Research Areas
DARA
Intimate partner violence
Risk Factors and Mechanisms Underlying PTSD
Identification with the aggressor
The DARA theory, developed by Prof. Lahav, highlights a subtle yet impactful psychological consequence of abuse: the compromised ability to form confident appraisals of the abusive experience. This phenomenon—Doubt Regarding Abuse-Related Appraisals (DARA)—reflects survivors’ pervasive uncertainty not about whether abuse occurred, but about how to interpret the nature, severity, and legitimacy of the abuse, as well as their perceptions of themselves and the perpetrator.
To empirically explore DARA, we developed the Abuse Doubt Scale (ADS). Our recent research shows that higher levels of DARA are associated with increased guilt, shame, PTSD, complex PTSD, depression, anxiety, and suicidality among abuse survivors.
This study represents a novel attempt to understand barriers to self-disclosure and help-seeking among women experiencing intimate partner violence. In addition, we examine the somatic consequences of prolonged exposure to intimate partner violence over time.
Our research among civilians exposed to war investigates the psychological mechanisms that contribute to the development of PTSD. Specifically, our studies provide new insights into how peritraumatic dissociation and tonic immobility during missile attacks may predict subsequent PTSD symptoms.
Identification with the aggressor (IWA), a concept originally developed by Sándor Ferenczi, has been proposed as a mechanism that promotes victims’ survival during abuse by leading them to internalize aspects of the perpetrator’s experience.
In 2019, we developed a self-report questionnaire assessing identification with the aggressor — the Identification With the Aggressor Scale (IAS; for more information press here). Since then, studies we conducted among survivors of child abuse and intimate partner violence have demonstrated the association between identification with the aggressor and a range of adverse outcomes, including dissociation, non-suicidal self-injury, sexual revictimization, suicidal ideation and behavior, revictimization, PTSD, and CPTSD.