime computer database
(Pate et al. 1991; Sherman and Rogan 1984; Sherman et al.
1991).
After merging the 3,078 cases from these three studies it
was discovered that 98 cases (3.2%) involved a female
batterer, none of whom had assaulted an officer. Because of
this lack of variation in the dependent variable for female
batterers in the sample, the decision was made to limit this
analysis to only male batterers. In another 33.3% of the
cases the batterer had fled the scene prior to the arrival of
the police, thus eliminating the possibility of an assault on

the officers. These 1,026 cases were therefore eliminated
from the analysis, as were three additional cases that
involved an assault on officers by the abuse victim rather
than the batterer.2 The final dataset for the present study
consisted of data on 1,951 incidents of domestic assault that
were investigated by the police.
The fact that so many cases were eliminated from the
sample for this analysis could raise questions of validity,
especially if the batterers excluded from the analysis
differed significantly from those that remained. It order to
determine the extent of this potential weakness, basic
demographic characteristics available for the batterers who
remained in the sample were compared with those who
were excluded from the sample. These demographic
characteristics are displayed in Table 1 and suggest that
there were surprisingly few differences between the cases
that were excluded and those that remained in the sample.
In general, those batterers that were excluded from the
analyses were slightly more likely to be male, were slightly
younger, and less likely to be married.
Procedure
The dependent variable in this analysis was whether or not
the official report indicated the suspect had physically
assaulted the officers handling the domestic assault call.
Because the data collected was focused primarily on the
batterer and the abuse victim, details were not available on
whether or not the officers sustained injuries, the serious-
ness of the injuries, whether or not the assailant used a
weapon, or when during the encounter this attack took
place. While having this information would have permitted
a richer analysis, the emphasis of this study, however was
the prediction of assaults, no matter how minor. Just as with

victims of abuse, assaults of any kind are a crime and place
police officers at risk of injury and increased stress.
Data were available on 12 descriptive characteristics
about the batterers in the domestic assaults that served as
the independent variables in this analysis. These variables
and their descriptive statistics are displayed in Table 2. The
first independent variable considered was the batterer’s age,
and it was hypothesized that younger batterers would be
more likely to assault officers than older batterers. Second,
whether the batterer was married to the abuse victim was
1 Data obtained from Sherman, L. W. and Berk, R. A., Specific
Deterrent Effects of Arrest for Domestic Assault: Minneapolis,
1981–
1982: Sherman, L. W., Schmidt, J. D., Rogan, D. P., Milwaukee
Domestic Violence Experiment, 1987–1989: Pate, A., Hamilton,
E. E.,
and Sampson, A., Spouse Abuse Replication Project in Metro-
Dade
County, Florida 1987–1989: computer file datasets; Ann Arbor,
Michigan: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social
Research, 2001.
2 While police lore frequently provides examples of incidents
where it
was the abuse victim at the domestic violence call who
assaulted the
officers, the data here suggests that this is a truly rare event. An
attack
on officers by a victim occurred in less than one in a thousand
domestic violence calls recorded in these three datasets.
Table 1 Comparison between sample and excluded cases
Sample Cases Excluded Cases

N 1,951 1,127
Percent male 100% 91%
Mean age 33.4 30.4
Percent married 51% 47%
Percent consuming alcohol 51% 49%
Percent using drugs 22% 23%
Percent damaged property 18% 16%
Percent struck abuse victim 94% 91%
J Fam Viol (2011) 26:163–169 165
considered, under the assumption that married batterers
may hold stronger views of privilege to control their
spouses and defend against outside interference by the
police. Similarly, the third independent variable was
whether or not the batterer and abuse victim resided
together. It was hypothesized that batterers who reside with
their abuse victims would be more defensive of this
territory being invaded by the arrival of an outside
authority, such as the police.
The fourth and fifth independent variables dealt with
substance use issues, whether or not the batterer had
consumed alcohol prior to the arrival of the police, and
whether the batterer had used an illegal drug before the
arrival of the police. Each of these variables was expected
to have a positive relationship with assaulting police

