Christopher
I. Eckhardt, Ph.D.
Ph.D., Hofstra
University, 1994
Clinical and School Psychology
Associate
Professor of Psychological Sciences
Purdue
University
703
3rd St.
West
Lafayette, IN 47907
765-494-6977
e-mail:
eckhardt at purdue dot edu
RESEARCH INTERESTS PUBLICATIONS GRANTS AND CONTRACTS
RESEARCH
INTERESTS
(1)
Intimate Partner Violence: Cognitive and Emotional Risk Factors among Male
Perpetrators of Intimate Partner Violence.
-- Our
lab examines cognitive distortions and anger arousal during laboratory affect
induction; in other words, what goes through the minds of partner violent men
during emotionally charged relationship conflicts?
-- A series of studies funded by NIMH and the H.
F. Guggenheim Foundation have found that both maritally violent men and
male perpetrators of dating violence articulate more irrational beliefs and
cognitive biases during anger arousal than relevant nonviolent controls, but
were less likely to spontaneously generate anger-controlling, prosocial
cognitions (Eckhardt, Barbour, & Davison, 1998; Eckhardt & Kassinove,
1998; Eckhardt & Jamison, 2002). Higher levels of cognitive distortions
also discriminated severely violent and “mildly” aggressive husbands. These
group differences were not apparent
on self-report measures of cognition, suggesting that anger arousal may have
made such cognitions more accessible (for a review see Eckhardt & Dye,
2000).
--
Another major focus of our lab is the emotion of ANGER among
perpetrators of IPV. Reviews have suggested that anger is a moderate but
consistent correlate with IPV perpetration (Eckhardt, Barbour, & Stuart,
1997; Norlander & Eckhardt, 2005). In our laboratory studies, violent men
do not directly express anger as a verbal statement, but rather they skip this
affective communication step in favor of more insulting and belligerent
communication styles (Barbour et al., 1998; Eckhardt, Jamison, & Watts,
2002).
--
Other research has examined whether anger disturbances predict poorer outcomes
of abusive men mandated to attend batterer intervention and prevention
programs. Across two different samples of violent offenders, we have found
three distinct anger-based clusters of partner violent men: (1) High Anger-Dyscontrol group (30%
of sample; high scores on trait anger, anger out, partner violence,
externalizing psychopathology, substance use; low scores on anger control); (2)
a Moderate Anger-Overcontrolled
group (7% of sample; moderate scores on trait anger, anger out, anger control,
and partner violent; high scores on anger in); and (3) A Low Anger group (63% of sample; normative scores across
all measures). The key findings are that men in the High Anger group are more
likely to drop out of treatment and more likely to reoffend than men in the
other groups (Eckhardt, Samper, & Murphy, 2008; Murphy, Taft, &
Eckhardt, 2007). These findings suggest that for some men (but certainly not
all) anger-based treatments are viable post-adjudication options, especially
for those men with identified anger control problems. The next step in this
research area is to determine whether and for whom such interventions are
effective.
--
Our efforts to translate some of this work into viable intervention programs
for abusive men are in early stages of development (Eckhardt & Schram, in
press).
(2)
The stages and processes of behavior change among batterers mandated to
treatment.
--
We are interested in whether and how men
mandated to attend batterers intervention programs change their behavior and
refrain from future violence.
--
Once they’ve been charged with
an assault offense and mandated by a judge to attend a batterers counseling
group for the next 6-12 months, one might think that assaultive males might
finally get their lives back on track, if for no other reason than they’ve not
much lower to go. Unfortunately, 30-40% of partner assaultive males will
reassault soon after adjudication, and a whopping 40-70% drop out treatment by
the third or fourth week. Based upon previous research (Eckhardt, Babcock,
& Homack, 2004), we predicted that such men are likely to enter treatment
with differential “readiness to change” that will match with varying levels of
success with the approaches used by various treatment centers. With funding
from the US Department of Justice,
we followed 200 men as they went through this treatment to examine their
movement through the “stages of change,” their usage of behavior change
processes, attrition from treatment, and partner-reported levels of violence
and abusive behavior during the six month treatment phase as well as six months
post-treatment. Results suggest that most abusers present to a batterer
intervention program with little to no motivation to change. Men who were in
the precontemplative stage were more likely to be rearrested during the
13-month study period than those in more advanced stages of change.
Interestingly, subtypes of men based upon violence frequency, severity, and
generality as well as the presence of personality disorders and psychopathology
were stronger predictors of dropout and reoffending than readiness to change
(Eckhardt et al., 2008; Eckhardt & Utschig, 2007).
-- More needs to be done to create new
batterer intervention programs based on research findings rather than adherence
to a particular ideology (see Eckhardt, Murphy, Black, & Suhr, 2006). The
stakes are simply too high and the outcomes too tragic for victims of violence
to offer anything but the most effective intervention to abuse perpetrators
available. Along with Chris Murphy at the University of Maryland, we’ve
outlined a novel approach to abuser treatment in a treatment manual, Treating
the Abusive Partner: An Individualized, Cognitive Behavioral Approach,
published by Guilford Press. One core message of this approach is that men will
be poorly inclined to make the changes mandated by the criminal justice system
unless they are ready and motivated to make those change. Evaluating methods of
increasing motivation that rely less on confrontation than is common in most
batterer intervention programs is a primary research goal, as is determining
the usefulness of focusing on anger control as an intervention strategy.
