Theory of Mind and Child Bullying - Literature review Example

?Running Head: Theory of Mind and Child Bullying Theory of Mind and Child Bullying [Institute’s Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 Overview to Literature Review Process 4 Critique to Existing Literature 5 Theory of Mind 8 Child Bullying 9 Relationship between Theory of Mind and Child Bullying 11 Benefits and Limitations in the Research 12 Suggestions to Future Research 14 Conclusion 15 References 16 Introduction Social issues and concerns have normally come under immense ignorance and people fail to notice the issues that leave indelible imprints on to abundant of people. Bullying, predominantly child bullying is one of the socially ethical dilemmas that dates back to several decades and may be centuries (Sanders and Phye, 2004, pp. 1-3). One can define bully as a "Use superior strength or influence to intimidate (someone), typically to force him or her to do what one wants" (Alvesson and Spicer, 2011, pp.165). This means that bullying is an action that can come under performance by either one person and can even involve a group of people, where they tend to have aggressive and violent conduct. In addition, the practice of bullying is intended to provide harm to other people or become a source of humiliation for them publically because they perceive them stronger and wants to prove their dominance over the weaker people (Sanders and Phye, 2004, pp. 3-5). In general, it has come to observation that the victim's abilities, personality, ways of expression, gender, religion, culture, and several others become the primary or fundamental source of bullying. Bullying not only comes under restriction to verbal harassment, but also can lead to further violent conduct that includes physical assault and psychological violence. (Coloroso, 2009, pp. 5-8). Bullying has become one of the common and widespread practices that comes under exercise in nearly every institution whether it be educational institutions like schools and universities, workplace and even neighborhood. Due to this persistent and extensive application of bullying in every facet of life, it has become imperative to discover the root causes behind it, the harm that it can provide and the extensive research with respect to the subject matter (Macfarlane and McPherson, 2004, pp. 10-12). The relation of child bullying to theory of mind is imperative t o understand because the theory of mind is one of the social cognitions that come under development in the early childhood. However, the actions of the child are highly dependent upon social cognitions. This means that the mind and development of the child leads to understand the actions performed in the social world. Due to this, it comes under considerations as one of the most important developments of early childhood that helps in shaping the personality of the child. Child bullying has a lot of influence and power on how the personality of the child comes under formation in his or her childhood. Therefore, it is pivotal to study and analyse the role and impact of theory of mind upon the performance of the child that can help understand how and why child bullying comes under relationship to theory of mind. The thesis report has come under division into segments where the first segment broadly defines the wide-ranging research that has come under performance with respect to the grave issue, at the same time enlightening child bullying and theory of mind. In addition, it also includes a comparative study that delineates the relationship between the two. The following segment highlights the strengths, limitations, and omission in the research taken place concerning the two aspects. Lastly, based on all the research studies suggestions would come under articulation for future research questions as well as research methods. Overview to Literature Review Process The literature review concerning the matter of child bullying and theory of mind have come under consideration, numerous studies and researches have come under practice that can bring this matter into enlightenment. This is pivotal as child bullying can leave devastating impacts on to the personalities of the young people that would also bring immense impact to the society on whole. Therefore, the pre-research studies would be the key emphasis of the thesis report. Moreover, the thesis information would have its basis on the secondary research. This is because the secondary research is already available through various sources and is less time consuming in comparison to the primary research. This method of research also provides a great deal of information with various perspectives and perceptions of the people on the topic. The secondary data is available through a wide variety of sources, however the database and fundamental sources that has been the basis of the current research study includes the books and journals with the key words of 'theory of mind', 'child bullying', 'relationship between child bullying and theory of mind'. However, the details of books and journals that have come under utilization for the research study are well stated in comprehensive way in the section of "References". The database of 'Google' and the library of 'Google books' have proved to be a valuable source in the research study that provided with a wide variety of information. Critique to Existing Literature Child bullying has become one of the serious and severe concerns of the today's contemporary world. While considering child bullying the most common institution that clicks the minds is school. Classrooms, hallways, playground, bathrooms and school bus are few of the unrestricted places within the school where bullying happens to the most (Rigby, 2008, pp. 21-23). The research methods used by the researchers in the