Relational Aggression : An Example Of Hostile Aggression

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.

Aggression is a critical concept in understanding social psychology. Many have defined aggression as a type of behavior that is used to purposely harm someone (Arndt, Greenberg, Landau, & Schmader). In a study conducted in 2016 regarding school crime and safety, it was reported by their principals that nearly 5% of the students have been experiencing moderate to severe discipline issues (Musu-Gilette, Zhang, Wang, Zhang, & Oudekerk, 2017). Since this behavior comes in two forms, verbal and physical, it can have an influence on a person’s psyche. The long-term consequences of experiencing and witnessing family violence have been seen to have an effect on how a person communicates and handles situations. Family life is a leading predictor in determining aggressive behavior. The interaction between family members does play a key part in the development of a child. Considering children do learn how to behave and react from their surrounding environment through imitation. Aggressive behavior can be influenced by family relationships that can have a lasting impact on adolescents.

The main focus of this paper is to show the connections between aggression and peer rejection and the effects it has on an adolescent whether it be directly or indirectly. One of the most influential aspects for self-esteem in adolescence is social acceptance from peers which helps to endorse a positive sense of self-worth which is linked to effective coping (McMahan, 2009). When an adolescent is rejected by his or her peers, aggression is probable to occur. The most frequent type of aggression, especially in girls, is relational aggression. Relational aggression is trying to hurt someone by verbally attacking them or their social relations through gossip or exclusion (McMahan, 2009).

Over the past couple of decades, schools all across the nation have noticed a significant rise in the amount of bullying taking place among their students. “Two decades ago, bullying was often seen as a rare occurrence, where small groups of parents sought protection for their children with the school district”, stated by Vikki Healy Ortiz, writer of the article “New inclusive approach helps schools fight bullying”. However, the same cannot be said for our society in today’s world. Our modern world has advanced tremendously over the past few decades and there are even more opportunities for children to be susceptible to feeling isolated from others because they are simply unique. In today’s society, children have the potential to bully each other outside of the classroom as well.

Bullying is a problem that is on the rise in society; however, many individuals have a distorted view of what bullying entails. Usually when someone thinks of bullying, they assume that it is a standard part of a child’s life. This view, on the contrary, is erroneous. Bullying is actually abnormal behavior, many times, leaving victims with a dismantled self identity. Since some people do not understand the consequences of bullying, the actions of the bully often go unnoticed and are perceived as “kids being kids”. The issue of bullying goes deeper than that nevertheless. Despite the erroneous views that many individuals hold towards bullying, it is still a distortion of normal behavior in children.

The role of bullying encompasses of what actually takes place in school environments and what goes on in communities, families and agencies where children are violent. The authors looks at “A Staging Paradigm” in which the authors divided the violence in patterns and five patterns: repetitive school disruptions (pattern 1), acute case of child aggressor or victim (pattern 2), highly submissive victim or aggressive young student (pattern 3), child with self-injurious or self-defeating behavior (pattern 4), and truants and dropouts (pattern 5). It was noted that bullies are allow to do what they want because bystanders would not intervene and this creates a humiliating experience for the community and the family not to have a peaceful environment ( Weisbroth 2012).

Bullying among school-aged children is regarded as a widespread problem in the United States and there is no one-size-fits-all solution to the problem. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES), over one third of students in elementary and middle schools are impacted by bullying (Klein, 2012). Bullying is defined as “unwanted, aggressive behavior among school-aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time” (Klein,2012). Studies show that the consequences of bullying not only include students who are bullied, but the effects extend to those who bully and

There are various types of bullying that students are face with such as; physical bullying, this type of bullying involves hitting, shoving, pushing, tripping and any other kind of force. Verbal bullying involves the use of hurtful comments such as, name-calling and teasing. Social bullying involves using relationship to hurt someone, it involves excluding or ostracizing someone from a friend group, spreading rumors or the silent treatment. Cyber bullying happens over cell phone and the internet. School bullying is not subject to any particular gender both boys and girls are guilt of or victims of some form of bullying. However; bullying is likely to be missed by teachers, Johnson.pg 129 states “while teachers view bullying as a major problem, it is low on the list reported by students.” This quote explain that it is almost impossible to know whether a child is being bullied or the type of bullying that they experience. Therefore, in this essay I will claim that violence has increased in school as a result of bullying, and because of bullying student bringing weapons to school as a means of

