Relationship cognition in intimate partner violence and post-relationship stalking

Intimate Partner Violence and Post-Relationship Stalking are public health concerns that affect millions of people worldwide. This thesis first presents a theory on how perpetrators think about relationships (relationship cognition). Then, a number of gender-inclusive, empirical studies regarding the associations between the behaviours and their respective cognitive correlates are presented. The main results suggest that while both men and women perpetrate Intimate Partner Violence and Post-Relationship Stalking, many cognitive correlates differed between genders. Further, the studies provide novel empirical evidence that aggression and violence during a relationship and post-relationship aggression and violence are related, but not identical phenomena.