previous studies have indicated that qualitative and primary methods has come under application with reference to the experiments conducted by various institutions of UK. Numerous sources of information including various Institutes of Child Health have declared after measuring the number of children that comes for psychiatric consultations and the suicide cases that profound and unfathomable emotional scars are the universal impact of child bullying that lasts for lifetime. Moreover, children who have suffered from bullying hampers with their development in their lives that include their social development, emotional development as well as their academic development or school performance. Children tend to perform disappointingly in their school activities and get poor grades, as the research conducted in various schools of UK. The extreme effects of bullying have resulted in students committing suicide because they preferred suicide as an easy task instead of bearing such harassment. However, in my opinion the rate of increased suicide and poor grades of the children does not only reflect the aspect of child bullying. The reasons can also include the peer pressures due to immense completion, mental inabilities, and many others (Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Education and Skills Committee, 2007, pp. 31-33). The long-term effects of child bullying are unrelenting to greater extent and leads to higher rates of depression, anxiety, low sense of worth, and various mental health problems. Investigations have also highlighted the fact that children suffering from learning disability or attention deficit disorder are more vulnerable to bullying at schools and neighborhoods (Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Education and Skills Committee, 2007, pp. 31-33). While looking at the numerical data of children experiencing bullying through quantitative research in various UK schools, it has come to notice that more or less fifty percent of the total children undergo the process of bullying at a few occasions during their school years, however, amongst those eight to ten percent of the students face bullying on frequent basis. Indeed, nearly twenty to thirty percent of the students are those who bully around in schools. However, these data provides only the analysis of a few schools, it is not necessary that in every region of UK such statistics are applicable and can even present a much lower score, while this fact of bullying cannot come under statement with a zero percent result (Bjorklund and Blasi, 2011, pp. 592-593). Recent studies indicate various schools in UK are employing high-pay people with a tough personality normally with tattoo, piercing, and beard in order to pass on and educate the children with anti-bullying knowledge. In fact, UK has also implemented strategies since the last couple of years that oblige the schools on legal basis to have policies related to anti-bullying. This has come under execution with the mounting rate of children committing suicide due to bullying when no authorities performed any actions to prevent or avert it. According to a personal opinion, this practice can create negative as well as positive impacts on children. The children who bully around might perceive as an inspirational character to develop that can create a feeling of fear amongst other; however, this feeling of fear might become a strong source of prevention of such an attitude (Bjorklund and Blasi, 2011, pp. 592-593). On the other hand taking into account the Theory of Mind (ToM), is relatively a new concept, however, it has also been a concern of key prominence for the researchers. This is because every individual such as psychologist, educationalist, neurologist, and various others has a different framework of mind and develops the understanding based on their mindsets and believes. It has come to notice that for the past three decades, the research on the subject of Theory of Mind on diverse population range has experienced a significant and rampant growth. Theory of Mind is one of the concepts that have the primary relation and application in the clinical psychology, and thus clinical psychology has been the prime area under investigations (Ladd, 2007, pp. 38-39). According to some schools of thoughts, the people who have a deficiency of Theory of Mind fall under its consequences and face difficulty in communication and proximity. These experts have developed such a result based on several quantitative research studies by the psychologist analyzing the mind frame of a group of children. These barriers to communication and closeness lead to lack of felling of empathy. Studies also conclude that autism is a malfunction, damage, or deficit of Theory of Mind, in which the children generally suffer from absence of imagination, isolation, absence of ability to engage socially and inconsistency in social communication. This means that the cognitive functions of an individual get impaired. However, from a personal perspective, the theory of mind is not the only aspect that develops and shapes the entire personality traits of the child and numerous other factors such as family traditions, culture, norms and values, religion and many more add to the silhouetting the child (Bogdashina, 2006, pp. 19-21). Theory of Mind Theory of Mind (ToM) reflects the explicit cognitive ability of the person that helps them develop an understanding that other people have different set of concepts or the mental status such as beliefs, intentions, desires, knowledge in comparison to their own set of concepts (Doherty, 2009, pp. 1-4). The behavior and the actions performed by an individual has the root cause to their inner feelings, believes and intentions, and Theory of Mind make possible for the individual to understand the conduct of