Psychology of Bullying

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The Psychology of Bullying

Overview

The psychology of bullying is the belief that most of the people who involve in bullying have low self-esteem and they are involved in the acts of bullying other people to feel better. Most of the bullies have a sense of command and order over others and it is because of this that they gain compassion, impulse control and social skills when they bully others. There are several types of psychological bullying but school and cyber bullying are the leading forms of bullying today.

Einarsen, Ståle, et al. "The concept of bullying and harassment at work: The European tradition." Bullying and harassment in the workplace: Developments in theory, research, and practice 2 (2011): 3-40. 

The authors of this article provide a historical overview of bullying at workplace in Europe and how it was perceived in early 1990s. The authors in the study explain how bullying at workplace evolved from a resonating idea to become a taboo and how it became the topic of research in workplace related researches in 19th century. The author also analyze the stages of studies on bullying and harassment at workplace since 1990s to date and from their observations, most of the literature that were published on the psychology of bullying was at the peak between 2001-2008. The paper then went on to study the European perception of bullying at the place of work. This study is important to my research as it will provide statistics on historical prevalence of bullying in Europe. It will also provide knowledge on how Europe perceives workplace bullying and significant statistics on the prevalence of literature on the psychology of bullying in Europe specifically. It will also provide general knowledge on the origin of bullying phenomenon.

Swearer, Susan M., and Shelley Hymel. "Understanding the psychology of bullying: Moving toward a social-ecological diathesis–stress model." American Psychologist 70.4 (2015): 344.

This article was done to evaluate and review the known correlates and some of the contributing factors to victimization/bullying among families, peers, schools, communities and individuals. The authors of the article are of the views that there is significant knowledge that bullying is increasingly becoming a complex phenomenon that can only be understood within social-ecological framework. The authors used the social-ecological model and literature review to understand the dynamics involved in bullying. The author expanded on the model to review some of the consequences of bullying on both the two parties involved in the phenomenon and proposed that bullying dynamics and its impacts can be understood through social-ecological and diathesis-stress model. The authors assert that bullying is a stressful process among the victims and the bullies something that act the role of a catalyst for the diathesis stress in human psychology. The authors conclude the article by recommending that all bullying prevention and intervention programs must put into consideration human characteristics and complexities during their formation. The authors also recommend further studies to be done on the social causes of bullying behaviors. This article is important as it will be used to support the causes of bullying tendencies, effects of bullying and imperativeness of bullying intervention programs.

Slonje, Robert, and Peter K. Smith. "Cyberbullying: Another main type of bullying?." Scandinavian journal of psychology 49.2 (2008): 147-154.

This study was done to determine why cyber-bullying has become one of the leading forms of bullying today in the world. This study was done among 360 students between the ages of 12-20 in Swedish schools. The study was conducted on four basis of bullying that included text messages, emailing, phone calls and sending of pictures and videos to the victims and this was correlated with age and gender. The study results indicate that cyber-bullying was low among middle aged students in form six as compared to lower classes and the variance based on gender was insignificant. Highest impact of bullying was experienced through picture and video sending as compared to other methods and most of the victims did not tell their parents or school authority but told their friends or remained mum over the matter. This article is important to my project as it will be used to prove the age bracket where bullying is at the peak, the new trends in bullying psychology and how victims respond to bullying cases which is very important information as far as understanding bullying in the contemporary society is concerned.

Cook, Clayton R., et al. "Predictors of bullying and victimization in childhood and adolescence: A meta-analytic investigation." (2010): 65.

This was a meta-analytic procedure study that was done to evaluate the predictors of the three known bullying status that include bullies, victims and bully-victims among the school going children and adolescent. This study was purposely done to develop prevention and intervention programs for the 3 status after understanding the strength of the parties involved and their contextual predictors. The moderators that were considered in this study included age and the measure of bullying among the bullies and bully victims. The study was conducted on more than 153 studies that have been done on bullying psychology out of the available 1622 studies. The study results revealed several predictors that varied based on gender and age. The authors in the study recommended further studies to be conducted based on the predictors that were revealed in the study and how they impacted bullying psychology in humanity. This study is important to my project as it will provide the understanding of bullying predictors, it will provide knowledge on the best intervention and prevention program on victim, bullies and victim bullies something that is important towards understanding and ending bullying in the society.

Rivers, Ian, et al. "Observing bullying at school: The mental health implications of witness status." School Psychology Quarterly 24.4 (2009): 211.

Understanding bullying psychology requires wide consideration of bullying knowledge. One of the areas that should be considered is the people who witness these cases of bullying. A study that was done by Rivers, Poteat, Noret, & Ashurst (2009) is one of the studies that have been done to this effect. The study was done to study the mental effects of bullying witnesses in schools. The study was done using a sample of 2,002 students aged 12 to 16 years in 14 different schools in United Kingdom. Questionnaires were used to collect data used in the study measure of bullying, substance abuse and mental health risks were the major variances in the study. The study results were surprising as it was revealed that witnesses of bullying acts are negatively impacted mentally more than the parties that are directly involved in the phenomenon. The risks that face observers were irrespective of whether the observers were victims or bullies. The model that was used in this case was the bystander witness behaviors. The study is important to my project as it will provide the mental effects that are suffered by the witnesses of bullying. It will also provide information on how understanding bullying psychology can contribute to understanding other social behaviors in the society such drug abuse among other.

Work Cited

Cook, Clayton R., et al. "Predictors of bullying and victimization in childhood and adolescence: A meta-analytic investigation." (2010): 65.

Einarsen, Ståle, et al. "The concept of bullying and harassment at work: The European tradition." Bullying and harassment in the workplace: Developments in theory, research, and practice 2 (2011): 3-40. 

Rivers, Ian, et al. "Observing bullying at school: The mental health implications of witness status." School Psychology Quarterly 24.4 (2009): 211.

Slonje, Robert, and Peter K. Smith. "Cyberbullying: Another main type of bullying?." Scandinavian journal of psychology 49.2 (2008): 147-154.

Swearer, Susan M., and Shelley Hymel. "Understanding the psychology of bullying: Moving toward a social-ecological diathesis–stress model." American Psychologist 70.4 (2015): 344.