The Psychology behind Bullying

Many people have been affected by bullying during their school years. Bullying is characterized with abusive, destructive behavior that leaves its victims in complete fear. Students affected by bullying are left with lifelong psychological consequences that commonly require therapy. Schools and educators are focused on eradicating these actions and helping the victims of bullying, but rarely care about the reasons that turn some students into bullies.

The causes of bullying may be cruel, jealous, envious, or angry personality, but bullies may also mistreat other students because they are unhappy, afraid, or insecure. The phenomenon of bullying cannot be eliminated without understanding the psychological traumas that turn young students into bullies.

Bullying is approached as a serious issue by schools, teachers, and non-governmental organization. Many students are being harassed by their schoolmates as soon as they walk into the classroom. In today’s digital world, bullying is no longer limited to the classroom. The torture continues on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media. As a result, the victims of bullying carry serious psychological burden that influences their own actions, thinking patterns, and entire personality. The actions of bullying include physical violence, verbal insults, threats of violence, teasing, making fun of other people, and intimidation. People tend to see bullies as hooligans without manners and proper education, but the reasons behind their attitude are much more complex.

The most obvious reasons we see behind bullying are cruelty, envy, jealousy and anger. Bullies mistreat other students because they are different, do well on the exams, wear glasses, have excess weight, and many other reasons. There is no denial of the fact that many children become bullies because they are spoilt and selfish, so they always want to be the center of attention. They don’t understand how the victims of their actions feel. Unfortunately, even children can be cruel and mean persons who feel good only when they cause harm to other people. Some people’s genetics predispose them to aggression and violence, but genetics do not explain the entire phenomenon of bullying.

It’s easy to say that bullies are insensitive to other people’s feelings and want to make them feel inferior, but we need to look deeper into a bully’s personality to become aware of the reasons that cause such actions. If we search for the roots of aggressive behavior in students, we will inevitably come down to domestic violence in most cases. Children who are facing violence in their families on a daily basis tend to be violent themselves. Most bullies are having serious family problems they want to hide away with improper behavior. In addition, some of these children may have been victims of bullying themselves, so aggression is their protective mechanism. As a result of their actions, these children have no real friends and feel lonely. That isolation grows into a greater frustration they take out on others.

Bullies crave for attention, even if it’s negative and makes other people feel bad. Although genetics play an important part in the development of a child into a bully, this is mostly learned behavior that comes from an unpleasant psychological background. In order to help both the victims and the bullies, teachers need to understand the causes of bullying and target the root of the problem.