Bystanders in Situations of Bullying: Motivations for Defending a Victim

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Introduction/Background

Bullying can be experienced in several forms such as physical, verbal, social or cyber. All bullying is composed of three specific concepts—causing their victims harm, possessing greater power than their victims and repetition (Oh & Hazler, 2009). Bystanders play perhaps the most vital role in bullying (Oh & Hazler, 2009). Bystanders can help the bully (‘assistants’ or ‘reinforcers’), remain passive and non-interceptive (‘outsiders’) or they can be ‘defenders’, which are individuals who intervene using prosocial behaviours, meaning that they voluntarily act in ways that benefit others (Oh & Hazler, 2009; Thornberg, 2007). Statistics suggest bystander’s use only 25% of their time to intervene and defend the bully (Trach, Hymel, Waterhouse and Neale, 2010; Thornberg, 2007).

In order to better understand a ‘defender’, scholars have analyzed their personality and what traits distinguish their ambition to intervene. Based on the ‘Big Five’ personality traits, ‘defenders’ tended to be those who scored higher on the evaluation for friendliness or those who are considered altruistic and sympathetic to ones needs (Tani, Greeenman, Schneider & Fregoso, 2003). McLaughlin, Arnold and Boyd (2005) also identified that those who intervene were those who were pro-victim and felt for those who were bullied. Furthermore, research on ‘defenders’ using the ‘Big Five’ personality tests suggests that the selfless behaviour of ‘defenders’ may originate from a high self-esteem (Tani, Greenman, Schneider & Fregoso, 2003). Perhaps this ideal of high self-esteem and confidence in their decision to intervene, lends istelf to McLaughlin, Arnold and Boyd’s (2005) observation that if the individual has defended a victim once, they a...

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... Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology: An Official Publication of the International Society for Research in Child and Adolescent Psychopathology, 38(6), 815-827. doi:10.1007/s10802-010-9399-9

Tani, F., Greenman, P. S., Schneider, B. H., & Fregoso, M. (2003). Bullying and the big five: A study of childhood personality and participant roles in bullying incidents. School Psychology International, 24(2), 131-146. doi:10.1177/0143034303024002001

Thornberg, R. (2007). A classmate in distress: Schoolchildren as bystanders and their reasons for how they act. Social Psychology of Education, 10(1), 5-28. doi:10.1007/s11218-006-9009-4

Trach, J., Hymel, S., Waterhouse, T., & Neale, K. (2010). Bystander responses to school bullying: A cross-sectional investigation of grade and sex differences. Canadian Journal of School Psychology, 25(1), 114-130. doi:10.1177/0829573509357553

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