Bullying

Bullying is the use of force, threat, or coercion to abuse, intimidate, or aggressively impose
domination over others. The behavior is often repeated and habitual. One essential
prerequisite is the perception, by the bully or by others, of an imbalance of social or
physical power. Behaviors used to assert such domination can include verbal harassment
or threat, physical assault or coercion, and such acts may be directed repeatedly towards
particular targets. Justifications and rationalizations for such behavior sometimes include
differences of class, race, religion, gender, sexuality, appearance,behavior, body
language, personality, reputation, lineage, strength, size or ability.[2][3] If bullying is done
by a group, it is called mobbing.
Bullying can be defined in many different ways. Bullying consists of four basic types of
abuse emotional (sometimes called relational), verbal, physical, and cyber.
Bullying ranges from simple one-on-one bullying to more complex bullying in which the
bully may have one or more "lieutenants" who may seem to be willing to assist the primary
bully in his or her bullying activities.
-direct bullying, and
-indirect bullying (which is also known as social aggression).[1]
Ross states that direct bullying involves a great deal of physical aggression, such as
shoving and poking, throwing things, slapping, choking, punching and kicking, beating,
stabbing, pulling hair, scratching, biting, scraping, and pinching.[19]
He also suggests that social aggression or indirect bullying is characterized by attempting
to socially isolate the target. This isolation is achieved through a wide variety of
techniques, including spreading gossip, refusing to socialize with the target, bullying other
people who wish to socialize with the target, and criticizing the target's manner of dress
and other socially-significant markers (including the target's race, religion, disability, sex, or
sexual preference, etc.). Ross[19] outlines an array of nonviolent behavior which can be
considered "indirect bullying", at least in some instances, such as name calling, the silent
treatment, arguing
others
into
submission, manipulation,
gossip/false
gossip, lies, rumors/false rumors, staring, giggling, laughing at the target, saying certain
words that trigger a reaction from a past event, and mocking.
It has been noted that there tend to be differences in how bullying manifests itself between
the sexes. Males tend to be more likely to be physically aggressive whereas females tend
to favourexclusion and mockery, though it has been noticed that females are becoming
more physical in their bullying.
In different contexts
-Cyberbullying
Cyber-bullying is any bullying done through the use of technology. This form of bullying
can easily go undetected because of lack of parental/authoritative supervision. Because
bullies can pose as someone else, it is the most anonymous form of bullying. Cyber
bullying includes, but is not limited to, abuse using email, instant messaging, text

messaging, websites, social networking sites, etc.[87] Particular watch dog organizations
have been designed to contain the spread of cyber-bullying.[citation needed]

-Disability bullying
It has been noted that disabled people are disproportionately affected by bullying and
abuse, and such activity has been cited as a hate crime.[88] The bullying is not limited to
those who are visibly disabled such as wheelchair-users or physically deformed such as
those
with
a cleft
lip but
also
those
with learning
disabilities such
as autism[89][90] and developmental coordination disorder.[91][92] In the latter case, this is
linked to a poor ability in physical education, and this behaviour can be encouraged by the
unthinking physical education teacher. Abuse of the disabled is not limited to schools.
There are many known cases in which the disabled have been abused by staff of a "care
institution", such as the case revealed in a BBC Panorama programme on a Castlebeck
care home (Winterbourne View) near Bristol which led to its closure and the suspension
and sacking of some of the staff.[93]
There is an additional problem that those with learning disabilities are often not as able to
explain things to other people so are more likely to be disbelieved or ignored if they do
complain.
-Gay bullying
Gay bullying and gay bashing are expressions used to designate verbal or physical actions
that are direct or indirect in nature by a person or group against a person who
is gay, lesbian, bisexual,transgendered (LGBT), or of questionable sexual orientation, or
one who is perceived to be so, because of rumors or fitting gay stereotypes. Gay and
lesbian youth are more likely to report bullying.[20]

Effects of bullying on those who are targeted

Mona O'Moore of the Anti-Bullying Centre at Trinity College in Dublin, has written, "There
is a growing body of research which indicates that individuals, whether child or adult, who
are persistently subjected to abusive behavior are at risk of stress related illness which can
sometimes lead to suicide".[47] Those who have been the targets of bullying can suffer from
long
term
emotional
and
behavioral
problems.
Bullying
can
cause loneliness, depression, anxiety, lead to low self-esteem and increased susceptibility
to illness.[48] Bullying has also been shown to cause maladjustment in young children, and
targets of bullying who were also bullies themselves exhibit even greater social
difficulties.[49] In the long term it can lead to posttraumatic stress disorder and an inability to
form relationships.[citation needed]
Positive development
Some have argued that bullying can teach life lessons and instill strength. Helene
Guldberg, a child development academic, sparked controversy when she argued that
being a target of bullying can teach a child "how to manage disputes and boost their ability
to interact with others", and that teachers should not intervene, but leave children to
respond to the bullying themselves:[59]
"If boys or girls are able to stand up for themselves, being attacked by enemies can help
their development. Studies have shown that children become more popular among, and
respected by, teachers and fellow pupils if they repay hostility in kind. They remember

such experiences more vividly than friendly episodes, helping them to develop healthy
social and emotional skills".[60][dead link]
Bullying can also sometimes cause targets to adopt social or physical lifestyle changes
that can result in greater mental or physical health over the long term. For example,
weight-based victimization (WBV) has been shown to sometimes influence overweight
individuals to lose weight.[61]
Despite the fact that the majority of those who may find themselves to be the targets of
bullying behavior may ultimately feel "harmed" by such targeting, a few studies have
pointed up some potentially positive outcomes from bullying behavior.[62]
These studies have found that with some individuals, as a result of their having been
targeted with bullying behavior, this certain minority of former bullying "targets" have
actually experienced being "enabled" through their experiences with bullying to develop
various coping strategies which included "standing up for themselves" in ways which acted
to "re-balance" former imbalances of power.
Such former bullying targets have reported such things as "becoming a better person" as a
result of their former bullying ordeals.[62] The teaching of such anti-bullying coping skills to
"would-be-targets" and to others has been found to be an effective long term means of
reducing bullying incidence rates and a valuable skill-set for individuals.[63]