More handpicked essays just for you.
Overcoming peer pressure
Challenges associated with peer pressure
Bullying effects on adolescent development
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Overcoming peer pressure
Would it be a strange thing to say that bullying made me the confident person I am today? I was an Indian girl who was tall, skinny and had glasses, braces, and acne. I still am. Bullying was a daily thing whether it was about my race and getting teased for being a “cow worshipper” because of my Hindu culture. Or about my body type and how I was a "stick". In elementary and middle school It seemed that my priorities were about shaping a perfect persona that took me away from being the “curry smelling Indian girl”. Telling people I was mixed or creating new names for my parents was the normal. I didn't realize that I was more than the stereotypes of my race. I was so consumed by what others thought about my religion than who I actually was.
My mindset began to change when I met a Muslim girl who wore a hijab. She and I were both called horrible names but the names she was called were far worse. I always wondered why she just didn't take off her hijab to avoid the comments. One day I finally asked her and she went on to say how her hijab represented who she was and how she could never be ashamed because she loved her religion. From then on I decided that I am not going to let other people tell me who I am, I am going to tell them who I am. I always saw my culture as a flaw but now I see it as something that sets me apart. I feel like it's my duty to stand up for my culture and speak up against comments not just for myself but others that are going through the same things. It's one of the reasons why I got involved with the Soroptimist club to help create an event called Dream It, Be It that inspires girls like me to be confident and go after their dreams.
“Children who engage in bullying from a young age may be involved in what is known as precursory bullying. Precursory bullying has implications for future bullying, and is understood as ultimately destructive and damaging” (Levine and Tamburrino, 2014). There is no doubt about this, we’ve all heard about adults that have been bullied as children and do not come out successful members of society. Clearly, this is a lifelong
The psychoanalytic perspective (Erikson’s psychosocial stages), Sigmund Freud Ego or psychological defense mechanism, and behaviorism and social learning theory, are important to understanding adolescent bullying. In the psychoanalytic approach, development is discontinuous and as such occurs in stages where “people move through a series of stages in which they confront conflicts between biological drives and social expectations, and how these conflicts are resolved depends on the person’s ability to learn, to cope with others and cope with stress” (Berk 2010, p.15). According to Sigmund Freud from this theory, individuals use a mechanism called psychological defense mechanisms which when they feel an overpowering anxiety, the ego employs to protect themselves against unwanted, scary feelings or weaknesses within their psyche or consciousness. The use of these defense mechanisms can be useful sometimes and also hurtful at other times to us and others, which emanates as aggressive behavior e.g. bullying [2]. Erikson’s psychosocial stages of development are important for understanding bully behavior. According to Erikson, a “basic psychological conflict which is resolved along a scale from positive to negative determines a healthy or maladaptive outcomes of each stage” [Berk 2010, p.16], in other words as the child grows and goes through each of the psychosocial stages, he or she negotiates new cognitive and emotional experiences which enables him or her to pass through the stage with either a positive or negative outcome. The effects and results of a negative outcome from the stages can be used to describe aggressive behavior such as bullying [Berk 2010, p.16]. According to the behaviorism and learning theory, they believed that b...
The definition of bullying is the use superior strength or influence to intimidate (someone), typically to force him or her to do what one wants. Usually the bully will use that method or they are just saying or doing inappropriate things just to be simply cruel. Bullies could physically and emotionally hurt you. Sometimes they are taking their own personal problems out on an innocent victim. It could be as little as having a bad day to other major problems. People also tend to fall into peer abuse, which basically means that if someone is in a group of bullies, they’ll tend to fall in line and go along with the harassment. Especially if that means that you will look “cool” or fit into the group more. Obviously, this is in the wrong by far. My opinion on this is that if you are with a group of individuals that make others feel down about their selves just for laughs, then you most likely should get new peers to associate with.