officers.
The next three independent variables were believed to be
measures of the batterer’s level of aggression at the time of
the incident. It was reasoned that whether or not the batterer
had damaged property as part of the domestic assault
incident, and whether or not the abuse victim had been
struck by the batterer as part of the incident, would suggest
how violently aggressive the batterer was at the time of the
incident. Whether or not the batterer displayed a hostile
demeanor toward the officers upon their arrival at the scene
was also included in the model to measure if the batterer’s
level of aggression was still high when the officers finally
arrived.
Whether or not the batterer had been told the police had
been summoned was also considered as a possible
predictor. When offenders are surprised by the appearance
of the police they may be more likely to resist or be
antagonistic toward the officers. It was therefore hypothe-
sized that the batterer would be more likely to assault the
officers if their arrival on the scene was unexpected,
allowing him less time to compose him, flee the scene, or
formulate a plan for how to respond to the officers.
The last three predictors in the model related to the
batterer’s background, specifically his prior history of
domestic assault arrests, his employment status, and his
education level. Regarding the batterer’s prior record, all
three datasets used for this analysis recorded the number of
prior domestic assault arrests the batterer had received.
Unfortunately, not all of the datasets included information
on each batterer’s total number of prior criminal offense
arrests, (which may have been a better predictor of past
criminality), or all prior violent offenses (which may have
been a better predictor of violent propensity). Whether or

not the batterer was employed was included in the model,
as was whether or not the batterer had attained a high
school diploma or general education development (GED)
diploma. It was hypothesized that batterers with prior
domestic assault arrests, those who were unemployed, and
those who had less than a high school education would be
at greater risk for assaulting an officer.
Results
Only 117 cases involved an assault on officers, thus
supporting the previous literature that domestic assault
calls are not necessarily frequent events (Hirschel et al.
1994; Konstantin 1984; Garner and Clemmer 1986).
Because the dependent variable was a dichotomous
nominal level measure, binary logistic regression was
utilized to determine the significance of the influence the
independent variables had on the probability of whether or
not the batterer assaulted the police officers on the scene.
The logistic regression technique also permitted the
determination of the odds each predictor had of increasing
the likelihood of assault, while controlling for the influence
of all of the other predictors in the model. The results of
this logistic regression analysis are presented in Table 3.
As can been seen in Table 3, the model chi-square was
highly significant (p<.001), indicating that the combined
predictors in the model did a fair job of predicting whether
or not the batterer would assault the officers. The
Nagelkerke pseudo R2 suggests that the independent
variables in the model explained more than a quarter of
the variation between cases in the odds of the batterer
physically attacking the police. Within the model, however,
Table 2 Variable descriptive statistics (N=1,951)

Dependent Variable N %
Batterer physically
assaulted officers
117 6%
Independent Variables
Batterer’s age Min 18 Max 79 Mean 33.4 SD 9.01
Batterer married to
abuse victim
995 51%
Batterer’s prior DV
arrests
Min 0 Max 10 Mean 0.89 SD 1.08
Batterer unemployed 702 36%
Batterer has HS/GED 1,093 56%
Batterer residing with
abuse victim
741 38%
Batterer consuming
alcohol
976 50%
Batterer using drugs 429 22%

