Dottorato in PSICOLOGIA E SCIENZA COGNITIVA

Titolo della tesi: Researching Gender-Based Violence: a cognitive approach in female victims and the consequences on Decision-Making, Risk-Taking and Emotion Regulation.

The present thesis addresses the topic of gender-based violence intending to integrate social and cognitive psychology studies to explore differences in the various types and forms of violence. Gender is defined by the World Health Organization as the set of socially constructed characteristics of genders. Thus, gender is considered to be an effect of norms, behaviours, and roles associated with being socialised as a man or a woman, up to and including the understanding and construction of one's own experience, including the non-binary dimension of gender. Starting from this definition and considering violence as a systemic problem, the possible consequences at the individual level on the psychological and cognitive well-being of the victims were considered. The analysis of the literature starts with the definition of violence and its various forms, thus enabling the contextualisation of the ecological and social aspects of gender-based violence and, more specifically, intimate partner violence. The second chapter deals with the consequences that gender-based violence can have on individuals' psychological well-being and cognitive aspects in the short and long term. The third chapter presents the validation of the EAPA-P, a scale aimed at investigating the presence of psychological violence within the intimate partner relationship, assessing, in particular, the types of strategies (direct and indirect) used by the abusive partner. Finally, a study is presented on the effects of Gender Violence on cognitive processes with a specific focus on decision-making strategies and emotional dysregulation. The results of the studies are discussed concerning the existing literature on the topic, highlighting the limitations and future applications of the collected data.