This part of the chapter is significant because it teaches the importance of peer groups among children and how children basically learn from each other. It also informs us about bullying which is a serious issue among all age groups, especially during middle childhood. People, specifically parents and guardians, need to be informed about bullying and the consequences and results of it. All parents should guide their children to avoid the path of becoming bullies, so that children can grow up in peace and harmony with one another. Along with peer groups, children will befriend others they can relate so they do not feel alone (Berger, 300-302). Lev Vygotsky’s social-cultural theory can be applied to this because the way a child is raised or how they grow up to be, in which includes factors such as environment and the people they associate with, will affect their overall developmental growth. Similarly, Jean Piaget’s Cognitive Theory relates to bullying because his theory focuses on changes in how people think over time; thoughts shape attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors (Berger, 28). For example, when a bully insults someone by saying that he/she is fat, ugly, stupid, etc., the victim starts to believe that it’s true and will put him/herself down. They will lose self-confidence and become extremely conscious about their appearance and characteristics. The constant name calling perpetuates to the victim believing and noticing the words the bully is saying about them. When

One theory that prompted research on how boys and girls differ in the expression of aggression was that boys are more aggressive than girls’ theory. Several researchers in the past suggest that boys act in aggressive way within the peer group context for physical dominance (Crick, gropeter 2012). The idea was the exploratory examination of gender differences in patterns of association between physical aggression and the social interaction revealed that the relationships were only true for boys. In other word,

Everyone experience certain level of hostility, but most do not live with the anticipatory fear of pain and humiliation caused by the repeated aggression that characterizes bullying. Predatory individuals seek power and control over others, but carefully aggress against the most vulnerable victim repeatedly over time (Mah, 2009, pp.12-13). There are two types three types of bullies; the aggressive, follower, and the relational bully. Aggressive bullies overt aggression either physical or verbal as well as threats and intimidation. The follower is less likely to begin bullying, but is motivated to follow because the aggressive bully if the act of bullying is rewarded. Finally, the relational bully uses indirect forms of violence to inflict

As children, boys and girls are shown different things about what is appropriate behavior for their gender, and thus how they should handle their anger. The things we are taught about how our gender should behave are called gender roles. These gender roles are well known and are thought to be the norms of how males and females should carry themselves. In today’s society males are told that they are supposed to be aggressive, forceful, masculine, and dominant. Conversely, females are taught to be passive, nurturing, supportive and caring. One possible reason this is so is because men are usually the head of the household, while woman typically care for the children more. These norms are taught from birth via gender socialization. This relates to aggression because the way we believe we should act leads to how we approach different

Bullying is on the rise across the nation. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, 30 percent of students of students were bullied during the 2010-2011 school year. Whether verbal or physical, bullying has a negative effect on the victims. Students who are bullied often experience depression, loneliness, anxiety, and isolation. The common types of bullying in a school setting are physical and verbal. With the rise in the use of social media, cyberbullying has become a big problem among children. Children who bully others are often bullied at home by a parental figure. This is why it is very important to incorporate moral instruction into the curriculum, teaching students about respect and caring for others, instead of bullying them. Schools have started to take extra precautions to eliminate bullying by implementing prevention programs. As educators, it is our responsibilities to prevent bullying from happening in our schools and protect our students. It is important that we model moral and ethical behavior for students to follow. It’s also important that we take precautions and investigate all forms of bullying, instead of only taking action when we witness physical aggression.

Previous research concerning peer aggression has been conducted under the assumption that women rarely display aggression; therefore, aggressive behavior has historically been viewed as a male phenomenon (Björkqvist, 1994). Recently, many researchers have challenged the gender bias in the existence of aggressive behaviors and have broadened the definition of aggression. Björkqvist’s research suggests sex differences exist in the quality of the aggression, but not the quantity. According to Paquette and Underwood (1999), an adolescent’s expression of anger and contempt for peers can sometimes be expressed through physical aggression, manipulation, exclusion, and/or gossip. This broader definition allows for

Relational aggression (RA) is defined as nonphysical behaviors that aim to deliberately cause harm to another individual by destroying relationships, harming social status or self-esteem, or public embarrassment (Crick, Werner, Casas, O’Brien, Nelson, Grotpeter, & Markon, 1999). Examples include behaviors such as purposely ignoring a peer, spreading rumors, creating undesirable gossip, and excluding a peer from group activities, (Crick, 1996; Crick & Grotpeter, 1995; Crick, Ostrov, & Werner, 2006). RA can occur as early as preschool years, and plays a huge role in the interactions among this population with behaviors such as covering one’s ears as a sign of ignoring another peer (Bonica, Arnold, Fisher, Zeljo, & Yershova, 2003; Crick et al.,