Different Forms of Bullying - Research Paper Example

? Bullying The world today is full of crisis and nobody is left untouched with it. People of different age groups have their own distinct problems. With the innumerable dilemmas, one of the social issues that need to bring into notice is bullying. Bullying is a process where an individual performs unsolicited or violent behavior, or performs group of activities to show his supremacy to the other person, with a purpose of harming them or cause a level of embarrassment for them. This behavior of the person or an offensive action, which refers to bullying, is recurring in nature, continues and repeats with time (Macfarlane & McPherson, pp.10-15). Victims’ abilities, gender, religion, or cultures are the basis on which strong people bully using verbal persecution, physical assault, and mental pressure as their tools. Analysis has indicated that there exist different forms of bullying that have been harassing individuals on different levels. In particular, physical bullying is the most common form that results in injury or hitting of the victim. However, besides physical form, another ordinary version is verbal one that includes comments or remarks about the target individuals by the harassers who uses socio-economic status, religion, race, color, or other aspects of individuals to bully them. Moreover, literature has indicated other forms as well, such as cyber, indirect, and social bullying. Commonly, all these bullying forms exist in academic institutions’ hallways and classrooms. In particular, the person who falls prey to bullying is the ‘target’, the individual who bully around is ‘bullies’ and the people who are physically present at the place where bullying is happening and witness the event are ‘bystanders’ (McGraw, pp. 9-12). In order to acquire information, besides secondary method, I carried out a primary research to acquire data from the students of Pasadena City College, and interviewed five students including three boys and two girls. In particular, I used qualitative tool to analyze the data to come up with the below discussion and to understand different aspects and reasons of bullying that has become very common these days. Briefly, interviews included such as what is bullying, have you ever been a victim of bullying, what do you think are the common places for bullying, what are the causes of bullying, what can be the solution of bullying, etc. Wherever people work in correlation or intermingle for any purpose, the probability of bullying increases. Some widespread places where bullying is most common are schools/universities, workplace, and neighborhoods. Moreover, bullying has now come into observance even between countries. Recent studies (McGraw, pp. 39-43) have revealed the fact that brutality and cruelty of advanced levels including murders have always attracted media attention whereas the recessed type of violent behaviors such as bullying had constantly come under ignorance. Nevertheless, with the growing number of incidents of low-level aggression in recent years, researchers and analysts (Sanders & Phye, pp. 159-161) have now drawn the media’s focus towards these acts or behaviors. The first institution that strikes the mind when talking about bullying is schools, which is one of the most important place with a huge number of targets and the bullies. “Bullying usually happens in classrooms, hallways, playground, bathrooms, and school bus. The bullies start with verbal harassment such as teasing before they get physical with their target, and peer abuse is another term given to bullying when it occurs in school” (Sanders & Phye, pp. 159-161). There can be several reasons for bullying in school. One of the foremost reasons of bullying is that student who bully wants to turn away the focus of oneself and others from his incapability. It means that students who are academically underachieved do not want to accept their poor performances; therefore, they bully other students who have strong academic profile and cope well with not only their studies but also other co-curricular activities that happen in school. The other significant reason that is a cause of bullying is jealousy or envy with other students. Bullies may be jealous of others’ skills, competency, status, belongings, popularity amongst students, and good reputation, therefore, they make these students their target to bully. Hunger for power and control over a population of students strongly lead to bullying, thus, to attain fame or get attention in a group, and to make one look strong, powerful, and dominant to build and retain the fear of oneself in other students. A grudge is involuntarily developed in those students who themselves have experienced bullying sometimes in their past, therefore, due to this effect they bully other students having a thought in their minds that if they were bullied, others should also experience the same (Dixon & Smith, pp. 22-26). However, some bullies bully other students only with a purpose of having fun as they like teasing others and gain mental satisfaction through it. Another cause that leads to bullying of students includes their distinct accent or language, name or physical appearance, which refers to obese students, those with dark skin tone, and the disables. Innocence or quiet nature of some students is another cause that motivates the bullies to bully with them, as bullies are well aware that those victims will not fight back for themselves. Financial status comes into action when students having different economic backgrounds study together, where the students with strong financial background bully with poor students (Dixon & Smith, pp. 22-26). Bullying can have devastating effects not only on the victims, but also destroys the overall social environment of the school. Since school is the second home for students, where they learn about different aspects of life and world, actions like bullying can obstruct the social development of the students. The victims suffer with utter depression that makes them involve in bad habits like smoking and drinking heavily, feel unwanted by the society and eventually thinks about committing suicide (Kenneth, pp. 31-35). They lose focus from their studies leading to poor academic performance. In addition, they lack confidence in themselves, feel reluctant in attending any sort of social gatherings, and prefer to remain isolated resulting in increase in one’s insecurities. They may even undergo a number of health enormities. On the other hand, their own actions also affect bullies drastically, as they get involved in a number of fights on regular basis, thieve others’ belongings, and may even carry a weapon. Bullying leave an indelible imprint not only on victims, bullies but also on bystanders. The bystanders are afraid of reacting to the observed situation, as they do not want to become a part of the victims’ list. Hence, they develop guilt in themselves that they were not able to help the victims in any nature (Kenneth, pp. 31-35). Every problem has some solutions to it, likewise bullying is also a solvable problem, and there are numerous preventive measures for it. Firstly, the students who become victims or are bystanders should report to school authorities about what they have experienced or observed. If one is not comfortable in approaching the authority in person then he can write a letter to the authoritative personnel to convey his message (Swearer, Espelage, & Napolitano, pp. 60-64). The school authorities can introduce programs that have an aim to project and highlight the concept of bullying and how to cope with it. These programs should be ongoing activity for both children and parents where they should get involved actively. Another way to prevent occurrence of this issue should include planning and organizing role-play activities on bullying that should be mandatory for students to participate in, as the objective of these activities is to make students understand both the perspectives and organizers should take their opinions afterwards. “Parents play an essential role in the life of their children; therefore, they should be actively involved in the anti-bullying campaigns that the school organizes” (Swearer, Espelage, & Napolitano, pp. 60-63). Specialists of related issue should be a part of the campaign to give awareness and share their personal experiences with both children and parents. Schools should distribute leaflets, flyers, and handouts to the audience for their knowledge. One of the measures that can prove to be effective is, including a topic on bullying in the school magazines and newsletters. Information related to preventive measures, effects and outcomes of bullying should be a part of the material provided (Swearer, Espelage, & Napolitano, pp. 64-67). Bullying is one of the social issues of the youth in present times. The discussion well concludes with the thought that people should primarily address the issue of bullying rather than neglecting. Youth of today is future of tomorrow, thus, their security and rights are of immense importance. Therefore, parents, guardians, and school authorities should consider the subject of bullying with gravity. Work Cited Dixon, Roz, Smith, Peter. Rethinking School Bullying: Towards an Integrated Model. Cambridge University Press, 2011. Macfarlane, Aidan, McPherson, Bullying. Oxford University Press, 2004. McGraw, Jay. Jay McGraw's Life Strategies for Dealing with Bullies. An imprint of Simon and Schuster Children Publishing Division, 2008. Sanders, Cheryl E., Phye, Gary D. Bullying: implications for the classroom. Elsevier Academic Press, 2004. Shore, Kenneth. The ABC's of Bullying Prevention: a Comprehensive School wide Approach. Dude Publishing, 2005. Swearer, Susan M., Espelage, Dorothy L., Napolitano, Scott A. Bullying prevention and intervention: realistic strategies for schools. The Guilford Press, 2009. Read More