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Models of Abuse

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Models of Abuse
This essay will describe the models of abuse and compare them; there has been some controversy over these and this will be lightly discussed.

Psychological Model of Abuse - Also known as emotional or mental abuse
Emotional abuse can be described as constantly mistreating a child and therefore affecting their emotional state and development. Emotional abuse can be inflicted upon a child in many different ways; these can include telling a child that they are “worthless or unloved”. It may also include not allowing the child opportunities to express themselves, or teasing them about the way in which they communicate or what they say. This type of abuse can result in psychological trauma, which can include …show more content…

Similarities
Psychological and feminist: both have the scapegoating concept, where one member of the family, in the feminist case, the father figure, will blame their family 's dysfunction on the child, which can result in the father sexually abusing the child or other physical abuse. They are both ways of making the parent feel as if they are superior to the child; they do this by abusing them either emotionally or sexually/physically. The sociological theory may also be linked to the psychological theory of scapegoating; parents and families in poverty may blame their child for their lack of finance and their unemployment. They may make the excuse that they cannot work because they have children to look after. Psychological and medical are similar because they have a similar cause – one cause is that one or more parents have a mental condition which makes them abuse their child. The psychological theory and the sociological also have the “cycle of abuse”; children who were abused as children do not know any other way of parenting and so abuse their own children, which can result in depression and trauma, which can continue the cycle. The sociological and medical models are similar as the reason for abusing the children is that they don’t know any other way; a parent with medical issues may not understand that it is wrong to abuse their children or that they may not be able to control their own problems and so lash out

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