Stress and Bullying - Research Paper Example

? Stress and Bullying Stress is not all bad. A desirable level of stress is eustress, it is necessary in order to accomplish something. When we go beyond the desirable level of stress, we face distress. Distress is an unfavorable form of stress and it affects our performance in a negative way. Stress is triggered by a lot of factors. Bullying is one such factor. Bullying has a lot of forms. For instance, there is workplace bullying, school bullying etc. The effects of bullying are largely psychological, leaving a deep impact on the victim. Children are the most vulnerable to bullying and many a times they are too scared to tell their parents about it. Children who are bullied tend to have low self esteem. These victims have difficulty in relationships, and they tend to make fewer friends and are usually reserved. Sometimes, these victims develop xenophobia because past memories of bullies haunt them for life. They are so stressed because of bullying that their overall personality becomes dull and they participate less in class, sports and other extra-curricular activities. The bullies have also suffered at some point in time and they let out their aggression and frustration by bullying others. Bullies grow up to become criminals and they fail in areas where hard work, creativity and talent are required because they get work done by use of might. They never have real friends because people are with them because of fear (Sirtle). People who are bullied are often angry or easily annoyed. Victims are in a state of self-pity but with time they accept their helplessness and start cursing themselves for their condition. Bullying makes them feel that they are not wanted. The victims feel weak, worthless, insecure and depressed. Bullying is a subliminal message to individuals that they do not belong to any group. Sometimes people are bullied because they belong to a minority. For instance a homosexual, a religious minority or a foreigner in a racist environment are examples of minority group. Victims belonging to such groups will end up hating these groups because these groups are the reason why they are bullied (Dombeck). Bullying does not only cause psychological trauma but also high levels of stress. Workplace bullying often involves threats of early retirement to the victims. In bullying, individuals are handpicked and sidelined from their social circles or networks and the stress or psychological trauma faced by them is not transient but constant instead. Overtime, their self-confidence is shaken and their socio-economic existence is threatened as a result. In extreme cases, the victims resort to committing suicide. When the victims complain about the bully’s behavior, they are labeled ‘paranoid’ by the bully to the extent that the victim starts thinking that he/she has actually gone paranoid. The victim is suffering from hyper-vigilance in reality (OnLine, 2011). According to Leymann, an organization can incur a cost of $30,000 to $100,000 per year for an incidence of bullying. Bullying can be in the form of direct aggression (e.g. verbal abuse, humiliation) or indirect behavior (gossip, rumors). The motive behind bullying is to frighten the victim and shatter his/her self confidence. The victim finds it difficult to concentrate on his/her job, thus performance deteriorates and job satisfaction diminishes. The victim becomes too timid to communicate or voice his/her opinion for the fear of being mocked at. Bullying involves cognitive effects such as insecurity, lack of initiative etc. These problems then translate into organizational problems and mistakes, accidents occur at workplaces and victims become very demotivated and hence absenteeism occurs (because victims find it difficult to cope up with stress) and the organization also experiences a high level of turnover (Helge Hoel, 2003). Matthiesen and Einarsen conducted a study on employees who were bullied. Out of the 4 respondents, 3 were suffering from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). People subjected to constant harassment suffer from chronic stress and low cortisol levels. Workplace bullying especially, corresponds to low levels of cortisol (which is a physiological response to stress). This in turn triggers inflammatory responses. This is contagious and the whole work force can suffer from low morale and low team spirit. Bullying is the most prevalent in the nursing field. Nurses have a very hectic job and they have to be at the beck and call of doctors and patients. If nurses are suffering from chronic stress, then patients will not be attended properly. Bullying is also referred to as ‘mobbing’ by some of the researchers. Leymann defines bullying as occurring weekly over six months. The concept of bullying is that it is an asymmetrical (because the victim is unable to counter the harassment) relationship between the perpetrator and the victim. In organizations there is a hierarchical difference between the victim and the bully. In peers, there is a power imbalance between the bully and the victim. Clinical stress can even lead to coronary heart diseases (Lazarko, 2011). However in order to survive, it is very essential for the victim to find ways to cope up with bullying and stress. One should not break under the stress caused by bullying. In real life, you have to make decisions by taking into account the effects on your family. For instance a man who has a wife and kids cannot quit because he was bullied and intimidated at work. He has to muster the courage to stand up for his rights, make his place in the office and strive to be in a position to stop the bully from harassing him. Quitting the job is not a viable solution because; he has to feed his family. The third party to bullying is the bystander who witnesses it but does not take any action against it. Bullies are psychopathic and treating them the same way that they treat the victims is not the right solution no matter how tempting it might be. The bystanders can act as mediators between the bully and the victims and resolve the conflict in a non-violent or humane way. In a study conducted by Professor Stuart Twemlow, it was found that reduced bullying in schools resulted in improved academic performance of the bystanders more than that of the bully or the victims. This depicts clearly that bystanders are also affected by bullying unfavorably and if they help in reducing bullying, they will also benefit from that. Bullying is more dominant in affluent or elitist schools. There are some teachers who bully their students. Parents should try to coax their children into disclosing everything that goes on in their schools. This way parents will be able to take action against teachers or peers who victimize their children. Otherwise chronic victimization has dire consequences such as weakening the immune system (Arehart-Treichel, 2011). In organizations, colleagues who witness bullying should act as whistle blowers to report such victimization to the Human Resources Department. As in schools, bystanders at workplace also have to face the externality of bullying. Bullying makes it difficult to achieve a cooperative work environment. Bystanders are also intimidated of the bully and they choose not to interfere in the matter for the fear that the bully will punish them. But the bystanders and the victims both should try to exercise emotional intelligence and try to show to the bully how strong and indifferent they are to him. When the bully feels that he is not that important anymore, he will be in a dilemma of confusion. Ultimately he will quit bullying when he sees that everybody is turning a deaf ear to him. When the bully has a designation due to which he assumes significant authority, the victim will find it difficult to avoid him. The victim cannot take direct action against his boss for the fear that he will be sacked. The best thing is not to let the bully think that you are weak and victims should show him that they are capable of taking action. The more meek and vulnerable the victim portrays himself, the more powerful the bully feels. In the long term, the victim should try to switch the job because chronic bullying will stress him forever. Works Cited Arehart-Treichel, j. (2011, MArch 18). Psychiatrist Suggests Strategy to Battle Bullying. Psychiatric News . Dombeck, M. (n.d.). The long term effects of bullying. American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress . Helge Hoel, S. E. (2003). Organizational Effects of bullying. In S. Einarsen, Bullying and Emotional Abuse in the Workplace (pp. 145- 147). London: Taylor & Francis. Lazarko, P. I. (2011, May 19). Chronic Stress Of Workplace Bullying And Cortisol Response. Medical News Today . OnLine, B. (2011). The Effects of Stress on Targets of Bullying and Mobbing Can Result in Permanent Damage. I Was Bullied . Sirtle, A. (n.d.). The Effects of Bullying. Article Click . Slowik, G. (2011, October 29). eHealthMD. Retrieved from http://ehealthmd.com/content/what-stress Stress, T. A. (n.d.). Effects of stress. 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