The Concept and Forms of Bullying at School, Home, and Other Environments

The Bullying Concept

INTRODUCTION TO RESEARCH PAPER

The concept of 'bullying' can take on a number of different forms from that of bullying at school, bullying in the workplace, cyber bullying etc. A bully is essentially someone who tries to enforce his / her will over another person by means of coercion. This can be by means of intimidation, threat or even physical violence. People engaging this activity often have psychological issues i.e. control freak, loss of self-esteem, inferiority complex, troubled home life etc. This paper examines the motivation factors of bullying and what causes people to respond in this way.

MOTIVATING FACTORS

Early forms of bullying often start in childhood at school days. Some people have attributed bullying as a part of a child's natural development. Nevertheless, this is not the case for the victims who can be terrified, feel unsafe and end up being socially insecure. The child bullies often carry these tendencies into adulthood and as such this makes them more prone to criminal behaviour and developing predatory tendencies.

Bullying at school can also impact the victim's ability to learn and places them under conditions of stress that lead towards illness and more time off school. Overall this can lead to serious psychological concerns for the victim and in worst case scenarios can lead to suicidal tendencies of the victims. .

The motivating factors of the child bully can be attributed to a number of different reasons, for example:

Frustration - the bully is frustrated over a condition of impairment i.e. a stammer, deafness, learning difficulty etc. The child's inability to perform at normal levels brings on bullying tendencies as a source of frustration;

Duty of Care - the lack of responsibility of the care givers (parents) towards making the child understand what is proper accepted social behaviour. The bully is therefore allowed to develop anti-social skills and violent behaviour;

Lack of a role model - Parents are really the mentors or coaches of their children. If a child has abusive parents then this increases the child's chance of adopting similar behaviour patterns and exerting abuse against others as a means of exerting control;

Neglect at home - Similar to the above but the parents are disinterested in the child's upbringing and allow the child to become wild. This also can lead to the child becoming retarded;

Undue influence - A child getting into bad behaviour with the wrong crowd

Conduct disorder - This being the precursor to potential; mental illness that can lead towards personality disorder and psychopathic behaviour.

A study carried out in 2003 amongst a range of Elementary Schools indicated that 19% of the children were victims of bullying at school. It is important to recognize that school bullies are in their formative years of development and as such appropriate intervention methods can often be successful in reversing this type of behaviour. This does however exclude those with sociopathic problems that will require proper psychological assessment and treatment. It is estimated that Psychopaths make up approximately 1% of society but if you add untreated sociopathic cases, then the percentage increases to 2-3% of society.

FORMATS OF BULLYING

In addition to that of school bullying, which is the most common association with the term, there are a number of other forms including:

- Cyber bullying
- Sexual bullying
- Verbal bullying
- Homophobic bullying

Each of these has different motivating factors for those involved in these form of bullying activities.

Cyber Bullying

This includes the use of computer technology and cellular phones to conduct a form of harassment by such items as social media e.g. Facebook, Twitter; e-mail, text messaging, instant messaging and websites etc. This type of bullying can go undetected by the parents and the child can become extremely traumatised by the experience. Bullying is mainly by intimidation, ridicule and attempting to isolate the victim. More serious cases can include stalking the victim and both physical and verbal abuse.

This type of bullying is relatively new but the implications are serious because of the widespread use of the internet, computer technology and the social media software that supports the system. All children are motivated towards this communication media and this makes them more vulnerable to those who seek to bully using this media. There have been reported cases of suicides where teenagers have been terrorized in this manner. Statistics compiled by surveys in the USA estimate that 20-40% of students have reported being bullied in some way. Further, some 70% of students at Middle or High school are exposed to bullying activities. It is estimated that some 7-12% of these pose a serious concern.

Sexual Bullying

Battered Women are classified as those women who experience post-traumatic stress disorder through repeated cases of domestic violence. The abuse is normally systematic and episodic and may be both verbal and physical abuse. The male assailant in this case is often a bully and is seeking to gain male dominance and control over his wife. This is designed to both humiliate and create fear in the woman. In many cases women initially tolerate this because they are trying to make a marriage work and by nature are peacemakers.

Records of domestic violence are most common amongst the poorer working classes and the men are prone to both alcohol and substance abuse. Unemployment is often another contributory factor to why men behave and act in this way. The situation is made worse when there are children involved and this increases the fear factor in terms of the mother being the protector of the children. The fear being that the assailant will turn the domestic violence towards the children.

The first part of Ronald Levant's book, "A new psychology of men", focuses upon gender roles strains. In the modern marriages we are seeing a lot of role reversal taking place. The wife is going out to work and having a career, essentially the money earner, whilst the husband is staying at home looking after the kids and dealing with domestic chores. Unless there is good synergy, communication and understanding in the marriage. This can lead to a significant strain. This is compounded with the role reversal occurred because the male partner lost his job. The loss of the masculine role and feeling of shame often leads to extramarital relationships. In the new relationship, the mail seeks to reinsert his masculinity and reclaim the position he believed lost in his marriage. All too often in these situations. It is the children that suffer creating divided loyalties, confusion, and ultimately alienation. In order to overcome these issues the man has to dig deep within his own psyche and revisit those struggles and traumatic experiences that reside at the very core of his crisis of self-formation and loss of masculine identity. This cannot be achieved by recourse to primitive cave man like behavior patterns.

It can be extremely traumatic and difficult for a female victim of domestic violence to seek legal retribution for a violent personal assault. The attack often leads the victim confused, traumatised and fearful of further abuse from the partner. Apart from being a criminal act, it is a blatant abuse of an individual's human rights and is unacceptable in any terms. The police often have difficulties in bringing such cases to court because of the fear factor and the mental cruelty that has been inflicted upon the victim.

The concept of battered women relates to the interest in the psychological considerations that impact abused women in society today. It is a common problem and one, which largely goes undetected because of the fear factor. It is more interesting looking at this from an international perspective e.g. Middle Eastern Countries where women are routinely abused from a cultural perspective, often associated with outmoded religious beliefs, and denied basic human rights. From a personal perspective domestic violence and abuse of either male or female partners is a tragedy and illustrates a breakdown in communications that should be treated by counselling as opposed to resorting to violence. The act of violence is certainly a criminal act and should be dealt with by legal action.

Verbal Bullying

This is mainly associated with people using loud mouthed profanity at the victim. This often accompanied with threats and harassment. The perpetrator is often relatively ignorant and unable to cope with stressful situations. This is often associated with domestic violence and abusive parents who are influenced by alcohol or substance abuse.

Homophobic Bullying

This often associated with gender distinction, bigotry and prejudice. An example being a gay child at school who becomes a victim of scorn and mockery. This is compounded in school settings where there is no respect for diversity. The danger here is that bullying is often a precursor for more serious criminal events.

CONCLUSION

There is no doubt that the nature of bullying is a social evil but one that has endured through the ages. It might be argued that it is part of our psychological DNA and that we are all prone to exerting these tendencies from time to time. The real dangers occur with the pathological bully who acquires these tendencies at as early age and consolidates these into more serious psychological illness concerns. The prime concern is always for the victims but equally consideration must be made in addressing the circumstances of the perpetrator who is also suffering from social and psychological abnormalities that require both intervention and treatment.

Most of this needs addressing at source in the child formative years in order that appropriate intervention can be made to assist both the perpetrator and the victim. Adult bullies are normally too late to remediate from a psychological perspective.