Essay On Hazing

Hazing is defined as “any activity, required implicitly or explicitly as a condition of initiation or continued membership in an organization, that may negatively impact the physical or psychological well-being of the individual or may cause damage to others, or to public or private property” (Campo, Poulos & Sipple, 2005, p. 137). Often prevalent in a variety of student organizations on college campuses, hazing can have damaging physical and psychological effects, in some cases leading to serious injury or death. Several explanations have been offered for why the cycle of hazing tends to perpetuate itself in student organizations, and why a person would willingly conform to endure embarrassing, degrading, or dangerous tasks and situations. Both Owen, Burke, and Vichesky (2008) and Campo, Poulos, and Sipple (2005) evaluate the prevalence of hazing, what students recognize as hazing, the sociodemographic characteristics of those involved in hazing behavior, and the attitudes, behaviors, and factors related to hazing and towards possible intervention strategies. Raalte, Cornelius, Linder, and Brewer (2007) evaluate the claim that hazing is associated with increased team cohesion. In an effort to examine “whistle-blowing” intentions in Greek organizations, Richardson, Wang, and Hall (2012) researched the factors influencing a group member’s behavioral intent to report using the Theory of Reasoned Action model. Finally, Keating, Pomerantz, Pomer, Ritt, Miller, and McCormick (2005) assessed the functions of severe initiations within a variety of organizations as well as if hazing increased social dependency to the group, thereby creating a higher level of conformity and attraction within group members. Through the evaluation of the man...

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...n, hazing education should not be limited to members of Greek and other university organizations. All members of the university community should be educated on the topic since according to the Theory of Reasoned action and the research by Richardson et al. (2012), “relevant others”, such as close friends outside of the organization, can influence the observer’s decision to report. Furthermore, because the severity of the situation influences the likelihood that an observer would report, emphasizing not only the physical but the psychological consequences of hazing would increase awareness on how detrimental even hazing situations that may seem mild can be (Richardson et al., 2012). Integrating these findings into educational anti-hazing initiatives has the potential to increase effectiveness in efforts combat hazing within student organizations on college campuses.