Batterer damaged
property
351 18%
Batterer struck abuse
victim
1,834 94%
Batterer knew police
were responding
1,034 53%
Batterer displayed
hostile demeanor
1,073 55%
166 J Fam Viol (2011) 26:163–169
only five of the 12 independent variables were significant in
predicting the odds of an assault occurring.
The strongest predictor was whether or not the batterer
displayed a hostile demeanor at the arrival of the police.
When the suspect displayed a hostile demeanor toward the
police, the batterer was almost 13 times more likely to
assault the officers than if he did not display a hostile
demeanor. The next significant predictor in strength was
whether or not the batterer had been consuming alcohol
prior to the arrival of the police. Batterers who had been

consuming alcohol were five-and-a-half times more likely
to assault officers than those who had not. If the batterer
shared a residence with the victim he was more than three
times more likely to physically assault the police. Batterers
who had reportedly damaged property during the domestic
incident were almost twice as likely to assault officers as
those who had not damaged property. Those batterers who
were unemployed were about one-and-a-half times more
likely to assault the police as batters who were employed.
Finally, all of the independent variables that revealed
significant relationships to the dependent variable displayed
relationships in the predicted directions.
To reveal the substantive significance these five varia-
bles had on predicting whether or not an assault on the
police would occur, the cases that bore all five predictors
were compared with the cases that lacked all five
significant predictors. A total of 43 cases involved a
batterer who displayed a hostile demeanor, had been
consuming alcohol, resided with his abuse victim, had
damaged property in the incident, and was unemployed. Of
these cases, 25.6% (n=11) resulted in an assault on the
police. On the other hand, 263 incidents in the sample
failed to have any of the five significant predictor
characteristics, and none of these incidents resulted in an
officer assault. Therefore, it appears that simultaneous
presence of all five of these predictors increases the chances
of an officer being assaulted to better than one in four,
while the absence of all of these predictors reduces the
chances of assault to less than one in 263.
Discussion and Conclusion
The purpose of this study was to attempt to identify
domestic batterer characteristics that helped predict

whether or not batterers would assault police officers
who responded to their acts of domestic abuse. It was
hoped that this exploratory analysis would reveal charac-
teristics that had predictive value in order to help police
officers identify when they are at increased risk of being
assaulted by a male domestic batterer. It appears that this
study took a significant first step in identifying such risk
factor characteristics.
As hostile demeanor and alcohol consumption were
significant predictors of an officer assault. Prior research
has suggested that domestic batterers frequently act
composed when officers arrive and tend to act as if the
abuse victim is the one who is acting irrationally (Buzawa
and Buzawa 2003; Walker 1989). Therefore, batterers who
remain hostile in their demeanor even after the police arrive
appear likely to let their hostility turn to physical violence
against the officers. Thus encountering a batterer who still
displays a hostile demeanor when the officers arrive is an
uncommon event and appears highly predictive of an
impending assault.
As for batterer alcohol consumption, the prior research
on police officer assaults suggested that alcohol consump-
tion is correlated with attacks on officers (Brown 1994;
Meyer et al. 1979; Moxey and McKenzie 1993; Noaks and
Christopher 1990; Pinizzotto et al. 1998), and the same was
found here. Alcohol serves as a depressant, contributing to
the batterer’s negative mood, and may reduce the batterer’s
inhibitions about using force against the police. Alcohol
consumption frequently coexists with domestic violence
(Buzawa and Buzawa 2003; Saunders 1995; Straus et al.
1980), and appears to increase likelihood of the batterer
assaulting the responding police officers.
Batterers who reside with their abuse victim are more

likely to assault officers than those who live apart from
their victim. This may be due to impressions of territorial
control. Prior research has suggested that many batterers
have heightened needs for dominance and control in their
relationships and their home (Buzawa and Buzawa 2003;
Holtzworth-Munroe and Stuart 1994; Walker 1989). They
Table 3 Logistic regression of batterer characteristics on officer
assault (N=1,951)
Variable Coefficient SE Odds Ratio
Batterer age −0.016 .020 0.984
Batterer married 0.070 .327 1.073
Prior DV arrests −0.126 .219 0.882
Batterer unemployed 0.542* .308 1.582
High school/GED 0.047 .308 1.048
Resides with abuse victim 1.152** .342 3.165
Using alcohol 1.706*** .431 5.507
Using drugs −0.562 .459 0.570
Property damaged 0.652* .307 1.919
Abuse victim struck −0.656 .582 0.519
Hostile demeanor 2.530*** .480 12.555
Knew Police were coming −0.161 .298 0.852
(Constant) −5.792*** 1.029 0.003
Model Chi-square 122.843***
Nagelkerke Pseudo R2 .276

