Causes of Bullying and Solutions
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Bullying
According to Dillon, & Javier (2013), in different occasions people of greater strength and authority use their superiority to intimidate and forcefully make someone act against personal wish. Some people while requiring things to be done, either beneficial or not, uses inappropriate conviction into making others perform as per their wish. Contrary aggressiveness is commonly bullying putting into consideration the place and person it affects. The term is often used to refer to the aggressive non-desirable behavior among the school-going children that result from power imbalance among them (Kuykendall, 2012). However, the act is vast within the society ranging from homes, offices, interactions and even communication technology used.
Bullying is an act that is indeed undesirable and capable of involving and affecting any member of the society irrespective of the person or place. The action repeats over time by either perpetrators or individuals that indulge in it to show their might or dominance over the perceived weaker individuals (Dillon, & Javier, 2013). Bullying includes threats, spreading rumors, physical or verbal violence, and exclusion of a person from a group purposefully where otherwise a person would belong. Bullying can take place in the media, and, in this case, cyber bullying, at school, at work, and in the community people live (Malta, Mello, Oliveira, Porto, Silva, & Yoshinaga, 2015). Bullying varies a lot and can be complex than what is the common belief, for instance of a bigger schoolchild beating a younger one.
Other than what is seen that involves physical assault, bullying can also occur quietly and happen in the social media through spreading rumors likely to cause emotional damage. It can take the form of any behavior that harms or humiliates a person physically or emotionally, with those targeted by the practice lacking the ability stop the action against them. According to Kuykendall (2012), people assert power over others often with physical, social and emotional power or strength over them. This can be repetitive or occur from a behavior that forms a pattern to the target person.
Bullying can take many forms and done by either gender. Therefore, it is most important to distinguish bullying from what is not bullying. Those children or students who experience bullying often express some signs. Therefore, it is important to be keen to note the behavior exhibited (Healey, 2011). It is also possible to note the bullying characteristics from individuals to adopt measures and prevent them from bullying others. The bullying behavior has a dire impact on the people who are bullied and overall climate of the society within which bullying takes place (Osvaldsson, 2011). As commonly thought, that physical bullying is the most common, verbal bullying is a common type of bullying and involves negative or sexual language.
Bullying can go to an extent of exhibiting a person’s perceived or actual sexual orientation or even through emails, social sites or digital messages. It is important that those susceptible to bullying be equipped with appropriate measures that will ensure they do not fall victims of the act (Healey, 2011). It is important to control the action and have preventive interventions in place since it is clear that the behavior is repeated and intentional. According to Dillon, & Javier (2013), the person who gets the bullying does nothing to warrant it. Therefore, it is important to create awareness that will likely help in preventing situations of bullying. Having focused much on the bullying shifted towards children and students, it is important to highlight the harassment at the workplace.
Knowing clearly that bullying can also take place at work, it is important to be aware of the types of bullying that can occur at the workplace and develop strategies to prevent it (Kuykendall, 2012). Teachers and managers can play a critical role in preventing bullying in their respective areas to ensure that no one is harmed. Bullying is not only a social or emotional problem, but the vice may extend affecting the health of individuals affected. Therefore, it is important to develop intervention plans for the preventive course. Most of bullying cases originate from schools, and it is incumbent on teachers to develop skills to deal with the issue.
Causes of Bullying
As discussed in the beginning paragraphs, bullies tend to assert power and dominance over others due to the power imbalance between the parties. Therefore, the first and primary cause of bullying is the urge by an individual to show power and dominance over a person or people who undergo the bullying (Dillon, & Javier, 2013). The bullies want to either get or maintain control over another with the full expression of power or authority, physically, emotionally or by words. Bullies are not antisocial or introverted, but ordinary people with higher self-esteem with uncontrollable nature to co-exist with other people. According to Malta, et al., (2015), the bullies have a little tolerance for others for frustrations, lack empathy for others, and tend to enjoy provocative behaviors.
The second reason is the fact that the perpetrator of the action had an earlier experience of bullying. The Larger portion of the bullies is those that had been bullied before right from their families, peers or colleagues (Healey, 2011). Such people may have felt the lack of significance in themselves and feeling like taking out the frustration of someone else, making it look like revenge. Just as any other failure underwent by a person at childhood, those who experience bullying in childhood grow with a bullying mentality (Osvaldsson, 2011). It is worth noting however that not all who experienced bullying in childhood grow to be a bully, as some later become composed of good personality.
Another major point is that bullies express the undesirable behavior because they are socially intolerant or view another person as different. Narrow mindedness is a common factor to intolerance where a person witnesses the small judgment of one party or another, for instance, a case of discrimination against another party (Dillon, & Javier, 2013). Expression of biases and lack of commonality is likely to breed a bully, being narrow-minded in terms of judging others and thus intolerant of a group or a person perceived to be different. It is worth noting that people and mostly children are confronted by the differences they perceive that ends up shaping their behavior (Malta, et al., 2015).
Solutions to Bullying
Several interventions can be put in place to prevent and end bullying depending on the person or place it applies. According to Healey (2011), the primary solution to bullying is empowering people to understand, appreciate people within their societies or groups, acknowledge their differences and appreciate those differences as though they will also want to be appreciated. This is an overall way to end an assertion that others are different, lesser or undeserving and, therefore, they should face the wrath in the pleasure of those who subject them to bullying (Kuykendall, 2012). Making people aware that they need to appreciate others, appreciated, and peacefully co-exist with their fellows are significant steps.
Another significant solution to bullying is laying proper structures of reporting bullying incidences and taking action on any person found to be bullying others (Malta, et al., 2015). Keeping quiet may be because of many reasons, and it supports the continuity of bullying within groups. Being able to lay structures and creating awareness of the process of reporting any incidence of bullying will hold on bullies and stop them from undertaking the act (Healey, 2011). Bullying should not be taken as a regular part of childhood as it has a chance of significantly affecting the victims. It is confirmed from different points that being able to report a bullying incident and act upon it is effective in stopping it.
It is also important to encourage a child to be assertive and not passive and develop skills in dealing with or preventing bullying (Dillon, & Javier, 2013). Being able to create ways in which youth express themselves, empowering them to stand against the action and creating the right ways to report any incident are important measures to stop bullying. Being able to support a child to report, any incidence of bullying and taking steps to end the behavior from progressing is a sure way of offering a solution to the occasion (Malta, et al., 2015). Bullying is an act that thrives not because the law is taken to be normal, but because there no proper working methods of ending the vice among the children and adults.