UMass Boston Psychology Department
Ph.D., 1989, Duke University.
Research:
My research Interests span the links between psychological trauma, interpersonal violence, and masculine socialization. Together with graduate and undergraduate students, I have been focusing on the causes and long term consequences of interpersonal violence. Our current focus is on the factors that mediate the link between childhood abuse and interpersonal violence, the so-called "cycle of violence." We are investigating the role of male gender socialization, and particularly its impact on male abuse victims' responses to emotionally evocative stimuli and styles of coping with psychological distress.
Teaching:
Undergraduate: Psychological Trauma; Theories of Personality
Graduate: Psychological Trauma; Psychology of Gender
Selected Publications:
Lisak, D. (1997). Male Gender Socialization and the Perpetration of Sexual Abuse. In: R.L. Levant and G.R. Brooks (Eds.) Men and the Problems of Non-Relational Sex. New York: Wiley.
Lisak, D., Hopper, J. & Song, P. (1996). Factors in the cycle of violence: Gender rigidity and emotional constriction. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 9, 721-743.
Lisak, D. (1995). Integrating a critique of gender in the treatment of male survivors of childhood abuse. Psychotherapy, 32, 258-269.
Lisak, D. & Ivan, C. (1995). Deficits in intimacy and empathy in sexually aggressive men. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 10, 296-308.
Lisak, D. (1994). The psychological impact of sexual abuse: Content analysis of interviews with male survivors. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 7, 525-548.
Email: lisak@umbsky.cc.umb.edu