Significance Levels: * p<.05; ** p<.01; *** p<.001
J Fam Viol (2011) 26:163–169 167
are threatened when they cannot successfully control the
behavior of their intimate partners, and appear to be even
more threatened when the police enter their home and
interject themselves into the situation. In essence, the
batterer has lost all influence over what he views as his
human and physical property when the police intervene.
While this police interference may be difficult for the
batterer to accept at any location, it appears to be an even
stronger insult when it occurs in his own residence.
It may also be this emphasis on dominance, power, and
control that results in unemployed batterers being more
likely to assault officers than batterers who are employed.
Unemployed batterers may be already struggling to
maintain dominance in their home. Being unable to provide
for their families, they no longer have the option of using
economic means to control their abuse victims. Some abuse
victims are willing to tolerate their abuse because of the
economic rewards afforded to her and her children if she
stays in the relationship (Buzawa and Buzawa 2003; Straus
et al. 1980), but if there are very few financial rewards due
to the batterer’s unemployment, there are fewer incentives
to stay. The batterer begins to lose some of his power and
control in the relationship. This situation can be aggravated
further for the batterer if it results in his abuse victim
seeking employment to support the family, thus gaining
some economic independence that further threatens that
batterer’s control. This situation may make the batterer
more volatile than normal when the police arrive to interject
themselves into that situation, and limit the batterer’s

control to an even greater extent.
Destruction of property by the batterer prior to the arrival of
the police was another significant predictor of officer assaults.
This may be an indicator of the degree of the batterer’s rage.
While whether or not the victim was struck was not a
significant predictor, it is important to remember how many
batterers view their use of force. Their abusive behavior is
used to control their victim. When the abuse victim is
completely compliant the abuse is usually very minor, often
only limited to insults and innuendo. When the abuse victim’s
behavior is perceived as less compliant, the severity of the
abuse increases proportionally (Buzawa and Buzawa 2003;
Saunders 1995; Walker 1989). When the batterer damages
property, especially his own possessions, it is not a control
technique as much as it is an expression of rage. This rage is
then turned on the police when they arrive.
These five significant predictors could be utilized by law
enforcement agencies to screen domestic assault calls for their
level of danger. In many situations, police dispatchers can
collect details about four of these elements from the victim or
witness who reports the crime. Even if the caller is a neighbor,
the dispatcher can often ascertain from the caller if the suspect
resides with the victim, if he has been drinking, and if he has
damaged any property. If the caller is a friend or family
member, he/she should also be able to reveal if the batterer is
unemployed. The dispatcher could then warn the responding
officers if these four assault predictors are already present at
the scene. The dispatcher can also assign additional units
when these elements are present. When the officers arrive,
they can determine for themselves if the fifth element, a
hostile demeanor toward them, is present. If so, the officers
can take defensive measures to isolate the batterer and place
him in a position of disadvantage (such as on his knees with

