Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Bullying: Theories
- Ecological Systems Theory
- Adapted for bullying from
Bronfrenbrenner (1994) by Hong +
Espelage (2012)
- Microsystem = pattern of activities/roles/interpersonal
relationships experienced by a child in a particular
setting where they are directly involved (e.g. home,
classroom, playground)
- Mesosystem = relationship between 2 or more settings in which
the child actively participates
- Exosystem = setting where child is not directly
involved, but it affects/is affected by settings
that do directly involve the child. E.g.
neighbourhood environment, local authority's
policy on bullying, exposure to violence in
media...
- Macrosystem = influence of
cultural/subcultural mores and
belief-systems.
- Chronosystem =
consistency/change
of the child and their
environment over
time
- Tells us risk factors for different settings,
with implications for the importance of
assessing all systems and intervention at
multiple levels
- Payne + Gottfriedson
(2004) found lower
levels of bullying
associated with school
level factors
- Teacher discussing bullying with pupils
- Teachers recognising bullying behaviour and
actually intervening in bullying incidents
- Teachers showing interest in stopping bullying
- Pupil cooperativeness
- These factors also
associated with
more negative pupil
attitudes towards
bullying
- Sociocognitive Deficit Theories
- Social information processing model (Crick & Dodge, 1994)
- 6 stages for how social cues are
attended to, evaluated,
reacted to, etc.
- Skillful processing = social competance,
biased processing = aggression and
social problems (Crick & Dodge, 1996;
Zelli et al, 1999)
- Bullies have biased social information processing - attending
preferentially to hostile cues, coding less neutral cues, selecting more
instrumental goals over relational goals, evaluating aggressive responses
more favourably...
- BUT not all bullies seem to be socially incompetent, some seem to be skilled manipulators
- Shakoor et al (2012): longitudinal twin study. Poor Theory
of Mind age 5 predicted victim/bully-victim status, but
proactive bullies had very strong ToM
- Proactive bullies socially
competent but lacking in empathy
+ instrumental goals (Arsenio +
Lemerise, 2001)
- Viding et al (2009): 11-13yo self-reports
of callous unemotional (CU) traits and
psychopathology, peer reports of
direct/indirect bullying. Higher CU =
increased direct bullying. CU + conduct
problems = high risk for engaging in both
types of bullying.
- Family influence
- Social learning theory: aggression is
learnt through modelling +
reinforcement, early experience
particularly influential.
- Olweus (1994) + Bowes et al (1994)
- High levels of physical aggression and
emotional hostility between parents of bullies
and their children
- These parents often do not set limits to their child's
aggression, so it is often successful in achieving the child's
goals
- Parenting style of victims is
overprotective and overinvolved
- Schwartz et al (1997): longitudinal study. Parental
behaviour = instrumental in the development of
bullying behaviour in some children.
- Bully-victims: physical abuse, domestic
violence, maternal hostility, harsh discipline
- Bullies: aggressive models, parental conflict
- Victims: not significantly different from homes of children not
involved in bullying, BUT overprotective parenting not studied.
- Disorganised attachment (Bowlby): Strong
associations with problems regulating
emotions, behaviour problems in school,
psychopathology in adolescence (Green +
Goldwyn, 2002)
- Group process theories
- Social dominance theory (Nishina, 2004)
- Evolutionary
advantage to bullying
behaviour?
- Establishing/rebelling against
dominance hierarchies
- Effects of how the adults in school assert their dominance over children, develop/maintain hierarchies, are important
- Bullying an outgroup
member increases feelings
of ingroup membership