School bullying is a deliberate, persistent act of aggression that reflects an imbalance of power among students (Olweus, 2010). Whether it is isolation, rumors, verbal abuse, deliberate pushing, or extreme violence, it is all school bullying. It is by no means just a petty fight between students, but a struggle for power, and the physical and mental crushing of the strong against the weak.
One might wonder why a bully would do this?
This issue of Simple Psychology Weekly is a special issue on "Bullies". You can see:
▨ Strong VS Weak: School bullying is a replica of a violent environment
▨ Bullies are often people who are not good at dealing with negative emotions
▨ Bully, why don't you feel like you're at fault?
▨ How is bullying condoned?
▨ How to reduce the occurrence of school bullying at the source?
Notes to editors:
It's a long article, but it only presents the tip of the iceberg of bullying research. Note that we are talking about statistical relationships, which are far from explaining the complexity of individual experiences.
It must also be noted that this article is not an article to "make excuses" for bullying. Today, we are trying to understand why bullies do evil, not for empathy and understanding bullying behavior, but for the sake of establishing anti-bullying mechanisms more effectively and accurately.
01
Acquisition of violence: Bad environments make children think violence is justified
It seems that it is difficult for us to imagine a child who has a happy life and has been loved healthily since he was a child to bully others.
And that's exactly what happened. From a social learning perspective, children observe and learn a variety of behaviors and habits from their environment (Bandura, 1973). Aggressive interactions with peers, on the other hand, are often associated with high conflict or high indulgence in family dynamics (Law, 2013).
If the family regularly abuses and neglects the child, the child may perceive aggression and violence as normal and desirable and extend this pattern of behavior to peers who are weaker than them (Straus, 1973).
The rate at which violence is learned is staggering. In 1960, Bandura carried out the famous "Bobo Doll Experiment" and found that small children, after seeing adults attacking Bobo dolls, imitate adult abuse, and even produce more brutal forms of abuse.
▷ "Young You"
A review of 42 years of relevant research concluded that positive parenting behaviors, including good parent-child communication, warm and affectionate relationships, parental support and supervision, can prevent children from becoming bullies to some extent, while negative parenting behaviors, such as abuse and neglect, greatly increase the risk of adolescents becoming bullies (Lereya et al., 2013).
In addition, if the educational environment rigidly emphasizes social class and survival of the fittest, children may internalize this unequal social structure and replicate this unequal relationship in interpersonal interactions, using various forms of violence to consolidate their position (Thomas et al., 2017).
For example, Yeon-jin in "Dark Glory", her mother always calmly tells Yeon-jin to "look forward", "solve problems" and "move up", so Yeon-jin bullies Dong-eun with a low social status and no ability to resist at school. In the world of bullies, "the strong can naturally ignore the feelings of the weak" and "if you fall behind, you can be beaten".
▷ "Dark Glory"
02
Bullies are often people who don't know how to deal with negative emotions
Psychologists have been exploring why people commit aggressive behavior for more than a hundred years.
In 1939, psychologist Miller first proposed the "frustration-aggression model" in his book Frustration and Aggression, that is, frustration always leads to some form of aggressive behavior.
To test this theory, social psychologist Lewin and his assistants asked a number of children to be tested. The first group was frustrated by the fact that the children were allowed to touch the toys no matter how much they pleaded, while the second group was allowed to play with the toys from the start. The first group of children waited and waited until someone finally opened the door and they could play to their heart's content (Barker, 1941).
However, when comparing the two groups of children, the researchers found that the children in the first group showed significantly more destructive behaviors — they did not value toys, screamed loudly, chased each other, and threw toys on the ground or against walls.
On the flip side, bullies tend to be less adept at dealing with negative emotions. When they feel distressed or humiliated, they need to immediately transfer their negative emotions by "attacking others" in order to gain a "sense of power over others".
Studies have found that bullies are 4-5 times more likely to develop antisocial personality disorder than the general population (Antila et al., 2017). Earlier studies have shown that as bullies grow up, they tend to experience more work problems, more relationship problems, more drug and alcohol problems, and are more likely to commit crimes (Copeland et al., 2013).