his hands interlaced on his head) before questioning him.
Finally, it is important to note for police training
purposes that female victims and female batterers in
domestic assault situations assault the police only very
rarely. Of the 3,078 domestic assault calls in the original
sampling frame, only 98 (3.2%) involved a female batterer,
illustrating how rarely law enforcement officers encounter
female perpetrators of domestic assault. Of these 98
incidents of female perpetrated domestic assault, none of
them resulted in an assault on an officer. Three of the male
perpetrated domestic assault calls did result in a female
abuse victim assaulting an officer. Of the 2,980 incidents of
male perpetrated domestic assault calls in the original
sampling frame, less than 0.1% involved a victim assault on
an officer. In this dataset, only one in 1,026 domestic
assault calls handled by the police resulted in a female
victim assault on an officer.
Several inferences can be drawn from the findings in this
study. First, attacks on police officers while they are
handling domestic assault calls do not occur very frequent-
ly. In the present study, officers were assaulted in only 6%
of cases in the sample. Nevertheless, due to the sheer
volume of domestic assault calls handled by the police in
the U.S., there still is a significant risk of assault. For
example, if the odds of assault are truly only one in 33
(3%), and a patrol officer in an urban area responds to at
least two domestic assault calls per week, the officer is
likely to be assaulted at least twice per year. Obviously
other factors are also at work here, however, as the
variables in the present study left more than 70% of the
variation unexplained. While an explained variance of 30%
is common among social science studies of human behavior
(Loeber 1990; Rosenthal 2001), more work needs to be
done. Certain officer characteristics (such as skills in

interpersonal communication), or situational characteristics
(such as the number of backup officers present) may help
further reduce the odds of being assaulted. Possibilities
should be pursued in future research.
Another inference to be drawn from this study is that the
five predictors that were significantly correlated with
assaulting an officer may be reliable risk factors that
officers may use to predict their risk of assault. Whether
or not the batterer at a domestic assault incident has most of
these five characteristics could easily be determined by a
168 J Fam Viol (2011) 26:163–169
skilled police 911 dispatcher, provided that the caller has
first hand knowledge about the incident and is being
cooperative. If the batterer appears to have any of these
five characteristics, the responding officers could possibly
be warned of this fact prior to their arrival. Policies could
also be developed to send more backup units than normally
would be sent if it is determined that the batterer has most
of these characteristics. However, before these character-
istics could be reliably established as risk factors, replica-
tion of these findings would be necessary.
As with all studies, this one had its limitations. First,
because of the age of the data it may not have accounted for
any changes in police tactics that may have occurred over the
last few decades. Second, the data lacked information on the
seriousness of the assaults on the officers. It was unknown,
therefore, if the victim officers sustained any injuries from
these assaults, and if the predictors varied by the seriousness
of the assault. Finally, the data lacked information on the
interpersonal interactions between the officers and the batterer

upon their arrival. What the officers did and said at the scene
may have had an aggravating of mitigating influence on the
potential for assault. These weaknesses need to be addressed
in future research regarding assaults on officers attending
domestic assault calls.
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Workaholísm: Addiction to Work
Rachel Shifron and Rebekah R. Reysen
Abstract
Addiction, from the perspective of Individual Psychology, can
be conceptualized
as goal-oriented, creative, and chosen behavior. Shifron (1999)
indicated that addic-
tions are creative choices to deal with the hardships of life. In
this article, workaholism
is introduced as an addiction through an Adierian framework.
Workaholism is impor-
tant because it negatively affects not only the individual, but
also the family system.
Keywords; addiction. Individual Psychology, workaholism
Following a review of the literature, Robinson (2001a) reported
that the

prevalence of workaholism in the United States is somewhere in
the range
of 25-30%. Vodanovich and Piotrowski (2006) claimed that
workahol-
ism has recently received much more attention, supported by R.
J. Burke's
(2004) observation of this tendency on an international level.
Despite being
a widely known concept, the research base of workaholism is
undevel-
oped (Aziz & Zickar, 2006; Chamberlin & Zhang, 2009;
Naughton, 1987),
and researchers lack an agreed-upon definition of this
phenomenon (Ng,
Sorensen, & Feldman, 2007).
The need for workaholism to be more fully understood is great,
as it has
been linked to negative factors including "'burnout,' 'job stress,'
and 'sub-
jective health complaints'" (Andreassen, Ursin, & Eriksen,
2007, p. 617),
heart disease (Booth-Kewley & Friedman, 1987), and emotional
difficulties
(R. A. Burke, Oberklaid, & Burgess, 2004). Robinson (2000b)
goes so far as
to say that workaholism can "lead to unmanageable life, family
disintegra-
tion, serious health problems, and even death" (p. 34). This
indicates that
workaholics can face major repercussions as a result of their
overengage-
ment of the work life task.
Workaholism can also negatively affect the workaholic's family.
It has