the people that they portray in front of others. One can only envisage and foretell few of the behaviors and anticipate on them, because one is not capable of reading everything that runs into the mind of others (Doherty, 2009, pp. 1-4). The conventional philosophical aspect exhibit the piece of information that this cognitive ability of an individual comes under fundamental or inherent dependence to the linguistic ability of the person. This is because language is one of the medium that provides the masses with a frame of understanding and converting the expressions or representations into meaningful information. In other words, language is a medium that helps the people to explain and demonstrate the action of oneself and others in a premeditated way. This means that the natural language of a human being is the cornerstone for understanding the intentions of theory of mind (Carruthers and Smith, 1996, pp. 3-6). The Theory of Mind also states that interaction can become more valuable and effectual when an individual would be able to distinguish or identify the emotions of others with correct interpretation of the signals. However, if the individual pass on agonizing, rude, or impolite comments during the conversations, it means that he or she lacks ability to foresee how others would feel about their remarks (Carruthers and Smith, 1996, pp. 3-6). The Theory of Mind also shed light on the fact that empathy is the foundation stone of this theory, as empathy is the capability where one puts himself into the shoes of others and try to feel what other might have felt on a particular circumstance. In fact, social interface and contact comes under immense affect when an individual is able to understand the other person on emotional basis, then he or she can also calculate or anticipate the behavior of others (Stueber, 2006, pp. 99-101). This means that children who lack this ability and are not able to judge others' feelings or thoughts, the world becomes a frightening place for the child. Child Bullying As children, everybody tease or make fun of their friends at some point in instances, however, when this taunting come under performance in a pleasant and playful manner and nobody gets hurt and finds its just humorous, this is not harmful. Nevertheless, when this teasing becomes out of limit and unpleasant in a way that it hurts one of the children, it enters into the definition of bullying which must come under discontinuation. It usually starts from verbal humiliation liked name-calling and then reaches to extreme levels such as beating, shoving, threatening, and various other forms. Whilst, emails, chat rooms, text messages, networking sites and many more forms have come under notice as methods of child bullying with an intention of mocking or smarting the feelings of the kids (Beane, 2008, pp. 2-5). In few cases, the kids bully for the reason that they have had an upbringing in such kind of environment where shouting at others or calling out their names is quite normal, and consider their behavior as standard. Another prime reason that cannot come under ignorance is that the kids tend to bully because they themselves have come under the effect of bully at earlier occasions (Barbeau, 2002, pp. 68-70). Other intentions that drive the children to bully is that they want to develop a popular and authoritative personality in front of other kids due to which they find someone who has poor social skills, low self-esteem or physically weak. These weak kids become the victims, as they frequently cannot take any stand by themselves even for their own personality (Barbeau, 2002, pp. 68-70). Studies have indicated that the bullying can have an overwhelming effect, which can debilitate the sense of pride and self-confidence within the child and can even hamper future relationships. Parents must notice the behaviors of their kids and pay attention if the kids act in any unusual or strange behaviors such as no intake of proper meals, lack of sleep, not enjoying their favourite television program and many more. These mentioned are the signals that the kids are giving to declare that there is some problem. The parents must have an open communication with their kids in order to find out if their kids are being victims of bullying, so that necessary measures can come under performance (Macklem, 2004, pp. 71-74). Children must come under comprehensive understanding and learning that it is imperative to have a conversation with an adult that might be a teacher, school counselor, parent, or any other elder about bullying either happening with them or with others. However, children must come under assessment or counseling by a psychiatrist, health professionals or school counselors if they are becoming the regular victims of bullying. This would help the child be aware of the fundamental sources that is leading the kid to be a victim. From the understanding of the motives, the counselors would facilitate the child in developing a plan that can prevent such actions in future (Matthews, 2009, pp. 20-22). Relationship between Theory of Mind and Child Bullying The two perspectives, that is child bullying and Theory of Mind have an immense relationship to each other and both are interconnected. It has come under elucidation that Theory of Mind enables the person to develop an understanding and prediction about the actions and emotions of other person based on their cognitive abilities. Theory of Mind plays a crucial and critical role for having healthy and vigorous associations amongst the populace on social perspectives. Consequently, the children's participation in bullying intensely depends upon the Theory of Mind and healthy social alliances (Swearer, Espelage and Napolitano, 2009, pp. 28-30). The result of various research concluded that all the students involved