In addition, the use of school bullying as a means to gain a sense of control and catharsis is associated with emotional dysregulation in adulthood (Wen et al., 2023).
Looking back at "Dark Glory", even if there is no Moon Dong-eun, the drug-addicted Kim Sarah, the flight attendant who just wants to marry into a wealthy family, and Yeon-jin who has no ability to work and cheats, their already flawed lives will collapse sooner or later.
03
It's not me who is wrong: bullying is associated with a high degree of "moral detachment".
Moral detachment is the reduction or even elimination of guilt and shame after committing an unethical act by redefining one's actions to make them appear less harmful, minimizing one's responsibility for the consequences of one's actions, and reducing empathy for the victim's suffering (Bandura, 2002).
For example, in "Dark Glory", when Yeon-jin's husband asks her if she has ever bullied others on campus back then, she can not change her face to glorify the inhumane school violence as "just a bad relationship between classmates", and even try to throw the blame on the victim, saying that the school bullying is just "someone else's opinion".
Obviously, it was her own atrocities that ruined the life of the heroine Moon Dong-eun, and the goal of the rest of Moon Dong-eun's life was only revenge, Yeon-jin still felt that Moon Dong-eun should thank her: "Is it wrong for me to give you the motivation to grit your teeth and change your life?"
▷ "Dark Glory"
Wei Lai, the bully in "Young You", also said to the police after her bullying object Hu Xiaodie jumped off the building and died, "Hu Xiaodie died well, if she didn't die, she wouldn't have been able to get so much money if she didn't die."
This form of self-justification is a significant indication of their psychological justification of their actions and their emotional neglect of the victim's suffering (Cullen, 2020).
The results of related studies have shown that bullying is associated with the highest degree of moral disengagement among many aggressive behaviors (Thomas, 2018). Laboratory studies have also shown that simply by letting children play the role of bullies, they show higher levels of moral detachment and self-centeredness in subsequent questionnaire measurements (Menesin, 2003).
Why do bullies exhibit such high moral detachment?
The study found that this is closely related to the social environment that emphasizes survival of the fittest and power inequality (Leung & Cohen, 2011), high-conflict and low-warmth family parenting style (Baumrind, 1991), narcissistic and egoistic personal traits, lack of empathy (Decety & Michalska, 2010), and unpunished past immorality (Bandura, 1996).
04
Silent connivance: Bullying is a group behavior
School bullying is not just an individual evil for bullies, it is also a group behavior (Swearer & Espelage, 2011).
Peer groups play an important role in shaping and conditioning individual behavior. Bullying can only be an effective means for bullies to vent their emotions and gain status when bystanders directly (participate) or indirectly (stand by) to reinforce the bullying behavior (Reijntjes et al., 2013).
According to social cognitive theory, the implementation of aggressive behavior is associated with two cognitive elements (Card et al., 2019):
▨ Self-efficacy: believing that you have the ability to commit aggressive behavior (so taller people with many friends are more likely to bully);
▨ Expected outcome: Belief that the aggression will have a positive outcome (if the victim resists the victim and the bully is likely to commit a more serious offense if the person around them repeatedly condones the petty bullying and the victim's resistance is insignificant to the bully).
Bullying can occur when a person believes that aggressive behavior is an effective way to vent emotions and solidify a position of power (Pellegrini, 2002).
In addition to peers, the inaction of significant others (e.g., teachers, caregivers) who believe that bullying is just a small fight between children can also contribute to bullying (Olweus, 1993).
In addition, if the collective environment places too much emphasis on achievement or family economic conditions, and discriminates against or belittles students with poor grades or family economic conditions, such invisible hierarchies can also "encourage" the occurrence of bullying (Garandeau, 2014).
▷ "Year 3 Class A: From Now On, Everyone Is a Hostage"
05
Intervention for bullies: how to stop bullying?
We've written a lot about how victims can call for help, how to protect themselves, and how to speak up to bullying, which is undoubtedly important (see link at the end of the article).
But we want to talk about how to reduce bullying at its root from a different perspective.
