What Would You Do If You Saw Bullying?
http://absarahmed.wordpress.com/2009/11/05/bullying/
http://teenadvice.about.com/od/violencebullying/a/girlbullies.htm
As the articles suggest, one of the main reasons for bullying is insecurity. That is, bullies feel that they need to show aggression and power in order for them to “fit” in to society of context. This leads to the idea that when an individual does not express his or her dominance over others, he or she will become dominated by others. Therefore, by bullying others and apparently putting themselves on a higher “social hierarchy,” bullies feel more security and satisfied. In fact, this notion implies another fact about bystanders, those who stand in accordance with a bully’s actions even though they realize the wrongdoings. The bystanders simply watch the event of bullying, even though they know it’s wrong, because they think if they interrupt, they will also become a victim of bullying: This is the insecurity of bystanders in a bullying environment.
In a network point of view, we can see that the individuals in the bullying group have positive friendships among each other. Also, every individual will have a negative connection to a victim of bullying (Figure 1). Let’s consider an event when one person in the bullying group tries to intervene the bully’s harassment because the individual feels sorry for the victim. In this case, the deviator will have a positive connection with the victim. Now, we see two positive relationships and one negative relationship (Figure 3): According to the Structural Balance Property, we cannot have two positives and one negative. Thus, unless the bully accepts the intervention and stops his bullying against the victim, the deviator will have to choose to make a negative relationship with the bully, or with the victim again. However, if the deviator makes a negative relationship with the bully, the large part of the bully group will fall apart, and the result would be that the deviator will form negative connections with everyone in the bully group. Realistically, very few will choose to do so, the deviator will most likely go back to a bystander in a bullying situation. Thus, the relationship between the deviator and the victim will revert back to a negative one.
I was a victim. =/
What an interesting and unusual perspective on issues related to bullying. My own research indicates that observers of bullying actually contribute positively or negatively by choosing particular behaviours which support the bully or victim. Bullying is a form of abuse which has a high impact on the self esteem of victims. I offer help for bullying and cyberbullying at mybullywatch website,where free downloadable e-books and other resources are available for teachers, parents and young people.
bullying help