in the process of bullying that comprise of both the bullies and the victims achieved a lower count on the scale of ToM in comparison to the children who never experienced bullying. Studies also indicated that children in their beginning of adolescence stage have a greater propensity to be a victim of bullying who possessed poor ToM in their early childhood. Moreover, children who did not received emotional support from their families in the early days became the bullies or torment in their adolescence. The lack of emotional support leads the child to possess lower ToM, which becomes a governing cause of becoming a bully. Furthermore, the research provided with a key finding that the child's IQ level do not have any correlation to the fact that the child would experience bullying, however, when the child is unable to understand the mental states of others, they are more likely and exposed to become a victim of bullying (Margaret Weigel, 2011). Researchers have hypothesized several aspects and state these factors are the basis of the relationship of ToM and bullying. Firstly, the children are at more danger of victimization of bullying when they have a poor understanding or inability to comprehend others' emotions and intentions because it expose them and put them at risk to distinguish the social indications of contacts (Monks, and Coyne, 2011, pp. 27-28). Theory of Mind has come under reflection as one of the healthy and flourishing corrective measures that help prevent bullying in the latter stage of the life of the students. Indeed, the researchers proclaim that it is vital to conduct studies on timely basis, because it provides with great deal of valuable information that can help in designing the intervention programmes for the children at an early age (Newman and Newman, 2011, pp. 298-300). To put it in nutshell, nearly all the recent and modern investigations have provided evidences that poor Theory of Mind came under finding amongst children as the most important factor who entail in the process of bullying in their early childhood period. However, socioeconomic detriment or expropriation and child abuse are one of the leading contributors that provoke the child to become a bully. Benefits and Limitations in the Research Whilst looking at the positive aspects of the research, the researchers laid key emphasis on intervene and intruding the children from a very young age. This means that the children experiencing poor ToM must come under proper assistance, support, and advocacy in their early school periods. This support would facilitate the children to improve and enhance their social contacts and communication, thus alleviating the risk of getting into the practice of bullying at their later stages of life (Paiva, Prada and Picard, 2007, pp. 643-645). Another positive aspect have caught the attention that the researchers are broadening the areas of scope and factors that that comes to consideration during the research evaluation of the relationship between child bullying and Theory of Mind. These factors include IQ level of the children, maltreatment of the child and the mental health conditions on prior basis are few of the factors that have come under addition for measuring the relationships (Loeber, 2008, pp. 65-66). On the other hand, the limitations of the research denotes that since the research with reference to bullying does not focus on education of anti-bullying or adverse impacts of bullying, thus the victims become reluctant to report to either parents or school authorities, as they feel humiliated and embarrassed. In addition, the victims also create an assumption that the adults would in return blame or indict them or might even say to handle the matter themselves. Children also deem that the adults will not be able to play any role in making the bullies prevent from humiliating them (Garralda and Raynaud, 2010, pp. 272-273). Another principal aspect with respect to research limitation on the topic of Theory of Mind states that although the Theory of Mind has come under extensive research, yet, it has come to observation that researchers have not emphasized the subtopic of how to develop wisdom and understanding of aspirations and intentions. Additionally, the function of language in Theory of Mind has also not been the core focus area with amalgamation to the perspective of social communication and emblematic development (Benson and Haith, 2009, pp. 502-503). Suggestions to Future Research Although child bullying is a very old concept, yet it has come under awareness in the recent times. Whilst, the Theory of Mind is relatively a newly emerged concept that has come under immense research by various theorists. Even though the subject matter has come under numerous investigations, yet they must come under continuous and ongoing basis. It comes under strong recommendations that the future research queries must consist of multiple questions that covers the vast aspect of mental health of the child, gender, child's socioeconomic factors, family traditions and traits, the locality and neigbourhood, child's friends circle, academic credentials and performance of child at school (with teachers and other students). This is important, as the socioeconomic factors and questions, pertaining to family history would help the researchers in understanding how the personality of the children comes under development. Health related questions would facilitate the investigators in discovering the mental conditions of the children. Teachers, parents, custodians or guardians, school authorities, health counselor present at school and even the children ought to be an essential part of the future research. The children should be a necessary part of the research study as they are the primary sources who can provide with exact and accurate