Aggression and Bullying Flashcards
Define aggression
- subjective social labelling –> dependent on the evaluator
- injurious and destructive behaviour
What are the types of aggression?
Hostile (heat of the moment, attitudinal) vs instrumental (motivated behaviour)
What are the 6 theories of aggression?
Trait theory: consistency + stability
Drive theory: Freud (catharsis hypothesis)
Social cognitive theory: Bandura (influences and regulators)
Information processing model: whether you behave aggressively depends on how you encode and interpret social cues
General Aggression Model: social, cognitive, personality, developmental, and biological factors
What is the role of the victim?
- Children who cry when victimized are often the targets, because pain cues are highly gratifying to those who are highly aggressive
- Self-perceived social competence within the peer group effects the belief of not being able to interact effectively with ones peers (increasing victimisation) and confidence in being able to interact with one’s peers protects behaviour-at risk children from being victimised
What are the 4 types of peer victimisation?
Physical: hitting / kicking / punching
Verbal: name-calling, teasing
Relational: spreading rumours, excluding, gossiping
Cyber: mobile phones, internet
Describe the model of victimisation
Abuse (severity, family support)–> psychological processes (coping, attribution of blame, self-efficacy) –> outcomes (depression, aggression, internalizing, externalizing)
What are the personal factors related to victimisation
- physical weakness
- behavioural reactions: passive victim (submissive, anxious, cries easily) provocative victim (irritating, attention seeking, disruptive)
- status in the peer group
- minority status
- few friends / poor quality friendship
- overprotected children
- poor parent-child communication patterns
What are the school factors related to victimization?
- bullying is not taken seriously
- bystanders and victims do not feel supported when they report bullying
- no clear procedures for handling bullying
Factors that attenuate the negative psychological impact of victimization:
- coping skills: problem solving and support seeking results in better adjustment
- coping self-efficacy
Coping self efficacy –> 4 self-efficacy domains
Cognitive domains:
- self-efficacy for avoiding self-blame: belief in ability to avoid blaming themselves for victimisation
- victim-role disengagement: not taking the victimization personally, not allowing the bully’s negative comments define them (reduces depression)
Behavioural domain
- self-efficacy for proactive behaviour: support seeking, problem solving, assertiveness, conflict resolutoin (reduces depression symptoms)
- self-efficacy for avoiding aggressive behaviour: forgive and avoid fighting back (reduces externalizing behaviours)
The greater the level of victimization, the less children were able to use the coping self-efficacy strategies. The more the strategies were used, less anxiety, depression and acting out.
Debates about the causes of bullying:
Sutton, Smith –> skilled manipulators
Crick and Dodge –> oafs
What are the mechanisms of moral disengagement?
Enables the selective activation and disengagement of internal controls, thereby permitting different types of conduct with the same moral standards.
Moral justification
Euphemistic language
Advantageous comparison
Displacement of responsibility: friends pressured me into doing it
Diffusion of responsibility: if its done together as a group, you can’t blame a single person
Distorting the consequences of action
Dehumanization
Attribution of blame
Kids low in empathy are much more likely to morally disengage, wheras for kids who are higher in empathy, they will not engage in as much aggression even in they are morally disengaged
What are the 2 forms of bystanders?
Passive bystanders (don’t do anything)
Active bystanders:
- Defenders: help the victim –> can either act aggressively or constructively
- Help the bully: act aggressively
What’s the role of bystanders?
- 80% of bully episodes have bystanders
- intervention by bystanders can lead to less bullying and even stop it
- linked to moral disengagement
What are the implications for intervention?
Olweus program: intervention at a community, school, classroom and individual level
KiVa: Finland –> professionally developed materials, internet based resources, much stronger role accorded to bystanders
Teacher intervention: activities and video clips, conducted over 18 weeks, successful because students believe both their teachers and peers disapprove of victimisation –