Not only is it already hard to be a teenager, but having to deal with constant teasing and harassment is just something no one needs. There is a point in life where bullying can become so terrifying that students will rather stay at home than have to face their bully. Darnell “Dynasty” Young is a 17 year old gay teen who has gone through every possible way to stop his bullies from harassing him. His mother has tried everything but hasn’t been able to put a stop to it. Until one day, Young’s mother bought Darnell a stun gun. His mother told him to bring it to school and when the bullies began to torment him to take it out. He did just that, he did not actually shoot anyone he just waved it up in the air to intimidate his bullies. He not only got suspended but he also got arrested, yet the six boys teasing him and calling him names received no punishment whatsoever. (CNN) Young is one of the many kids that go through this type of abuse in a place where they should feel safe. This is an example of the school failing to do anything to prevent this kind of behavior, even after the parents try to intervene. This is also a great example of parents failing to implement high behavior standards by enforcing them to retaliate. Parents should be there to advice a peaceful way of resolving this in a non violent way not give them the weapon. By implementing prevention programs such as activities that help fight bullying can ultimately lead to the end of this horrific thing some kids face each day.
Growing up as a victim to bullying for something you have no control over can deteriorate
There are many strong arguments that support this and one of them is the life story of Herschel Walker. In his early child hood he was constantly alienated and bullied by others, however, he once stated in an interview that he decided “Herschel wasn’t going to get beat up anymore”. He started to toughen himself up mentally, emotionally, and physically until the point where he completely disassociated himself from his surroundings and focused on improving himself as a human being (Time Well Spent With Herschel Walker). His situation and the many others alike should stand as an ample example that not all bullying should necessarily be considered to be bad; however, regardless of the outcome people seem to ignore the fact that had he not been pushed he may not have developed into the Herschel Walker we all know and love. In situations such as Herschel Walker’s bull...
Bullying has greatly evolved over the years. We have gone from face to face bullying to a new form called cyber bullying. Many believe cyber bullying to be far worse than its traditional partner because it can leave a tremendous psychological impact on the person being bullied. There are a lot more people who report being bullied now that cyber bullying has become evolved. After a survey of 264 kids from across 3 different schools was conducted, it came to show that about half of them had been bullied and about a quarter of them cyber bullied. Around half of the kids say they know someone who has been or is being cyber bullied. Most cyber bullies attack there victims multiple times and for some reason, the victims never report it to the adults. It was found that males were more likely to be cyber bullies compared to females and that the females were more likely to report to an adult if they had been being bullied by someone (“Cyberbullying In Schools”). It has become much easier for bullies to cyberbully people because of all the advancement in technology. With the rapid growth of computers and other technology, cyber bullying was bound to outbreak. Bullies can give crippling blows to someone’s psychiatric state of mind just by using the internet, and the effects can be everlasting. It is easy for more than one person to bully a single target when on the internet. Cell phones are also a big cause of pain for the victims as they cannot delete embarrassing pictures or messages off of the phones of others who have received them. ("Mr. Bullproof.”). Researchers have tried to look into cyber bullying to try and find out what the reasoning is behind it and maybe try and figure out a way to prevent it. There have been recent studies abo...
with what it means to be labeled as different and what it means to associate with someone who is different. Bullying in my own experience was always based in variance from the accepted norms in the groups around me. Rather than having difference celebrated it is grounds for social victimization. This is why for a good part of my adolescence, “fitting in” was something that I either did because I had to, or I would be constantly searching for the comfort of a social group. I realize that I am, and have been, in a position of privilege to be less likely labeled as socially deviant, because of my race, appearance, economic status, and other identifiers being generally average for the schools I attended as a kid. Additionally, staying quiet in class was a way to avoid any grounds for bullying, as long as you are not too quiet and get bullied for
How can society possibly put an end to bullying, there can be as many sit downs with the children of today’s generation, but it is nearly impossible to put an end to this ongoing epidemic among the children of today. Many students are victims of bullying and not even half of the victims file reports against their attacker. Do Something, a Nationwide anti bullying organization said that “Over 3.2 million students are victims of bullying each year”. What can possibly be done to reduce and or possibly get rid of this number of students that are being bullied? The United States of America is currently fighting a war with bullying, and so far are losing. Although the number of state and federal laws against bullying have been increased, it seems that there have been more incidents that have not been heard about until it is far too late for something to be done.