data, as the parents or the teachers at some occasions might not be aware of the conditions that the children go through. While considering the research methods, it comes under robust proposal that the research methods that can best provide with the most reliable and precise data should take account of primary research method, particularly the questionnaires and personal interviews. This is because the secondary data might not be up to the criteria that the researcher is looking for and there is a good chance that the data of different localities provide with different results that might confuse the researcher in calculating the outcome. Since the data, representing the statistics for child bullying and Theory of Mind must come under accurate conclusion so that the researcher is able to provide with effective preventive measures and solutions to the problem. Conclusion The above discussion can come to well conclusion with the thought that unfortunately teasing has been a significant part in the growth of the children that comes under experience by almost every kid. However, bullying is one of the escalating issues that must not come under negligence. Parents, guardians, school authorities, and peers everybody must consider the concern of bullying with gravity. Extensive studies have come to common conclusion that child bullying leaves an ineradicable scars to the children that effects every facet of their lives, whether it be emotional, social or academic. Theory of Mind on the other hand is one of the concepts that permits an individual to understand the mental states such as thoughts, desires, intentions, beliefs and many more of others so that they can foretell or explicate their actions and deem their intentions. While looking at the relationship between Theory of Mind and child bullying, the process of identification of the children with poor Theory of Mind (ToM) must come under performance in the early childhood. Furthermore, the identified children must come under positive and healthy support in order to eliminate the factor of openness and exposure towards bullying, as an outcome, the child would have constrained effects on mental health. It can be well concluded with the thought that ongoing research and must come under investigations that can lead the researchers to provide with a wide range of preventive and corrective measures to avoid child bullying in the future and how Theory of Mind can help in developing a better personality of the children. References Alvesson, M. and Spicer, A. 2011. Metaphors we lead by: understanding leadership in the real world. Taylor and Francis. Beane, A. L. 2008. Protect Your Child from Bullying: Expert Advice to Help You Recognize, Prevent, and Stop Bullying Before Your Child Gets Hurt. John Wiley and Sons. Barbeau, E. J. 2002. A Guide for Parents, Educators, and Teachers. Elaine Jeannette Barbeau. Benson, J. B., and Haith, M. M. 2009. Language, Memory, and Cognition in Infancy and Early Childhood. Academic Press. Bogdashina, O. 2006. Theory of mind and the triad of perspectives on autism and Asperger syndrome: a view from the bridge. Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Bjorklund, D. F. and Blasi, C. H. 2011. Child and Adolescent Development: An Integrated Approach. Cengage Learning. Carruthers, P., and Smith, P. K. 1996. Theories of theories of mind. Cambridge University Press. Coloroso, B. 2009. The bully, the bullied, and the bystander: from preschool to high school: how parents and teachers can help break the cycle of violence. HarperCollins. Doherty, M. J. 2009. Theory of mind: how children understand others' thoughts and feelings. Psychology Press. Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Education and Skills Committee. 2007. Bullying: third report of session 2006-07, report, together with formal minutes, oral and written evidence. The Stationery Office. Garralda, M. E., and Raynaud, J. P. 2010. Increasing Awareness of Child and Adolescent Mental Health. Jason Aronson. Ladd, G. W. 2007. Appraising the human developmental sciences: essays in honor of Merrill-Palmer quarterly. Wayne State University Press. Loeber, R. 2008. Tomorrow's criminals: the development of child delinquency and effective interventions. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. Macfarlane, A., and McPherson, A. 2004. Bullying: The Truth. Oxford University Press. Macklem, G. L. 2004. Bullying and teasing: social power in children's groups. Springer. Matthews, G. 2009. How to Stop Bullying. Ebookboxs. Monks, C. P. and Coyne, I. 2011. Bullying in Different Contexts. Cambridge University Press. Newman, B. M., and Newman, P. R. 2011. Development through Life: A Psychosocial Approach. Cengage Learning. Paiva, A., Prada, R., and Picard, R. W. 2007. Affective computing and intelligent interaction: second international conference, ACII 2007, Lisbon, Portugal, September 12-14, 2007: proceedings. Springer. Pepler, D., and Craig, W. 2008. Understanding and Addressing Bullying: An International Perspective Prevnet Series. AuthorHouse. Rigby, K. 2008. Children and bullying: how parents and educators can reduce bullying at school. Blackwell Pub. Sanders, C. E. and Phye, G. D. 2004. Bullying: implications for the classroom. Academic Press. Stueber, K. R. 2006. Rediscovering empathy: agency, folk psychology, and the human sciences. MIT Press. Swearer, S. M., Espelage, D. L. and Napolitano, S. A. 2009. Bullying prevention and intervention: realistic strategies for schools. Guilford Press. Weigel, M. 2011. "Prospective Longitudinal Study of Children’s Theory of Mind and Adolescent Involvement with Bullying." Journalist's Resource: A research portal and curated database. Retrieved on April 04, 2012: http://journalistsresource.org/studies/society/health/children-theory-mind-adolescent-bullying/ Read More