(3) The effects of
alcohol intoxication on anger and aggressive behavior.
--
Our lab examines the acute effects of alcohol intoxication on aggression during
imagined relationship conflict
--
In a prior study, we found
that the alcohol-aggression relationship is moderated by aggressivity, or one’s
dispositional level of aggressive responding (Eckhardt & Crane, 2008). This
suggested that men with a history of intimate partner violence might be
especially at risk for violence perpetration when intoxicated. With funding
from NIAAA, we examined the role of
alcohol intoxication in intimate partner violence. There is a strong, but not
quite causal, relationship among these factors, but very little data concerning
the role of acute alcohol intoxication in specific episodes of violence. So, we
randomly assigned men with and without a history of intimate partner violence
to receive alcohol, placebo, or no alcohol and then had all men undergo ATSS
anger arousal in our lab. Results indicated that partner violent men given
alcohol were the most likely of all subject groups to show increases in
aggressive verbalizations during anger arousal. This finding suggests that
alcohol may perhaps have a specific and direct influence on aggressive
responding among those already vulnerable to act aggressively (Eckhardt, 2007).
We are currently analyzing whether alcohol intoxication affects social
information processing factors involved in partner violence.
(4)
PTSD, Alcohol Use, and Intimate Partner Violence.
-- Along
with colleagues at the National
Center for PTSD and the Boston VA, we are in the early stages of
investigating the interaction of PTSD symptoms, alcohol use, social information
processing factors, and partner violence. Specifically,
cognitive biases and deficits during anger arousal were examined as mediators
of the association between PTSD symptoms and indices of IPV in a sample of 100
OEF/OIF veterans. Preliminary analyses of a portion of these data (n = 25) indicate findings consistent
with hypotheses, with large associations among PTSD symptoms, anger, indices of
cognitive biases and deficits, and physical and psychological IPV perpetration
(Taft et al., 2009). Findings also indicated that irrational beliefs accounted
for 31% of the relationship between PTSD severity and physical IPV, and trait
anger accounted for 46% of this relationship, with these meditational effects
reaching statistical significance. With psychological IPV perpetration as the
outcome, significant indirect effects emerged for trait anger (70%), anger
expression (88%), and anger control (42%). These preliminary findings indicate
the importance of examining anger and cognitive variables with respect to the
PTSD-IPV relationship.
(5)
Anger Disorders: Development and validation of diagnostic criteria and
diagnostic categories for individuals with anger problems.
--
Anger problems can be destructive personally, interpersonally, and socially;
why doesn’t the DSM-IV recognize such problems as legitimate disorders?
--
It’s been said that unless aggression is involved, researchers just aren’t that
interested in anger. Over the
years, we have outlined arguments in support of adding anger-related disorders
to forthcoming editions of DSM (e.g., Eckhardt & Deffenbacher, 1995). This is not to suggest that we think
that angry people are mentally ill, but that including anger disorders in DSM
would lead to more focused studies of beneficial treatment and prevention
programs for angry individuals since there would be official diagnostic
criteria. With such criteria, funding agencies would be more inclined to
support research projects on anger since people could be recruited into
treatment studies according to an agreed-upon set of symptoms. These studies,
in turn, may lead to useful new treatment and prevention approaches that not
only stand to benefit the individual suffering from anger disorders, but their
friends and loved ones, as well as society at large, who so often bear the
brunt of these anger problems.
Eckhardt, C., &
Schram, J. (in press). Cognitive behavioral interventions for partner abusive
men. To appear in P. Lehmann (Ed.), Interventions
for intimate partner violence: A strengths approach. NY: Springer.
Eckhardt, C. I., Holtzworth-Munroe, A., Norlander,
B., Sibley, A., & Cahill, M. (2009). Readiness to change,
Partner
violence subtypes, and treatment outcomes among men in treatment for partner
assault. In R. Maiuro & C. Murphy (Eds.), Motivational Interviewing
and Stages of Change in Intimate Partner Violence. NY: Springer.
Murphy, C., Lynch, L.,
& Eckhardt, C. (2009). Individualized services and individual therapy for
partner abuse perpetrators. To appear in O’Leary, D., & Woodin, E. (Eds.) Understanding Psychological and Physical
Aggression in Couples: Existing Evidence and Clinical Implications, (pp.
211-232). Wasington D.C.: APA.
Eckhardt, C. I., Samper, R., & Murphy, C.
(2008).
Anger disturbances among perpetrators of intimate partner violence: Clinical
characteristics and outcomes of court-mandated treatment. Journal of
Interpersonal Violence, 23,
1600-1617.
