Bullying Research Paper

1357 Words3 Pages

Bullying

School should be a place where children are able to excel and grow. The environment should be encouraging, empowering, and safe. Education systems and procedures are constantly a societal issue. A main issue that continually raids our schools is bullying. Every community addresses their bully issue differently and there are many theories as well as curriculums to help build processes for anti-bullying. With research, theories, and diverse reasons for bullying it can be a large commitment and process when deciding how to battle bullying within your school. In an effort to fully understand my school and students needs as it relates to bullying learning about how bullying is defined, theories associated with bully programs, …show more content…

There are two types of bullying aggressive and passive. Aggressive bullying is actively taunting, and teasing others. Passive bullies associate with aggressive bullies and are supporters of the actions. Research has shown that between 30 and 80 percent of students suffer from bullying at some point in their educational career (Schultz, 2010). Discovering motivators of individuals who engage in bullying has been an ongoing research question. In my classroom experience I have found the motivator is usually control and lack of self control. Salmivali suggests that the motivator is to achieve a dominant position within a group. Understanding bullying and the motivator helps ensure that the solution matches the problem. In researching motivators there has also been discovery in how other individuals play an active role in bullying. Salmivali also used peer nominations to identify four main active roles of peers in bullying; victims, bullies, reinforcers of bullies, and defenders. These identifications assist with building a full picture of motivators, encouraging factors, and characteristics that are involved in bully …show more content…

There are two main theories that have been researched and help implement plans for schools; Social Cognitive Theory and Choice theory. Social cognitive theory emphasizes corresponding influences of behavior, environment, and person/cognitive factors. Social cognitive theory has been used to interpret aggressive behaviors and can be utilized to help explain how individuals learn bully behaviors (Swearer, Wang, Berry, Meyer, 2014). Research in SCT discusses that children who exhibit bully behaviors often have observed bullying. When utilizing the components of SCT in bully programs the idea is built around helping reduce the individuals compulsiveness. Swearer, Wang, Berry, and Meyer also identify that a critical component that is missing from many bullying interventions is a comprehensive assessment of bullying and related problems. By adding a comprehensive assessment to programs this ensures that the programs have an evidence based component as well as follow through of identifying problems that can then be paired with plans for solution. Merz introduces Choice theory as a framework to be used with cyber bullying. Choice theory expresses that we all make choices that meet our basic needs. Glasser is best known for creating choice theory and reality theory. Glasser reviews bullying as problems in relationships and believes

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