Everyone has been bullied or encountered someone being bullied at some point of their life. Whether it would be physically or verbally both can be exceedingly traumatizing and can have a long-term psychological influence on children’s development. Majority people may define bullying in a more physical term; nevertheless that’s not always the case. The act of bullying can occur in several ways and in reality affect the individual in the same way. Bullying is generally defined as repeated, negative, and harmful actions focused at target throughout a course of time, exhibiting a sense of power difference between the bully and the victim (Olweus, 1993; Limber & Mihalic, 1999 as cited from Douglas J. Boyle, 2005). A survey was conducted in the United States estimating that over six million children, about 30% in grade six through ten have experienced frequent bullying in a school environment (Nansel, 2001 as cited from Douglas J. Boyle, 2005). Many people might debate that bullying is something that every child goes through and is simply a part of growing up, although there are several damaging consequences that happens to the child’s brain. Bullying causes the child to feel upset, isolated, frightened, anxious, and depressed. They feel like they reason they are being picked on is because there is something wrong with them and may even lose their confidence feel unsafe going to school (Frenette, 2013 as cited from Douglas J. Boyle, 2005) Anthropologically, sociologically, or psychologically, bullying can be analyzed through different perspectives and several questions can be asked based on the topic:
Bullying is a growing concern in a society where status and exercising power over another human being are increasingly important in developing one’s social circles. Dan Olweus (Norwegian researcher and founder of the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program) defines it as an “aggressive behaviour that is intentional and that involves an imbalance of power. Most often, it is repeated over time” (Violencepreventionworks.org). School victimization is an especially delicate matter that has only really been in the public eye for the past half century, as more and more researchers and psychologists pointed out its short- and long-term negative effects on targeted individuals. It has since been widely investigated and numerous programs have been developed in an effort to address and prevent the many forms of bullying that exist today. The negative effects of such an abusive behaviour are various and can greatly differ from individual to individual. However, there are three main consequences that can be associated with school bullying, which are: school avoidance, depression/anxiety and even suicidal attempts.
Educators attempt to provide safe, nurturing environments where students can thrive. Any disturbance to this climate can have negative affects on students’ educational performances. Bullying is one such disruption. Unfortunately, physical and verbal abuse are nothing new in the school setting, however, the rise of technology in our country has created a new setting for bullies to target their victims. Cyberbulling, or the use of any number of technological means to harm or harass another, has become an increasingly prevalent occurrence, specifically among school-aged children (Campfield, 2006).
Bullying does not have a standard definition. Bullying can be anything from calling someone else names, beating them up just for the fun of it, to texting or messaging them on the internet or any mobile device. Any person can be the victim of bullying, not just children. Bullying causes many issues, physically, emotionally, and mentally, not only for the victim, but for their entire families as well. Bullies have many different reasons as to why they start bullying someone else. The actions done to the victim leaves them with only a few options on how to stop being bullied. How they handle it is always different.
Remaining a constant victim to bullying for 11 years significantly affected how I viewed myself and others around me. To most I wasn’t worth giving more than a single glance. I had a gap between my two front teeth, which was a primary target of ridicule. My clothes were “nice”, but they weren’t by the designer label everyone else was wearing. Not only did I dress and look ugly, I was also a black girl- a lighter skinned
A major effect of bullying is the way it can change the victim 's personality. It may cause someone who is regularly self-sufficient and full of joy to become anxious, and hesitant. Consequently, victims may even become depressed or suicidal. Their self-sufficientness could possibly flee, keeping them from experiencing