Moral Disengagement And Bullying Behavior In Adolescents

Bullying is a situation where one person abuses power over another. Bullying is about power, control and abuse. Bully’s come in all shapes, sizes and forms. Bullying occurs throughout a human’s life span. The most-critical development stage of one’s personality is adolescence. Bullying during adolescence has been a major issue in every community. Bullying can happen in three known forms; direct, indirect, and cyber. Both gender and sexual orientation are associated with all forms of bullying. Bullying affects self-esteem and family cohesion.

As more and more children go to school, the rates of bullying go up as time goes by. there are many times at which students suffer all the bullying that occurs within their lives. As more schools become aware of the magnitude of the bullying occurring right under their noses, there are rules created to aid the victim. There are various types of bullying and these are created to do one thing, instill superiority among the “stronger” and place a feeling of inferiority. Bullies are the ones who are detrimental to a child’s development.

Bullying by definition is a form of aggressive behavior in which someone intentionally and repeatedly causes another person injury or discomfort. Bullying can take the form of physical contact, words or more subtle actions. [Why] Bullying has grown new outlets over the last decade. With social media outlets and text messaging added to the game, bullying is not just about getting tormented face to face anymore. Cyber bullying can include sending out mean or threatening emails and instant messages about a person, spreading rumors about someone and also include photos that a person would consider to be humiliating. [Chamberlin] Bullying can have many outlets. The most common form of bullying is still face to face confrontation. But

Lawrence Kohlberg, a developmental psychologist, identified six developmental stages of human moral reasoning. The first stage that he recognized was the Punishment-Obedience Orientation, where the person’s concern is for avoiding punishment through obedience. The second stage was the Instrumental Relativist Orientation, where the person’s concern is to work in their self interest, and better their position. The third stage of moral development was the Good Boy-Nice Girl Orientation, where the person’s concern lies with their reputation. Next was the Law And Order Orientation, where the person was less concerned with their own immediate well being to the maintenance of a larger society. The fifth stage was the Social Contract

Moral Development is defined as “changes in thoughts, feelings and behaviors regarding standards of right and wrong” (Santrock, 2010). Moral development

Lawrence Kohlberg, the author of three stages, was an American psychologist who is well known for his theory on the stages of moral development. According to Kohlberg, there are three levels of moral development:Preconventional (moral reasoning is based on external rewards and punishments), Conventional (laws and rules are upheld simply because they are laws and rules), and Postconventional (reasoning is based on personal moral standards)” (powerpoint).

Many victims of bullying have similar characteristics. For example, shy, quiet, or physically small individuals or those who lack a group of friends are often targets of bullies. A person’s race, sexuality, or physical appearance may also attract bullying or teasing. Bullies often seek

Bullying is defined as “verbal, physical, or psychological abuse or teasing accompanied by real or perceived imbalance of power” and is usually targets what children perceive as different (Olweus, 1993). Bullying is prevalent across the nation. It has devastating effects on students each day. Bullying is a problem for all students, regardless of race, gender or class. The National Education Association reports that 160,000 children are absent intentionally from school each day because they fear being bullied whether it is an attack or just intimidation by other students. This accounts for 15% of all school absenteeism (Hunter, 2012). Dan Olweus (1993) from the National School Safety Center tells us that bullying includes three parts: (1)

Bullying has become more of an issue that is threatening our younger generation today. Bullying is becoming more of a vicious act in public schools throughout the United States (Coloroso, 2003; Felix & McMahon, 2006). There are many adverse effects that are caused by this disgraceful act. The average school-age child is silently or overtly tormented on a daily basis. Many of these students who experience bullying feel that they have no one to talk to, or that they have no where to go. The motives that the bullies take can cause harmful and even devastating results. In today’s society, bullying provokes emotional, social, and cognitive distress in the

Lawrence Kohlberg is known for his theory of moral development developed in 1958. His theory was dependent on the thinking of Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget and American philosopher John Dewey. It consists of three levels of moral reasoning: preconventional, conventional, and postconventional. These levels are based on the degree to which an individual accommodates to the conventional standards of society. Each level aquires two stages that serve as different standards of sophistication in moral reasoning. Overall, Kohlberg affirms that moral development is a process of maturing that emerges from thinking about about moral issues (“Kohlberg’s Moral Development”).

The Effects of Bullying on a Child Every day in our schools, children are threatened, teased, taunted, and tormented by bullies. At any given time, about 25 percent of U.S. students are the victims of bullies and about 20 percent are engaged in bullying behavior (Education World, 2000). The National Association of School Psychologists estimates that 160,000 children stay home from school every day because they are afraid of being bullied (Education World, 2000). Bullying is characterized by three criteria(NCPTB, 2003): It is aggressive behavior or the intent to harm,

Bullying can be hard to define, because research has shown that it comes in many forms which makes it difficult to find one set of characteristics that will describe a bully. Conclusively, studies have defined bullying as a set of repeated aggressive behavior that is intended to harm someone, which usually involves an imbalance of power between the victim and the perpetrator (Morgan, 2012, p. 174). Studies have shown that there are two distinct types of bullying, which is a direct form of verbal and physical aggression, and indirect, which often results in name calling, rumors and exclusion (Aluedse, 2006, p. 38). This form of peer victimization can have devastating effects on a child 's academic work and their physical and psychological well being (Limber, 2003, p. 23). In terms of gender, boys are more likely to be involved in physical bullying (direct) as for girls are more likely to be involved in indirect bullying (Wang et al, 2009, p. 371). Previous research indicates, that parents and friends are two important factors of social interaction associated with bullying and victimization among adolescences. Bullying is quite common among middle school children, because it is during this time that children go through puberty and hormonal changes. During this time students are looking to be accepted and fit into a specific group; however, when there is a lack of acceptance and esteem due to victimization, this can cause children to isolate themselves from those around them

The second level of moral development is the conventional moral reasoning; “Beginning in middle school, up to middle age – most people end up here” (“Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development.”). At this level,

Bullying has the obscured need of an individual to feel like they have the power as compared to others in a social setting. When the bully carries an ego at school, the victim of the bullying may suffer both physical and emotional abuse. Bullying can also extend to sexual and verbal abuse. In some schools, a majority of the popular students tend to pick on the less popular students for the sake of fun and attention from other school mates. The main structural causes of bullying are mostly psychosomatic problems. In most of the times, a bully can also get rid of their own problems by passing it on to others person. In rare cases of young people, teenagers often release their anger out because of their violent backgrounds or negative influences that they come across as they grew up in life. As an outcome, they end up exhibiting these feelings through

The theory of moral development, advanced by psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg is one of the most well-known persuasive theories in the field of cognitive science and stems from the work of Jean Piaget, which hypothesizes on the direct correlation that exists between moral and cognitive development. Kohlberg speaks of the appearance and understanding of what is right and wrong from childhood to adulthood and explains by this transition through the identification of various levels of morality known as pre-conventional, conventional and post conventional. People will make decisions based on the understanding of the possible outcome and through reasoning of morals. (Target Concept)