Sociological Implications of Bullying - Research Paper Example

?Bullying Bullying is use of physical, verbal, or psychological force by an individual to cause distress in another individual. Conventionally, the definition of bullying is limited to the physical and verbal force, though there are also certain behaviors that cause bullying even without any physical or verbal use of force, which extends the definition of bullying to include the psychological dimension. The concept of bullying is similar to physical or verbal abuse, though bullying is more about threatening an individual whereas abuse means actual execution of the action. Bullying can be understood as a severe form of threatening. “Bullying is persistent unwelcome behaviour, mostly using unwarranted or invalid criticism, nit-picking, fault-finding, also exclusion, isolation, being singled out and treated differently, being shouted at, humiliated, excessive monitoring, having verbal and written warnings imposed, and much more” (bullyonline.org, n.d.). Bullying may occur because of several reasons that include but are not limited to racism, hatred, and jealousy. When an individual bullies another, it fundamentally reflects a sense of insecurity in the bully to alleviate which, the individual tends to make use of bullying. Bullying is one of the most complicated issues in all kinds of organizations including schools and offices. This paper discusses the effects of bullying on the victim. Bullying has many negative effects on the psychological and physical health of an individual at any age, and is often a root-cause of life-long trauma. Bullying has many psychological effects on the victim. Bullying puts the victim into the psychological trauma. This does not only put the victim into depression, but also ruins the personality of the victim. The victim loses the tendency to deal with the challenges of life. The victim tends to underestimate his ability to handle bullies in any kind of task, because he has failed to deal with them effectively once in the past. This shatters the victim’s self-confidence. While the victim has a lot of potential, he is not able to utilize that because of under-estimation of his abilities. Mental scars are much more long-lasting and painful as compared to the physical scars that may be caused by bullying. Mental scars are formed as a result of complete break-down of the reputation, self-respect, and self-esteem of the victim of bullying. Sometimes, bullying inculcates violence in the behavior of the victim. The feeling that he was not able to defend himself against the bully makes the victim over-conscious in his social behavior in the future. The victim tends to interpret everything negatively even if it was not intended by the other party. Thinking that bullying has caused him a lot of suffering in the past, and moved by the urge to not let that happen ever again to him, the victim overreacts in situations where it is not required at all. As a result of this, the victim starts losing his respect in the eyes of others and is perceived by the society as an evil person. “[S]o many children who are bullied turn to delinquent behaviors in an effort to escape the mental anguish that has pushed upon them by a bully” (I Hate Bullies, 2009). While at heart, the victim is not a bad person and the over-reaction is just a measure of self-defense necessitated by years of pain and suffering, he gets his image tarnished in the eyes of the public. Bullying has many physical effects on the victim, particularly when the bully casts physical abuse on the victim. Physical abuse can cause anything ranging from minor scars to death of the victim. Victim of bullying is susceptible to becoming drug addict. Victims of bullying tend to seek refuge in drugs in an attempt to escape the constant feeling of embarrassment and loss of self-esteem caused by bullying. The victim becomes extremely depressed and finds ways to numb the depression, and drugs seem to provide a way out. The victim starts from occasional drug intake, and gradually becomes regular which leads him to the path of drug addiction in the long run. Drug addiction has many devastating effects on an individual’s health, both physically and mentally. Physically, drug addiction increases an individual’s tendency to acquire such diseases as lungs cancer, and AIDS. Emotionally, drug addiction relieves the individual from the tension, only to aggravate the tension further when the effect of drug wears off. Many people, who have formerly been victims of bullying, thus end up becoming socially excluded after acquiring the habit of drug addiction. An individual on drugs is not able to show good performance in studies, when a student, and in the workplace, as an employee. The individual becomes socially excluded, which has many more negative implications on the individual’s psychology. The effects of bullying on the victim also depend upon where the bullying occurred. Effects of bullying on the victim in the school are different from the effects of bullying in the workplace. A child that is bullied by the class-fellows in the school is not able to perform as good in the studies as he is capable of. Many children are much more capable than what reflects in their result cards. Among the myriad of factors that cause a decline in the performance of the students, bullying in the school is a very significant factor. Rather than paying attention towards the studies, the child keeps thinking how to deal with the bullies. The depression caused by bullying further declines the child’s efficiency. “From embarrassing them in front of their peers, to taunting them endlessly about their looks, a bully can take away any sense of self that a child has and replace it with self loathing” (I Hate Bullies, 2009). When bullying occurs in the workplace, it can be a source of depression for the employees. These days, factors like sexual harassment and abuse are not very uncommon to occur in the workplace and the non-complying employee is subjected to bullying particularly when the bully assumes a higher position in the hierarchy of the organization structure. “In the workplace, bullying usually focuses on distorted or fabricated allegations of underperformance” (bullyonline.org, n.d.). Many employees subjected to bullying in the workplace resign despite the fact that there is lack of employment opportunities in the market. There is a whole range of negative factors that result from the decision of resigning from the job that include but are not limited to poverty, embarrassment, and depression. Concluding, bullying has life-long effects on the victim. The temporal embarrassment caused by bullying causes a life-long distortion of self-esteem and confidence in the victim, thus making him go through an emotional trauma. The effects of bullying vary depending upon the age and setup in which the victim is bullied. Generally, bullying experienced during the childhood has more negative implications on the emotional and psychological development and health of an individual as compared to bullying experienced at later stages in life. Nevertheless, effects of bullying at any age cannot be denied. Bullying experienced in school declines the victim’s academic performance in addition to causing depression and emotional distress in the child. In the long run, this leads to ruined academic and professional career. Bullying experienced in the workplace causes depression in the employees, and causes them to resign. Many people tend to get on drugs in an attempt to regulate the distress caused by bullying, which not only affects their health negatively, but also has negative influence on the individual’s social networking. Owing to the immense psychological, physical, and sociological implications of bullying, the gravity of this issue cannot be overemphasized. References: bullyonline.org. (n.d.). What is bullying? Retrieved from http://www.bullyonline.org/workbully/bully.htm. I Hate Bullies. (2009, Sep. 12). 3 Potential Effects of Bullying on a Victim. Retrieved from http://www.ihatebullies.net/3-potential-effects-of-bullying-on-a-victim.html. Read More