Eckhardt, C. I., Holtzworth-Munroe, A., Norlander,
B., Sibley, A., & Cahill, M. (2008). Readiness to change,
Partner
violence subtypes, and treatment outcomes among men in treatment for partner
assault. Violence and Victims, 23,
446-475.
Eckhardt, C. I., & Crane, C. (2008). Effects of
alcohol intoxication and aggressivity on aggressive verbalizations during anger
arousal. Aggressive Behavior, 34,
428-436.Eckhardt,
C. I. (2007).
Effects of
alcohol intoxication on anger experience and expression among partner
assaultive men during anger arousal. Journal
of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 75, 61-71.
Murphy, C., Taft, C. & Eckhardt, C. I. (2007). Anger problem profiles among partner violent men: Differences in clinical presentation and treatment outcome. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 54, 189-200.
Eckhardt,
C. I., & Utschig, A. (2007). Assessing readiness to change among
perpetrators of intimate partner violence: Analysis of two self-report
measures. Journal of Family Violence, 22,
319-330.
Eckhardt, C. I., Murphy, C. M., Black, D., & Suhr, L. (2006). Intervention programs for perpetrators of intimate partner violence: Conclusions from a clinical research perspective. Public Health Reports, 121, 369-381.
Murphy, C.,
& Eckhardt, C. (Sept. 2005). Treating
the Abusive Partner: An Individualized Cognitive-Behavioral Approach.
NY: Guilford. [click here
to order from Amazon.com]
Babcock, J.
C., Canady, B, Senior, A., & Eckhardt, C. I. (2005). Applying the
Transtheoretical Model to female and male perpetrators of intimate partner
violence: Gender differences in stages and processes of change. Violence and Victims, 20, 235-251.
Norlander,
B., & Eckhardt, C. I. (2005). Anger, hostility, and male perpetrators of
intimate partner violence: A meta-analytic review. Clinical Psychology Review, 25,119-152.
Babcock,
J., Costa, D., Green, C., & Eckhardt, C. I. (2004). What situations induce
intimate partner violence? A reliability and validity study of the Proximal Antecedents to Violent Episodes
Scale (PAVE). Journal of Family
Psychology, 18, 433-442.
Eckhardt,
C. I., Norlander, B., & Deffenbacher, J. L. (2004). The assessment of anger
and hostility: A critical review. Aggression and Violent Behavior: A Review
Journal, 9, 17-43.
Eckhardt,
C. I., Babcock, J., & Homack, S. (2004). Partner assaultive men and the
stages and processes of change. Journal
of Family Violence, 19, 81-93.
Eckhardt,
C. I., & Jamison, T. R. (2002). Articulated thoughts of male perpetrators
of dating violence during anger arousal. Cognitive
Therapy and Research, 26, 289-308.
Eckhardt,
C. I., Jamison, T. R., & Watts, K. (2002). Experience and expression of
anger among male perpetrators of dating violence. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 17, 1102-1114.
GRANTS AND
CONTRACTS
¨
Intimate
Partner Violence, Anger, and Cognitive Distortions in Combat Veterans with Post
Traumatic Stress Disorder
Function: Consultant
(C. Taft, PI, Boston V.A., National Center for PTSD)
Agency: Veterans Administration (9/06 – 8/10)
¨
The Role of Power and Control in
Intimate Partner Violence
Function: Subcontract PI
(competitive subcontract for research design and data collection; Westat, Inc.,
Contractor)
Agency: Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (10/02–6/05)
¨
Individual Behavior Therapy for
Partner Violent Men
Function: Consultant (Chris
Murphy, PI, University of Maryland B.C.)
Agency: NIH/National Institute
of Mental Health
¨
Alcohol, Anger, and the
Cognitions of Wife Assaultive Men
Function: Principal Investigator
Agency: NIH/National Institute of
Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
¨
Stages and Processes of Change
and Associated Treatment Outcomes in Partner Assaultive Men
Function: Principal Investigator
Agency: Department of Justice/National
Institute of Justice
¨
Articulated Cognitive
Distortions of Intoxicated Individuals during Anger Arousal
Function: Principal Investigator
Agency: Alcoholic Beverage Medical
Research Foundation
¨
Processing of Anger-Related
Information in Maritally Violent and Nonviolent Men
Function: Co-Principal Investigator
Agency: Harry Frank Guggenheim
Foundation
¨
Cognitive Processes and Anger in
Maritally Violent Men.
Function:
Principal Investigator
Agency: NIH/National Institute of
Mental Health
EDITORIAL ACTIVITIES
I have served on grant review panels for :
National
Institute of Justice /USDOJ (multiple panels)
Bureau
of Justice Assistance/USDOJ (multiple panels)
Centers
for Disease Control & Prevention (Panel RFA07002)
NIAAA (Review
Group ZAA1)
NIMH (Panel
ZMH1 ERB-A)
I serve as an Editorial Board Member for:
Journal
of Consulting and Clinical Psychology
Clinical
Psychology Review
Journal of Family Psychology
Partner
Abuse
ETC:
Times Square hooligans….
1st Division Indoor Champs - Jan 2010,
FC Hollywood!