been linked to marital unhappiness (Robinson, Carroll, &
Flowers, 2001;
Robinson, Flowers, & Ng, 2006), and the offspring of
workaholic parents
have been shown to have an increased risk of physical,
psychological, and
self-esteem issues as well (Chamberlin & Zhang, 2009). Such
risks make it of
crucial importance for professional helpers to know how to help
those and
their families who suffer from workaholism.
The journal of individual Psychology, Vol. 67, No. 2, Summer
2011
©2011 by the University ofTexas Press, P.O. Box 7819, Austin,
TX 78713-7819
Editorial office located in the College of Education at Georgia
State University.
Workaholism 137
Although it has not previously been conceptualized from an
Individual
Psychology framework, the elements of workaholism have
already been
identified in the work life task, and its effects can be found in
all life tasks.
Therefore, the holistic psychology of Alfred Adler is an
appropriate theory to
use when conceptualizing workaholism.
Workaholism as an Addiction

Like addiction, workaholism has been defined in a variety of
ways since
the term was coined by Oates (1971). For example, Griffiths
(2005) noted
that, over time, psychologists have begun "preferring the term
'work de-
pendency' to 'workaholism' (i.e., work addiction)" (p. 97).
Because of the
similarities between workaholism and other addictions, we are
introducing
workaholism from an addictions paradigm. Furthermore, we will
also show
how workaholism can be conceptualized from both Adierian and
Drei-
kursian standpoints.
Workaholism over time has been defined in a variety of ways.
Rob-
inson, Carroll, and Flowers (2001) defined workaholism as "a
compulsive
and progressive, potentially fatal disorder, characterized by
self-imposed
demands, compulsive overworking, inability to regulate work
habits, and
an overindulgence in work to the exclusion and detriment of
intimate rela-
tionships and major life activities" (pp. 397-398). Selinger
(2007) echoed
Robinson, Carroll, and Flowers' definition by saying that a
workaholic is
"someone who works at the expense of his family and personal
life. Worka-
holics have the compulsion to just do more work. Therefore it is
different
from just working hard" (p. 71). In both definitions,
workaholism involves

working to the point that it interferes significantly with one's
life tasks, which
is why we suggest that workaholism be conceptualized as an
addiction.
One possible reason for such an addiction is explained by
Shifron
(1999): "Addiction is a creative chosen repetitious developing
behavior. The
goal ofthis behavior is to escape existential fears" (p. 114).
These fears can be
rudimentarily conceptualized as the goals of misbehavior in
children, which
can later become manifested in the work habits of adults.
Dreikurs (1968)
conceptualized children's reasons for misbehavior as being due
to four ob-
jectives: getting attention, control, retribution, and displaying
inadequacy.
Although this concept was based on children, these goals can
become more
complex in adolescence and even more so in adulthood, making
it relevant
to workaholics over the course of time. Workaholics can
achieve power by
working hard and becoming well known in their field or
organization. They
can get the attention of their peers, supervisors, and community
members
by achieving a high status and level of pay in their career. They
can also seek
138 Rachel Shifron and Rebekah R. Reysen