▷ "Year 3 Class A: From Now On, Everyone Is a Hostage"
▨ Bystander Intervention: Create an anti-bullying school culture
Bullying is a group behavior, and intervention with bystanders plays a crucial role in stopping bullying (Polanin et al., 2012).
The KiVa Anti-Bullying Program is an innovative project in Finland based on the idea that bullying is often motivated by a desire to vent emotions and dominate the peer group. At the heart of the program is to change the behaviour of bystanders so that bullying does not work as an effective means to achieve their goal, which is to change their "expectation of outcome".
Through a series of activities, including role-plays, group discussions, and simulations, the KiVa program promotes empathy and responsibility among students, enabling them to make positive choices in the face of bullying. In the KiVa program, bystanders are no longer just silent witnesses to bullying. Through education and guidance, they are encouraged to adopt positive attitudes and actions, such as supporting the victim, publicly condemning the bullying, or reporting it to teachers or parents when appropriate.
In addition, the KiVa program highlights the overall change in the school environment. Schools are encouraged to create a clear anti-bullying policy and ensure that all students, teachers, and parents are aware of and support this policy. This all-encompassing engagement and commitment has made anti-bullying part of the school culture, fundamentally changing the way students interact with each other.
If we struggle to mobilize the entire school to adopt an anti-bullying program, bystanders in the system can leverage change with their own actions.
Even a single bystander can alleviate the victim's anxiety and despair (Salmivalli & Poskiparta, 2011).
At the same time, high-quality friendship has also been identified as a protective factor, which has a significant cushioning effect on the subsequent psychological trauma of the victim.
▨ Bully Intervention: Learn how to deal with emotions
Social-emotional learning (SEL) programs have proven to be an effective strategy in exploring how to effectively intervene in bullies' behavior. The SEL program aims to develop students' emotional management skills, empathy skills, interpersonal skills, and responsible decision-making skills (Kim et al., 2022) by providing a series of courses and activities to help students identify and express their own emotions, learn to understand and respect the feelings of others, and seek peaceful solutions to problems in conflict (Espelage et al., 2015).
These skills are especially important for bullies, as they often lack an understanding of the feelings of others and awareness of the consequences of their own actions (Yang et al., 2020).
According to Espelage et al., SEL programs implemented in schools were able to significantly improve the social skills of bullies and victims, reducing bullying in schools (Durlakl et al., 2011). In addition, the SEL program emphasizes the development of personal responsibility, educates students to recognize the impact of their actions on others, and encourages them to take responsibility for their actions.
▨ Reshaping the home environment: Cultivating responsible parenting
Studies have been shown to effectively reduce bullying by intervening in the parent-child communication paradigm, parental role model behavior, parents' attitudes towards bullying, family management skills, parenting styles, and family cohesion in the bullie's family syndrome (Cross & Barnes, 2014).
A meta-analysis of bullying interventions suggests that parent training is a key component in reducing bullying victimization and implementation (Ttofi & Farrington, 2009).
▷ "Year 3 Class A: From Now On, Everyone Is a Hostage"
We can see that stopping bullying is not only the responsibility of the victim, but more often than not, we need the nurturing and bystanders of the whole system to make changes, especially the bullies themselves.
May there be less shady soil in this world, fewer bullies, and fewer people will be harmed.
That's all for this issue of Weekly, I hope you have gained a little useful knowledge of psychology. See you next time!
🎒
Popular science about school bullying (click on the blue word to jump)
🔗 Welcome to My Hell: 6 Facts About School Bullying
🔗 Sexual Bullying: Have you ever experienced this type of bullying at school? 🔗 Isolation, rumors, cold violence: you may have been subjected to a "relationship attack" 🔗 Oh, I'm the one who 🔗 can't afford to joke Teenage you: No one is immune to bullying
🔗 9 signs that you have an unhealed wound|This could shorten your life by 20 years 🔗 "The shadow of being bullied lingers after years"|How to direct the blast of bad memories in your life?
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Author: Dolly Editor: Jianghu Side Cover: "Dark Glory"