Implementing Gender Motivation Theory in Intimate Partner Violence

The aim of this article is to present and examine the principles of gender motivation theory against a backdrop of research findings accumulated over time. This theory is founded on two general, established, major theories: sexual selection theory and social role theory. Gender motivation theory focuses on the elementary primal motivations of men and women in social situations and contexts. This theory provides a theoretical foundation for a gendered understanding of intimate relationships among normative and clinical populations. Gender motivation theory was developed as a response to the existing discrepancies between previously developed theories whose principles continue to be used to understand and intervene with intimate partner violence and as a response to empirical data accumulated over the years.