revenge on a spouse by escaping marital problems in favor of
work. Dis-
playing inadequacy can also come into play when the
workaholic feels that
there is no other option but to work in order to keep his or her
job in times
of economic uncertainty and in order to maintain feelings of
significance.
These lifestyle attributes parallel those of addicts and
demonstrate the rela-
tionship between addiction and Dreikurs's goals of misbehavior.
Bauman (2000) conceptualized addiction from the Adierian
perspec-
tive by using the BASIS-A Inventory (Wheeler, Kern, &
Curlette, 1993) to
study how lifestyle variables differ between individuals who
were diagnosed
with a mental health disorder, a substance use disorder, or both.
Bauman
found that substance abusers and those who qualified for both
categories
scored significantly higher on the Taking Charge scale and
lower on the
Going Along, Wanting Recognition, and Liked by All scales.
Based on these
findings, we believe that workaholics would also score higher
on Taking
Charge as a group and are hesitant to go along with the needs or
wants of
anyone who stands in their way. One could also argue that some
workahol-
ics would score lower in Wanting Recognition if they were more
focused
on keeping their job than rising higher in an organization. In
contrast to

Bauman's results, however, it would make sense for workaholics
to score
higher in the Wanting Recognition category, if they are
interested in a high-
profile lifestyle.
Finally, addiction has been formally conceptualized by the
American
Psychiatric Association in the DSM-IV-TR (2000). Being
substance depen-
dent can involve a large amount of time spent using or acquiring
a substance;
experiencing a deficit in other areas of one's life (e.g., the
social realm); and
failing to inhibit or quit its use despite how it is causing
significant problems
in the individual's life. Van Wormer and Davis (2003) said that
"addiction"
and "substance dependence" are terms that can be used
interchangeably
and that "substance use is a multifactorial process involving
social, psycho-
logical, and biological factors . . ." (p. 3). Workaholics, like
addicts, engage
in this lifestyle despite other areas of their lives being
neglected.
Goal-directed Behavior in Workaholism
The goal of compulsive work habits, which serve as the
fundamental
basis of workaholism, can be brought to life through a variety
of factors.
These factors can be viewed through the lens of the workforce
of modern-
day America, which has recently changed dramatically. In The

Disposable
American, Uchitelle (2006) discusses changes in both the
workforce and
in the expectations of employers and organizations over the
years. Several
decades ago, it was common for workers, once hired by a
company or or-
ganization, to expect to have a tenure-like status if they worked
hard and
Workaholism 139
were loyal to their employers. "We had decided as a people—
managers,
politicians, and workers—that job security had value, and in
pursuit of that
value, we lifted ourselves out of insecurity" (Uchitelle, p. 5).
The goal of the
worker was always to reach the tenure stage; it promoted a
sense of security,
stability, and enticing bonuses, like retirement packages.
However, these
comforts soon diminished once job tenure became less common
within the
organizational structure. Hall (1996) seconded Uchitelle's
claims by stat-
ing, "Job insecurity has soared, and any thoughts of long-term
careers in
one firm have been shattered" (p. 18). This state of affairs
worsened, and by
2004, millions had lost their jobs. The U.S. economy, which for
most of a
century consisted of an alliance between employer and
employee, became

much more guarded as a result.
Over half of the American public believes that the leaders of big
business care
more about their own power and rewards than they do about the
well-being of
their companies or their employees. (Hall, 1996, p. 19)
With such feelings of insecurity, those who work hard can
believe that
working harder than others could carve them a more secure
place in the
workforce. Workaholics take this idea to an even greater
extreme of trying to
be successful to keep their jobs despite the detrimental effects
they experi-
ence in other areas of their lives.
This compulsiveness to work is an integral component of the
worka-
holic, but it is only the behavioral manifestation of insecurity.
While
Uchitelle (2006) and Hall and Associates (1996) described the
outward
reaction of workaholics, Gottfredson (1981) focused on the
inward, psycho-
logical realm of workaholism. Gottfredson theorized that people
develop
"occupational images" of what working is like in certain
professions and
how suitable they believe themselves to be with those images.
With the
view of job stability in the U.S. workforce having changed
significantly over
the years, Gottfredson might argue that workaholics may
perhaps have a

