The Psychology of Bullying
"...What Is Bullying?
Understanding bullying is an important step in helping your child. When we don’t fully understand a problem, we deal only with the symptoms of the problem and not the root causes. After reading this book, you may be more knowledgeable about bullying than the teachers at your child’s school. You may be able to provide leadership or at least encouragement to anti-bullying efforts in your child’s school. The next few pages are designed to equip you with facts about bullying.
The term bullying describes a wide range of behaviors that can have an impact on a person’s property, body, feelings, relationships, reputation, and social status. Bullying is a form of overt and aggressive behavior that is intentional, hurtful, and persistent (repeated). Bullied children are teased, harassed, socially rejected, threatened, belittled, and assaulted or attacked (verbally, physically, psychologically) by one or more individuals. There are unequal levels of affect (that is, the victim is upset and distressed while the bully is calm) and often an imbalance of strength (power and dominance).1 This imbalance of power can be physical or psychological, or your child may simply be outnumbered.
There are times that bullying can be considered violent. All bullying is serious, but when it is intense and lasts for a significant period, it is very serious-it is violent. In fact, bullying is the most common form of school violence. It is violence because it is so destructive to the well-being of children and can lead children to harm themselves and to harm others.
Some of the key words in our definition of bullying are intentional, hurtful, persistent, and imbalance of strength. Thus behavior such as teasing that is not intended to hurt and is not persistent is not considered bullying. However, even playful teasing can easily escalate into a bullying situation. Those who have power over the child may repeatedly use the teasing comments to hurt her.
What Does Bullying Look Like?
Bullying behaviors come in a variety of forms: physical, verbal, social and relational. When it comes to cruelty, children can be incredibly creative. In fact, it would be very difficult to list every possible behavior that makes up a bullying situation. But let’s take a look at some of them...."
-- The Psychology of Bullying
Understanding bullying is an important step in helping your child. When we don’t fully understand a problem, we deal only with the symptoms of the problem and not the root causes. After reading this book, you may be more knowledgeable about bullying than the teachers at your child’s school. You may be able to provide leadership or at least encouragement to anti-bullying efforts in your child’s school. The next few pages are designed to equip you with facts about bullying.
The term bullying describes a wide range of behaviors that can have an impact on a person’s property, body, feelings, relationships, reputation, and social status. Bullying is a form of overt and aggressive behavior that is intentional, hurtful, and persistent (repeated). Bullied children are teased, harassed, socially rejected, threatened, belittled, and assaulted or attacked (verbally, physically, psychologically) by one or more individuals. There are unequal levels of affect (that is, the victim is upset and distressed while the bully is calm) and often an imbalance of strength (power and dominance).1 This imbalance of power can be physical or psychological, or your child may simply be outnumbered.
There are times that bullying can be considered violent. All bullying is serious, but when it is intense and lasts for a significant period, it is very serious-it is violent. In fact, bullying is the most common form of school violence. It is violence because it is so destructive to the well-being of children and can lead children to harm themselves and to harm others.
Some of the key words in our definition of bullying are intentional, hurtful, persistent, and imbalance of strength. Thus behavior such as teasing that is not intended to hurt and is not persistent is not considered bullying. However, even playful teasing can easily escalate into a bullying situation. Those who have power over the child may repeatedly use the teasing comments to hurt her.
What Does Bullying Look Like?
Bullying behaviors come in a variety of forms: physical, verbal, social and relational. When it comes to cruelty, children can be incredibly creative. In fact, it would be very difficult to list every possible behavior that makes up a bullying situation. But let’s take a look at some of them...."
-- The Psychology of Bullying