distorted view of how often they need to work in order to reach
their over-
all goal of keeping their job. Furthermore, this continued effort
at moving
toward this image is given precedence over other areas of one's
life, which
can cause significant impairment in many ways. This
impairment is why
workaholism can be viewed from a holistic standpoint.
Workaholism: A Holistic Problem
Addictive behaviors, such as those performed by workaholics,
are
holistic in nature. These behaviors are expressed physically,
biologically,
psychologically, cognitively, and socially for the individual.
These behaviors
can also negatively affect the individual's entire family system
and society
(Shifron, 1999, 2010).
140 Rachel Shifron and Rebekah R. Reysen
First, the workaholic can reach a point of physical crisis,
manifested as
exhaustion from overworking one's body. Research indicates
that workahol-
ism may cause serious threats to the worker's health and can
even result in
death (Robinson, 2000b, 2001b; Selinger, 2007). This desire to
work can
result in job and family stress. Sapolsky (1998) went so far as
to say that the

body not only reacts on a biological level to stress, but also
reacts to fore-
seen stress, which, although it has not yet occurred and may
never occur,
still affects humans negatively in the body: "When something
stressful hap-
pens or you think a stressful thought, the hypothalamus secretes
an array of
releasing hormones into the hypothalamic-pituitary circulatory
system . . ."
(p. 31 ). Thus, physiological effects can occur even in the
absence of a stress-
ful event, one that is experienced solely in thought. For the
workaholic, just
thinking about the possibility of not meeting work-related goals
is enough
to produce hormones even when the work-related Stressors are
not present.
In the mind of the workaholic, what better way to bring these
hormones
back to homeostasis than by working and thereby preventing
future Stressors
from occurring?
Second, psychologically, the higher the reward at work, the
more emo-
tional investment a workaholic is likely to make in trying to
achieve his
or her goal (Andreassen, Ursin & Eriksen, 2007). When
workaholics feel
powerful or are either seeking or receiving attention, there is a
tendency to
invest even more energy and time into their work (Shifron,
2009). Worka-
holics are also affected by their addiction on a cognitive level
when they

think about work during leisure time and family events (Snir,
2008). In ad-
dition, the workaholic's private logic could involve a belief that
he or she is
providing for his or her family by working hard.
Third, there are also social aspects to consider in the life of a
worka-
holic. Specific problems that may arise in this area can affect
the family as a
whole or at an individual level for specific family members.
Such concerns
can include disappointing holidays because of lack of
involvement on the
part of the workaholic, demonstrating no boundaries between
work, leisure,
and family life. Added family pressures include expectations for
children to
act in parental roles. Children can also develop negative
attitudes toward
work or imitate the workaholic's behavior (Shifron, 2006b).
A workaholic's romantic relationships can be negatively
influenced by
the workaholic's behavior. Robinson, Flowers, and Ng (2006)
found that
workaholism was positively related to marital discontentment
for men.
These findings supported previous research that the same
authors conducted
with women who identified their husbands as workaholics.
These women
also reported greater marital displeasure and less positive
feelings between
themselves and their partners. In addition, marital
dissatisfaction can also af-

fect the couple's children, who can serve as mediators between
their parents
(Shifron, 2006a). Robinson et al. (2006) also concluded that
workaholism
Workaholism 141
and poor marital relationships continue to be an ignored area of
clinical and
empirical research.
Finally, workaholism not only affects the workaholic and family
but also
the entire global culture. Shifron et al. (2010) view this as a
culture addicted
to power and pose an important question: How can
organizations be moti-
vated to reduce these workaholic tendencies by reducing
extreme demands
at work? We argue that Individual Psychology can be applied to
working
with the workaholic, the family, and the organization.
Treatment Options for Workaholics
A variety of treatment options exist for workaholics and their
families
using Individual Psychology. Robinson (2000a) stated that
analyses of one's
childhood family can be used to facilitate treatment for grown
children of
workaholic parents. "Although relatively few writers have
addressed how
counselors can assist workaholic clients, many have presented

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